Ha Long Bay in the gulf of Tonkin has an area of around 1,553km2, including 1,960 islands of various sizes mostly of limestone, 989 of which have been given names. The core of the bay has an area of 334km2 with a high density of 775 islets. The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate.
Ok, so I didn't compose the above text. Wikipedia did!!!!! But Ha Long Bay is truly spectacular.
Back to the trip.... After a 4 hour coach journey we boarded our boat and went out into the bay around the islands until we reached a large cave called Thien cung grotto. The cave is illuminated with coloured lights which give it a real atmosphere.
In the strange formations of rock and stalactites and stalagmites there are lots of animal and people shapes to be seen. We then went to another cave (not so good) and then back on the boat to a floating village to transfer into the 2 person kayaks. We paddled around for around 30 minutes during sunset and then it was back onto the boat for a change of clothes and food. At this point it would have been nice to have a shower, but we were told that there was no water too shower until the morning!!!! We slept overnight on the boat (with the cockroaches!!!)
Next day we awoke at 7 for breakfast (we could have got up at 5 for sunrise except it was cloudy) and then went to Cat Ba island. This is a large island that houses a national park. In the park we followed a trail going 250 meters up a large hill/mountain of rock. At the top was a rickety, rusty looking observation tower which had a sign stating "Maximum 5 people". I climbed the first few stairs following Eri, but then had a change of heart about going up as it was windy, cloudy and I couldn't guarantee that 15 people wouldn't follow me up to the top thus compromising the structure and my safety...So I came down shortly followed by Eri....
We were then taken to our hotel and the rest of the day was 'free time'. I'm not sure what we were supposed to do with this free time as there was nothing to see.....
Day 3 was a waste too. We given breakfast (one baguette, one piece of butter and one piece of jam), herded onto a bus, driven to the port (eventually), herded onto the boat with another group, went back to the mainland, waited 1 hour at the roadside for the bus, drove for 5 minutes until we stopped for lunch and then drove back to Hanoi arriving at 5:40pm.. As you can see day 3 was a bit of a waste, as was the 2nd part of day 2.
Day 1 was the highlight (and with hindsight we should have only have done a 2 day trip, not 3) but our tour guide did his best to ruin it for us all with his authorative, rude shouting at us. He ordered us all around as if we were prisoners..."Give me your passports", "You, move here" "Hurry up" "Why aren't you spending an extra 50.000 dong to go on an extra boat ride"......
He got into a row with one guy because he had brought his own alcohol aboard and wasn't willing to pay 35 US Dollars for a bottle of whiskey from the boat. At one point I told him to stop shouting at me as if I were a dog and he generally was an irritation to everyone. Luckily we had a good group of people on board and I think the guides stupidness brought us all closer together. Eri and I spent the night chatting with 3 other guys on the middle deck of the boat staying up til gone midnight drinking wine (our latest night ever...We sure know how to party!!!!!!)
We are leaving Vietnam tonight, flying to Singapore for a few days.
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