Halong Bay, Vietnam
June 12, 2014
Halong bay was another early start. We decided just on a day trip. The last time I came to Vietnam I did an over night stay on a boat for the night, but it was quite pricey and I didn’t think we would get much more out of the trip by staying over night so we opted against that. Dani was still feeling a bit rough and in danger of needing to wear nappies but she came through the 3 1/2 hour drive there with flying colours. The bus we were on was packed but comfortable enough and our guide for the day was a canny enough local lad with one of the funniest English accents I have heard. Once there we piled on to our little day trip boat and set sail out into the bay.
The bay is really impressive. Made up of some 1,900 or so mounds of limestone rock that erupt out of the sea. I really enjoyed it the last time I was here and found it to be a stunning sight. However second time around I think it had lost its sparkle a little, perhaps due to the fact we had already seen so much similar scenery to this when we spent five weeks working our way up through the Thai islands. It was also a fairly gloomy and over cast day as well which didn’t help and you could not see too far into the distance.
After some fairly decent lunch aboard the boat we cruised round to one of the floating villages that are there. There are entire communities here that live on floating rafts in the bay. These local people now seem to earn a good living through a combination of fishing and tourism. We pulled up next to one the floating villages and hopped off and into a smaller boat with just five of us on and one local woman who rowed us around the nearby area. She took us through a small tunnel and into an enclosed rock formation with a beautiful pool of water in the middle. From there it was much of the same. Another enclosed pool and before we knew it we were back at the boat and on board again to head around the corner to visit one of the many caves that are dotted about here.
I’m not massive fan of caves. They are ok I guess but until I visit one that truly makes my jaw drop they are just big holes in the ground to me. The usual laser pen came out and the dude was pointing out various bits of rock that looked like animals or people etc. The standard thing really, a bit like cloud watching. If you look at enough rocks you will see things in there if you really try. And that was that really. We motored back to the harbour and were quickly ushered onto our bus for the 3 1/2 hour drive back. A little disappointing I guess but it’s one of those places that if you are in the area you really should check it out. I think we have been spoiled with some amazing scenery lately and perhaps that is why it wasn’t as impressive as the first time I saw it. But don’t let that put you of. If you are in Vietnam, come and see it for sure.
Once back it as after 8pm and we had missed the bike shop. I hoped we may catch it as we really wanted to get moving on the next day but it was looking unlikely. We would now have to wait until the morning to check out the motorbike and hopefully it would be decent enough that we would buy it and get cracking with our ride down South as soon as possible.
The next morning we headed round to check out the bike. It seemed good enough. 125cc so enough power to get the two of us up and down a few hills but it needed a couple of things sorting out. The brakes need fixing a luggage rack needed attaching to the back and it needed a new front tyre as well. By the time these things were sorted and we had test ridden it again it was well into the afternoon and too late to really head anywhere. It takes a good couple of hours just to get out of Hanoi city so it was going to be yet another night spent in the old town before we would be able to get going.
It was Friday by now though and the local night market was on so we popped along to see what he craic was there. It was huge. Stretching the full length of a mile long street. It was fun enough especially as people still tried to ride their scooters up and down through the crowds of people. Very popular with the locals and there was some decent food on offer as well. We covered the full strip and by that time I had had my fill of markets and was in desperate need of a beer and a sit down. We headed back to a little street bar near to where we were staying and settled in for a few tasty fresh beers and a bit relax. We were joined by a couple of lads who lived in the Philippines. One from Spain and one from Norway and unfortunately this is where the night started to get a bit messy. Several fresh beers later and I could take no more beer so decided to move onto the local Vodka. Small bottles but at £1.30 a pop you can’t go wrong and before we knew it we had worked our way through a good few of those as well as sharing a few smokes of local tobacco through a pipe from a friendly lad who was mates with the owner.
The next thing I know we are all sat in Mr Tom’s after hours bar drinking Jim Beam and that my friends is about as much as I remember of that night. I woke the next morning to one of the worst hangovers I’ve had in years. A quick shower did nothing for me really but I had to grin and bare it and pack up and get checked out. Time was getting on but we had to get going that day or we would never leave Hanoi. A quick bite of breakfast and my big bag sorted to be shipped down to Ho Chi Minh city later and we were ready to go. I was nervous, very nervous. Riding around Hanoi is scary enough in itself let alone the 2,000+ km that lay ahead to get us to Ho Chi Minh. I’m just as excited as I am nervous so let’s see what happens.
