Day 11

We woke up early on day 11 ready for our 2 day 1 night trip we'd booked to Halong Bay. Possibly Vietnam's most famous natural attraction, Halong Bay is made of thousands of limestone karsts and isles in many shapes and sizes.

Our trip started off with a 3 hour ride from Hanoi to our detination. We passed an endless sea of rice paddy fields. Halfway through we stopped at a "tourist trap" where we could get snacks, souveniors and use the restroom. An interesting part of this place though, was that we could see women in a row in the corner of the room stitching pictures. The pictures were later ut up for sale. It looked like painstaking work!


Finally after our long journey in the little bus in which Henrik had to sit like a little ball, we reached the dock where our boat docked. Our group was about 14 people big and we were ushered to a small motorboat. Then we were driven out to the big traditional junkboat where we were to stay! Halong bay was already beautiful and we hadn't even got to the heart of it yet! We had a welcome drink and were ushered to our rooms.

Our rooms had a big bed and a night stand next to it. Thats about all it could fit! lol There was also an in-room toilet, small but clean. We sailed for a while enjoying the scenes and tanning out on deck. We sail deeper and deeper into the maze of limestone and it got more beautiful by the minute. On some structures, you could see some shrines carved in the rock.

While our boat sailed across the greenish waters we were served a huge lunch. There was fish, chicken, vegetables, rice, fries and a couple other dishes. Lunch was great (though a tad cold as I suspect they pre-made dishes so they could serve all the tables at the same time). We sat at a table of 4, the two others being 2 British girls traveling together. They were the pickiest backpackers I'd seen. Neither of them ate sea food (which was what half the meal was of) and both admitted they'd rather be having fish and chips or pasta. hmmmm......

We were taken by our guide to the Hang Sung Sot Cave (aka: Surprise Cave). Its supposedly one of the biggest, prettiest caves in Halong Bay. It was indeed big, and cooling. It was lit in different colors at parts of the cave. Our guide was very familiar with all the facts about the cave. He could tell us about the french explorers who discovered the cave, the structures of the cave and the legends behind each figure-such as the buddha or erected penis. lol It was definitely a fun place to see!


When we exited the cave we were still high above sea level. We could see all the boats in the water and the surrounding limestone karsts. The view was breathtaking.


The tour's next stop- after a short change on the junkship- was a little man-made floating platform. It was a wooden platform built ontop of large blocks of styrofoam. In the middle of the platform were several fishing holes where the people kept large fishes, crab, crayfish and shrimp. One of the holes even kept meat eating fish which served as crowd pleasers everytime a fisherman threw small fish into the hole and the agressive fish fought over and ate in a matter of seconds. In the back, there were rows of kayaks that we took out for half an hour or so. I have to admit, baby did most of the paddle-work as I was excitedly looking for jelly fish to poke. hehehe

After our kayak workout, the group was taken to a small island where we could enjoy the beach. It was a very small beach, the water was cold and we had a very good time floating around. hehehe We headed back as the sun was setting. Halong Bay was so incredibly beautiful. Every Limestone rock was surrounded by the orange-pink glow of the setting sun. It was so unfortunate we hadn't brought the camera because we didn't know what to expect or if there was a dry place to put things :( The view is definitely something we'll never forget!

Dinner was served after everyone had time to shower and change into dry clothes. We sat with the same British pair. lol Dinner consisted of beef, fish, shrimp, spring rolls, rice, vegetables and deep fried corn kernels- which turned out to be pretty scrumptious! Out of the window, we could see the glimmering lights of other junk boats anchored for the night.


Henrik and I decided to chill out on the deck of the boat. It was so peaceful, floating in the middle of Halong bay. Soon, other guests joined us watching the stars in the midnight blue sky. Later into the night as some of the guests turned in for the night, someone had the bright idea of singing karaoke! The group of guys travelling together, a French girl (who stayed behind after her mom and brother went to their rooms), Me and Henrik had such a crazy time busting out lyrics to the oldest songs in te world! LOL (I give them credit for at least having english songs though). After Henrik and I turned in during the wee hours of the morning, we heard the guys quit karaoke and jump into the water. Crazy people! haha I heard the captain wasn't too happy about that in the morning!


note: everyone was awesome and fun!.....except for one French guy who should have "asshole" branded on his forehead. He gossiped about everyone (to Henrik who later told me) about how they couldn't sing and how they were stupid, had no passion in their songs (wtf right), unlike he who had the most passion and the best crooner in the world. I MUST tell you all that he was no Frank Sinatra......not even close.


Day 12

We were woken up much earlier than I'd have liked. (They do that by turning off the airconditioning in you room) We were served a simple breakfast of fried egg, toast and fruit. The entire morning was spent getting back to Halong City. We passed a few famous limestone formations. There was the cute kissing cock (cock+ chicken!! don't think so dirty!). The weather was wonderful.

Our package included a final lunch at a restaurant in Halong City. It was clearly a place that had some special deal with the junkboats as many other boat companies had thier guests eating there too. The waiters were pretty much unhelpful and rude. The facilities were so filthy I couldn't bring myself to use them. The food was really gross. I didn't enjoy it at all. The vegetabes were mushy, food saltless, cold and slimey.We ate at a table with a Norwegian couple and a *Vietnamese couple. Lunch was almost intolerable when the Vietnamese couple were clearly talking about the rest of the people at the table and the woman laughing obnoxiously at the jokes they made. I'm pretty sure the Norwegian couple were feeling as awkward as we were.

The 3 hour ride in the van back to Hanoi was uneventful. We stopped at the same pit stop/ gift store we'd stopped at on the way to Halong City. I slept most of the way back to our hotel.

It was such a good trip! (minus the last lunch) It was so relaxing. I'm so happy it didn't rain! We were expecting rain after we'd looked up the weather forecast and the fact that it was gloomy weather the entire time in Hanoi. *happies* I'd definitely want to go back if I ever have the chance!


*The Vietnamese couple were weird ones. The man was clearly like 10 years older than the woman and treated her like some sort of goddess. She was fat and snobby. He went everywhere acting on her every whim and fancy-holding an unbrella over hear head, holding her purse and might as well have been kissing her feet as she walked (maybe he does sometimes, I don't want to know). Sad case, it was pretty degrading for a man in my opinion. *shivers*

**While on the junk ship, there are always these little row boats that come up on the side trying to sell things like food, cigarettes, beer-cheaper than the ship's prices. lol...I guess if you're cheap enough you could buy from them and save money.

***Crazy thing in Vietnam is that they wereskimpy on the butter wherever we went and the butter tasted absolutely saltless =x How am I supposed to eat an entire loaf of bread (which is common to come with breakfast) without any sort of condiment?!