Ha Long Bay

Mark and I just returned from our overnight excursion to Ha Long Bay. We had heard that Ha Long Bay is one of the "must see" destinations in Vietnam, and we now can fully agree that this is the case! The journey to Ha Long Bay from Hanoi is about 3 hours by car. We had waited until we arrived in Vietnam to book our 2 day/1 night adventure - there are so many different boats, it's tough to know which ones are nice. Our travel agent at our hotel recommended a "deluxe" boat for us which was a bit spendy, but turned out to be amazing! It was called the Bhaya.

The trip started yesterday (Wednesday) when our private car (included in the package), picked us up at the hotel. We felt quite indulgent that we had our own air conditioned car for the whole trip, and it was a little strange because our driver spoke no English so we had a quiet trip, observing along the way.

We drove through rice fields, many cities, and still a zillion scooters riding along side of us. And you could tell by the number of tour buses and people headed in the same direction, that we were heading to a very popular spot! The rules of the road are not the same in Vietnam as they are in America. The road was one way in each direction, but the drivers create up to 4 or 5 lanes with the buses, cars, and scooters all zipping along side each other trying to pass. We went weaving in and out of traffic, honking and flashing to alert the scooters and cars coming the opposite way. Needless to say, we wore our seat belts, while the driver expressed his confidence (or stupidity) by driving without.

Halfway through the car ride, we stop at a rest area and the driver motions to get out. We thought it was to use the bathroom, but there was more ahead. After using the WC, we were ushered into a huge warehouse full of the Vietnamese handicrafts, with our own sales person escorting us around. There was lacquer ware, embroidered "paintings", clothes, jewelry, marble sculptures, and much much more. After discussing this place, we assume the drivers are contracted to bring people here and maybe get a commission if we buy something. They take a needed break and get some food, and we are encouraged to shop. We politely looked around and commented on how pretty things were to our own sales associate, but didn't buy.

After the rest of the journey in the car, we arrived at the harbor of Ha Long Bay. Our driver dropped us off and we waited a few minutes before boarding our boat. There are many boats that tour the Bay, and ours seemed to be a nice one. We boarded the little tender boat with the other passengers, which took us to the boat on a mooring not far from the shore. We were greeted on the boat with a cold washcloth to freshen up, a glass of fruit juice, and were sprinkled with rose petals from the deck above as we walked onto the boat (very nice effect!). We were all given our keys to the room and explained the itinerary for the two days. Since we had little information on what was included on the boat - we were happy to find out we had made a great decision.

We set sail (or motoring, really) for a 2 hour trip into the Ha Long Bay. There are 1969 karsts (or small mountains )popping up out of the bay, which makes for spectacular views. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. It's very hard to capture on film just how beautiful it was, with the layers and layers of rock islands.

We had a nice Vietnamese buffet lunch on the boat and then relaxed before our first stop at the Surprise caves Our tour guide took us through 3 caves of stalactites and stalagmites, and each cave is bigger than the next, which gives you a major element of surprise! They had only recently been discovered by a French man (around 1900) and were just available for tourists to see since 1999. They were quite spectacular, and seeing them was an added bonus for the trip which we didn't know about!

After the caves, we went to a popular beach area where we were invited to take a swim. We also decided on hiking to the top of the island which gave us an amazing view of the Bay. It was about a 15 minute rigorous climb to the top, but the view was well worth it. And, it made our swim in the Bay even more refreshing after we hiked down the mountain.

After our swim, we boarded the tender again and headed back to the boat. We freshened up and then headed up to the dining room where were were given a short cooking class - how to make Vietnamese Spring Rolls. It was a lot of fun. Mark took the prize for the best roll, and then we were able to eat our creations.

We then headed out to the deck for happy hour (actually 2+ hrs). As the boat was parked in the bay along side a large karst, the view was spectacular and we watched the sun set while also meeting some of the other couples on the boat. We had made friends with a young couple from Ireland who were on their honeymoon and spending 5 weeks traveling during their summer teaching Holiday. We also met another young Aussie couple and chatted the evening away swapping stories of traveling life in Southeast Asia and the like. It was great to have good conversation and to hear others adventures. Our conversations carried on through a delightful seafood dinner and into the night. We retired to our air conditioned (did we mention it's very hot here?) cabin and had a good night sleep.

The boat manager told us about a beautiful sunrise in the morning, and we just barely woke the next day, before it began. We rushed up deck, thinking we were going to see a big sunrise through the islands, but we had missed it. After relaxing for a bit, April headed back to bed and Mark joined some others from the boat for a lesson in T'ai Chi. After enjoying the breakfast buffet, we relaxed some more on the way back to the harbor. The end of the trip was just as delightful as the start, with the sprinkling of rose petals and the friendly staff waving us goodbye as we boarded the tender for the shore. It was an amazing experience and we would recommend it to anyone!

We returned to Hanoi for another day (we're heading to get a foot massage now) and then we head to Hoi An on Friday afternoon for a weekend on the beach. This is the life!

We'll be back again in a few days.