Halong Bay Cruzin'

Back in Hanoi off the night train at 6:00am we are greeted with a rain storm and dishonest taxi drivers trying to charge us three times the amount it should cost to get back to our hotel… grrrr, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and go with it. Back at our hostel in Hanoi they are so gracious to supply us with a room to wash up in before we catch a bus to take us to Halong Bay. The next 3 days will be spent on the water, exploring caves, climbing to the highest point on Cat Ba Island and relaxing on the beaches.

The caves @ Halong Bay

After another long tour bus ride we arrive at Halong Bay and hop on the boat which would be our home for the next 24 hours. Already we can see the huge limestone cliffs towering above the waterline. The water isn’t the blue turquoise color that you would expect in the tropics but the limestone cliffs more than make up for the color of the water and as we get further and further from land the water does start to clear up some but never turns that beautiful turquoise color. We enjoy another delicious meal on the boat for lunch before spending the afternoon exploring caves and jumping off the boat for a cool afternoon swim. The boat tour isn’t quite the party we imagined it to be but we certainly make the most of it. Just before dinner we are to shower when the boat’s generated cuts out… no problem the top of the boat has sun beds and a stunning view to enjoy! Soon everything is back in order, showers completed and dinner on the table, complete with spring rolls we created, well rolled up! After a long day I was exhausted and quickly fell asleep. About mid way through the nigh I shot straight up in bed to the loudest thunder I have heard in my life, by morning the clouds had cleared and given way to another beautiful blue sky for our trip to Cat Ba island.

We made it!  Top of the mountain!

Day two on Halong Bay had us transferring to a different tour boat which we took to Cat Ba island. The morning hours were spent hiking/climbing up to view the green mass of the tropical forests of Cat Ba islands. We begin the hike ahead of the others in our tour group after our tour guide assured us that it was an easy straightforward path to follow, about 5 minutes in we hit a crossroad. The man standing there tells us to the left is hard and to the right is easy. We decide to take the easy way, which was far from easy. We get to the top and someone else tells us we went the hard way… oh well, the views are just that much more rewarding. On our way down we decide to take the “hard way” which they are telling us not to take… so maybe we did take the easy way up. We’re always up for a challenge so we dive down the hill towards the “hard” side. I wish I had had a video/pictures of this hike/climb down the mountain. The nigh before there were torrential downpours which left the mountain side extremely muddy and slick. As we made our way down I barely used my legs to climb down, I spent the majority of the time sliding and swinging from one tree to the next, including a few moments on my bottom… it was wonderful and we had a great time!

Incredibly crowded beaches on Cat Ba Island!

The afternoon we ventured to the beaches of Cat Ba which started as a relaxing afternoon/early evening on the beach but soon we discovered that the time to be at the beach in Vietnam is from sun down. For us we go to the beach to enjoy the sunshine, play in the cool water during the hot days but that isn’t the case for the Vietnamese. Around 4:30 when the sun starts to sink lower on the horizon and we find ourselves exiting the beach to clean up and go home for dinner the Vietnamese are flocking to the beach. No sun equals perfect time to venture outside and keep their skin beautifully pale and milky colored. To the same extreme that some of us tan our skin the Vietnamese work to keep their skin as pale and white as possible.

View on the trip back!