Halong Bay

While planning our trip to Vietnam, Chris and I, due to time constraints, had to make the decision on whether to trek around the much-visited Sapa and its rice paddy fields north east of Hanoi or to go on a cruise around Halong Bay for a few days. It was a tough decision but one which we didn’t regret. Unlike in India where tourists are left to their own devices to arrange ongoing travel or any places of interest they may want to visit, in Vietnam, everything is made incredibly easy for us. Our hostel arranged the three day tour which included transport to and from Halong Bay, all food for the three days and a great guide - Suhzhu. It’s so easy here to travel here - the tourism industry is booming.

Halong Bay is picturesque: there are over 3000 limestone islands emerging from the calm waters, making it one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites. It was fantastic to be cruising amongst these on top deck of our boat.

This was mine and Chris’ first organized tour of our trip so far and we really loved being able to meet new people and spend so much time with more people than just the two of us! In India and China, our travel was very much just the two of us: we’d meet people here and there but there wasn’t the same ‘going-out’ atmosphere or seeing touristy things with other people. However, we must admit that we weren’t used to being given such a set itinerary with only an hour of ‘free time’ per day. This became something of a joke amongst our ship mates as we all constantly sought more ‘free time’ than was allocated!

Our trip included a half day trek on Cat Ba Island, the only populated island in the whole bay. Half of the island is a national park and this is where our trek took us.

We also had time to play some beach volleyball and chill on the beach.

One evening, we went kayaking through a small fishing village where the people live in small floating houses with boats as their only mode of transport, obviously. This was a relaxing end to the day.

We visited some caves in which our guide amused us by pointing out the strange rock formations!

The Captain of our boat (or C squared as we all liked to call him - I’ll let your imaginations work that one out!) was the grumpiest captain ever! The rule on alcohol was that in the dining area we were only allowed to drink beer bought on the boat at extortionate prices but on the upper deck, people could drink their own booze. Needless to say, everyone went for the second option, choosing to buy beer from the ‘floating shops’ (the ladies who would row over to our boat to sell us treats!) which was less than half the price. The captain once expressed his anger at this by throwing full bottles of one floating-shop lady’s beer into the sea before she had chance to sell it to us! Crazy!

The evenings saw us indulging in much fun and laughter with our new friends. We were allowed ‘free-time’ to swim and jump from the boat which was good fun. Even though I was on anti-biotics (my Delhi-belly was almost cured) I was able to share in the frivolities without the need for alcohol. We spent a great two nights on the boat and realized how much we appreciate tours like this and being able to socialise with likeminded people.

One couple, Danielle and Luc, we plan to meet up with again in Australia as they are moving to Melbourne for a few years and will already be settled by the time we get there. It will be great to see them again!