Halong Bay, Vietnam

Enjoying the view from the top deck

From Hue we took an overnight train to Hanoi, a twelve hour trip.  There weren’t any soft sleepers available on the date we wanted to go so we booked a “soft seat,” which was basically a cushioned seat that reclined back a bit.  This is how most of the locals travel as it’s much cheaper than the sleeper car.  We had quite a few stowaways that did not pay for their space on the train – travelers otherwise known as cockroaches!  Ugh!  I hate those things.  I had the seat next to the wall and every so often one would crawl out from under the rim around the window – I would lean over onto Daron and he would kill it.  It was all I could do to stay calm.  At times I would hear a big SLAP when one of the locals squished a big one on the floor with their shoe.  Yuck yuck yuck.  It made sleeping difficult, especially since I couldn’t rest my head against the wall.  We were both happy when the train finally pulled into the station at Hanoi.

Our junk, the Paloma

We spent enough time in Hanoi to book our trip to Halong Bay, as we knew it would be a highlight of our time in Vietnam.  In 1994 Halong Bay was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site.  It is also one of the finalists for the New 7 Wonders of Nature campaign where people can vote for their favorite natural wonder.  The scenery is similar to Phi Phi and Krabi in Thailand, but with many more karst formations.  There are over 3,000 of these limestone islets in the bay, although the Vietnamese will tell you that there are exactly 1,969 of them (1969 is the year the Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh died). 

The vendors find their next victim

I can’t say enough good things about our Halong Bay tour and the boat (known as a junk here) we booked.  We splurged a bit on this trip as we didn’t want to end up on a backpacker party boat.  We had heard stories about the cheap boats being infested with rats and cockroaches (have had enough of those!), as well as people partying all night long, which wasn’t the experience we wanted.  We also wanted to be safe, as back in February of this year a junk sank in the bay, killing eleven tourists and their Vietnamese tour guide.  Nine foreigners and six Vietnamese survived by jumping into the bay and swimming to other boats.  One of the crew members had left a valve open that allows water to come in and cool the engine, so the boat took on too much water, causing it to sink around 5am.  The ones who didn’t make it were trapped in their cabins.  On our boat the first thing they told us was where our life jackets were and that each cabin had a large hammer to break the window if necessary.  Thoughts of sinking kept me up the first night on our boat, but thankfully not the second. 

Houses in the floating village

After much research we booked a three-day two-night trip on the Paloma junk and were not disappointed.  We were picked up at our hotel in Hanoi in the morning for the three hour drive to the bay.  Once there we were shuttled to the boat where we had a fabulous lunch.  All the meals were included and they were excellent.  Our friends on the boat who we ate all our meals with mentioned that they loved eating with Daron, as he was so enthusiastic about the food.  Anyone who knows Daron can attest to this – the man loves to EAT!  He made all our meals fun. 

As soon as we boarded the junk, we could see small boats being rowed in our direction.  They turned out to be Vietnamese vendors with boats full of goodies to sell.  They would row over and call to us while we were in our cabin.  All we had to do was open our window to negotiate with them.   They had nets on long poles that they would use to transfer whatever was purchased up to us – we would put our money in the same net to pay them.  Drinks are not included on the junks and are quite expensive so many folks purchased alcohol from the boat vendors.  Even though we had fabulous views from our window, we would have to pull the curtains to avoid the vendors spotting us – if they even saw a glimpse of one of us through the window they would row over and call out to us over and over.  They were persistent if nothing else!

Lunch and lounging on the beach

The first day we visited a large cave, then toured the bay while enjoying a sunset happy hour party on the top deck.  Day two started with a yummy breakfast, followed by a tour of a floating village.  There are four floating villages out in the bay, with a total population of 1,600 people.  They catch fish and collect mollusks for a living.  We had the option of being rowed by a local guide through the village or kayaking ourselves through it.  Daron and I chose the kayaking option and thoroughly enjoyed paddling ourselves through the “neighborhood.”  As we went by the floating houses we could see that many of them had televisions and other electronic devices.  Crazy.  Barrels were outside on the “porch” to collect rainwater.  Some houses even had dogs.  It was a very surreal place – I can’t even imagine living in a floating house year-round. 

So much fabulous scenery!

We toured a more remote part of the bay during the rest of the morning on our way to a small secluded beach.  Once at the beach we had the option to rest, hang out, or kayak around the area.  Daron and I did more kayaking as there was so much to explore – the limestone karst formations were everywhere and made for interesting kayaking.  Some rocks were eroded enough that they had small caves to kayak into or through.  It was amazingly picturesque.  Meanwhile the boat staff had ferried all the makings for lunch to the beach and had prepared an elaborate meal for us, complete with tables and chairs set up in the sand.   It was fun dining on our own little private beach in the bay.  After lunch we took it easy, with some of us napping on the beach and others doing more kayaking.   We cruised another part of the bay during the rest of the afternoon, stopping to tour a floating pearl farm before dinner. 

 

The next day we enjoyed breakfast and taking it easy before heading back to shore for the long bus ride back to Hanoi.  It was nice to escape the hustle and bustle of the cities on the mainland for a couple days of peace and beauty on the bay.