Hanoi Arrival and Halong Bay

Glad everyone seems to be enjoying the blog, I have liked doing it as well, it forces me to keep up to date (though I am now about 5 days and a country behind) and acts as a journal for me to remember some of what I have done. Though sometimes it feels like I am just writing And then....And then;..... etc...

Just realized when I got a forwarded email from my Aunt Jody, that some may not have my email address - cdodgion@gmail.com

After catching the late flight from Hue to Hanoi I landed at about 10:30pm. The airport is about 30k from the old quarter of town where all of the touristy spots and cheap hotels are located. Usually it is easy to catch a local bus or mini bus outside the airport, but since I arrived so late there was only one other flight coming in that evening. This meant that the mini bus drivers wanted to wait for about 30 minutes for the other flight to arrive, this way they would be able to fill the mini bus and get the most money for their trip. I ran into similar practices when I was in Ghana, though the waits there could sometimes be over an hour, I was easier just to pay for the extra seats. Though in Vietnam paying for the extra seats would be more expensive than sharing a taxi. So I opted for the taxi ride. Similar to many drivers in Vietnam the taxi driver took us to his favorite hotel, I learned earlier on the trip that the drivers receive a finders fee for bringing in business. This finders fee is typically covered by higher prices for the guests. I decided to find another hotel without all of the amenities, but at this point it was past 11pm when many of the hotels and business in Hanoi close up for the night - the normally crowded street was dark with hardly anyone around. I would not recommend taking the late flight into Hanoi. I wandered around for a bit and found and American who was heading back to her hotel and was able to follow her and convince the owner to allow me to check in. So everything worked out, but there were a few moments where I thought I might spend the night wandering the streets of Hanoi.

This brings up another topic, on every tour and moto ride that I have been on in Vietnam there are mandatory stops at the "local" cafe to stretch you legs. At these cafes the prices for meals and drinks are at least double to triple the normal costs and the divers and tour operators typically get free meals. This makes sense but at times can be a bit frustrating, so I typically go across the street to a local restaurant where the menu is not in English and I have to communicate with poor Vietnamese or gestures. This lead to problems when I did this during my trip to Halong Bay.

I woke up early the next morning planning to book a trip to Halong Bay that would leave a few hours after I booked it, but few places are open for booking or internet research at 5am. I hadn't done much research on the different available options since I had left the US. Halong Bay is yet another UNESCO world heritage site, part of the Gulf of Tonkin it is host to over 3000 small islands that are made of limestone and home to innumerable grottos and spectacular views of the sea. Just a bit of history I learned later is that Ha long means where the dragon descends into the sea. The legend is that a dragon used to live in the mountains near Halong city and one day when rushing out to sea it tail gouged out valleys and crevices that later filled with water leaving only limestone islands above the water. Anyway, as with all of my trips so far I was successful in booking the day of the excursion, confirming my plans and paying just 10 minutes before the bus to Halong Bay left. This trip was a two day tour of Halong Bay and its various grottos with an overnight on an old Chinese Junk (a ship used for trading beginning a couple hundred years ago that has a unique sail pattern- google Chinese junk ship). This bus and tour was similar to the standard Vietnamese tour - it stopped twice on the 4 hour trip to Halong Bay, once for shopping and another for a bathroom break and more shopping. Once we arrived in Halong Bay we were slated to transfer to the Chinese Junk and tour some of the grottos in the afternoon. When we arrived at a restaurant near the port our guide said something about lunch and then needing to follow him to the ship. I took this to mean that we would be eating in the expensive restaurant for about 1/2 an hour and then going to the ship. So I went across the street and sat down for a nice leisurely lunch at a smaller dive restaurant. What I didn't realize is that lunch was provided as part of the tour and our guide had really said that we would gather for a few minutes then follow him to lunch on the ship. When I came back, naturally they were nowhere to be found and there were tons of Vietnamese guides and white people that looked like they could be my group. So after explaining the situation to the port masters with difficulty they assured me that they would find me a trip to go with, though they thought my group had already left port. I was a bit bummed as I had gotten to know some of the people and they seemed really cool.

As I began searching for a new ship I ran into my guide who said that he had been looking for me as I was looking for him. So everything worked out and I was lead to the ship where I had second breakfast.

It turns out there are about 12 grottos in all included in the Halong Bay USESCO site. Our tour included a stop at the largest one, which has two chambers about the size of football stadiums. The caves were filled with limestone stalactites and mites. It was amazing to see how, when the sea was higher, the wave patterns were carved into the limestone. The one disappointing part about this cave is that it was the one stop for most of the tour groups - so you wandered around the cave with one hundred of your closest friends and it got a bit crowded. Though it was still very beautiful.

We then motored to a secluded beach on one of the islands and spent a couple of hours swimming and kayaking around, this was very relaxing and a need break after the rapid traveling I had been doing.

Our camping spot for the night was also a small protected cove, with islands all around. One of the amazing sights of this trip were the small homes and even little villages that dotted the shores of the islands. They were anchored to the ocean floor and would float up and down with the tide. The people would make there living from fishing and with floating convenience stores taken to all of the tourist ships.

I slept on the top deck overnight under the stars with a great breeze and a gentle rocking of the boat, it was one of the best nights of the trip. In the morning I swam out to one of the islands to watch the sunrise, it was nice to be up early and watch the locals begin their day of fishing. After about an hour a woman came up in her floating stores and offered me a ride back to the ship, Vietnam is truly a country of convenience.

The rest of the trip was uneventful and I got back to Hanoi and tried to plan my last day in Vietnam.