Halong Bay - Yay!

We got a local bus from Ninh Binh to Halong City. This was supposed to be 'door to door' but of course these things rarely are. We were dropped off a few km from the main part of Halong City and told to get a taxi. Except there weren't any taxis. Only motorbike taxis which with back-packs on isn't really that appealing and Issy still wasn't well enough to even consider walking. So inevitably the first taxi we saw and flagged down extorted us for every penny he could. He did have the cheek to think that my ten dollar note was fake though and gave me a dirty look which I thought was very admirable of him.

So we'd arrived in Halong City. Now this is a place that is essentially Blackpool, but smaller and a little bit more seedy. But who cares when Issy is treating you to wine? We drank and danced on the seafront (pretty sure this was next to two hookers getting their freak on for the business men watching). Pure class but flippin' hysterical.

The next day we travelled to Tuan Chau island. This was described as a 'gem' of an island, but is in fact a man-made resort with a weird disney-esque theme park that was pretty much shut when we we there. If it weren't for the fact that the place we were staying in was beautiful with amazing views of the bay from the balcony this would have been a complete disaster. As it turns out it was actually a calm little haven to relax and read and chatter and also somewhere for Issy to finally get herself back to good health.

From Tuan Chau we headed onto our Halong Bay trip - the piece de resistance. More craggy limestone mountains awaited us but instead of being surrounded by rice paddies, they were in the middle of the ocean and were simply breathtaking. One night was spent on "Queen Elizabeth Junk". The junk was super - brand spanking new. Issy and Sean even jumped off top deck to go for a late night swim! We visited 'Amazing Cave' which was very beautiful if not a little bit tourist-conveyor belt ish. We also marched up to the Ti Top mountain to watch sunset over the bay. We then made some Vietnamese spring rolls before dinner and afterwards, I [was forced to] kicked off the karaoke with a rendition in Vietnamese (next to English and Finnish I'm now building up a multi-language karaoke repertoire).

Sean's note: The photo above of sunset over Halong Bay, complete with fishing boat sailing into the sunline, was taken by Jen and I personally think it's one of the most beautiful photographs I've ever seen. Jen is naturally modest about it but I'm going to send it to Lonely Planet, National Geographic, anyone, in the hope of getting it published. I reckon the photo is worthy of it.

The next day we headed off on our bikes into a local village on one of the mountains. Sean is getting quite the expert now on a bike! We saw their local school and doctor surgery (no one there, just his number). Turns out every child has to attend primary school, but it costs which most families struggle with. There was also enough rust on the playground roundabout to give you a coronary with worry. A worthy charity is www.childrenseducationfoundation.org.au (we met a lovely lady who worked for this charity and can vouch for its authenticity even though the website is a bit poor).

Next up was a kayak trip around the bay. This was brilliant - we had the place all to ourselves (save for the few local fishing families and oyster farmers and their guard dogs) and we paddled underneath crags in the rocks. Sean went for another swim again too to cool off!

We spent that evening on Cat Ba island. We had a great last night with the whole group from our boat drinking happy hour beers at a local bar. Issy and I ended up doing our obligatory dancing before heading home to pass out whilst Sean watched Manchester United with our guide, Duke.

And all that was then left was the long journey back to Hanoi. But again I won't write much more about this cause it's all a bit sad that Issy had to fly home. So glad she joined us though even if it wasn't for long enough! Thanks for spoiling us Issy, we really appreciated it!

So thinking of the future instead - we turned out minds to Laos.

Here are the pics:

BT28_Halong Bay 26 - 31 Oct 2010