Ha Long Bay
So on Tuesday morning we departed Hanoi for Ha Long Bay, accompanied by our new friends Donad and Deidre. Once on the bus our tour guide introduced himself as Trien (pronounced more like 'Chien'), a little man who we learnt to hate by the end of the trip. As with all our experiences, it was very much an experience of ups and downs!By 11am we arrived in Ha Long City, having endured a predictable loo break at a tourist trap, where we were invited to buy a variety of souvenirs from 'handicapped children'. Give us a break! We boarded the boat and after half an hour lunch arrived. At this point we had no idea that all our meals on the trip would take exactly the same format, so we quite enjoyed it. For every meal (except breakfast) we ate: rice, fish, deep fried squid, some greens cooked in oil, and tofu. I really wouldn't mind if I never eat tofu again.
Lunch passed and by this time we were almost the only boat left in the harbour, which had previously been rammed with similar tours. It eventually emerged that our boat was broken, and so we decamped to a new (and less appealing!) vessel and after a further wait we were off - only two hours behind schedule so far!
It took about an hour to get to the first stop, some caves with impressive stalactites and stalacmites. Peculiarly, as with the terracotta army, the fisherman who discovered the cave seemed to receive most of the proceeds from them. Asian tourists sites operate under a strange logic! Unfortunately the caves were absoluted crammed with tourists from the boats, so that you had no choice but to follow as if on a conveyor belt around and back out. The interior was also fitted out with various coloured lights that did little to enhance the experience - we both felt we'd seen better.
Now the trip began properly and we left the majority of the day trippers behind, heading further into the islands and enjoying the spectacular scenery. After a short while we stopped at the first of many fishing villages we saw. The 'village' was composed of many small floating man-made islands, on each of which stood a one or two roomed house made of wood and corrugated iron. Around these were often platforms with nexts for catching and containing the fish. It is a very strange way of life, with all generations from babies to the elderly in evidence, and more dogs than we have seen anywhere else on our travels. We paid $2 for an extra trip on a smaller boat through some caves, into bays surrounded entirely by rock, which was lovely. As on land, every time the boat stopped we were bombarded with women and children offering us any number of different fruits, cigarettes and oreo cookies from their little boats - they really don't take no for an answer!
Back on board our larger boat, we cruised through the rocky islands as the sun began to set. By this time we were severely behind schedule and it was beginning to get dark, but despite this we still stopped at another floating village to do some kayaking, which was good fun. By the time we were ready to set off again it was dark, but for some time we didn't go anywhere.
I was getting pretty hungry by this point and eventually I asked Trien what was going on - he said we'd be leaving shortly and that it would be half an hour to Catba Island, our final stop. What he didn't say, the lying toad, is that the boat was broken once again and we were waiting for another boat to turn up and tow us. Eventually they arrived, and we had to wait while the passengers had their turn at kayaking and swimming before we set off, extremely slowly. We had been due to reach our destination at 4.30, but didn't arrive until 8pm!
We were quickly bussed to our hotel for the night and given our standard meal. The hotel was pretty shoddy but by that time we were pretty tired and weren't too bothered.
The second day was to begin with a trek in the national park of Catba Island. Unfortunately useless Trien neglected to tell us that we should leave our bags in hotel reception, and so we we took them with us. The trek guide spoke almost no English and didn't seem bothered that we were having to carry three days worth of stuff up the mountain on our backs! I had a bit of a go at him and eventually he did carry one of Chris's bags.
Once we were over our irritation the trek was lovely, taking us up into the mountains for great views across the island and down into the bays below. We saw the largest spider I have ever seen (after which I lived in fear for the rest of the trek!) and sweated more than I ever have before, but it was worth it.
After returning to the hotel and berating Trien for sending us off with our bags (he feebly denied it, pathetic little man) we were given an early lunch of our standard meal. The afternoon was 'free time', although alot of our trek group had opted to pay $5 to visit 'Monkey Island', where there were monkeys and a beach. However after consulting the lonely planet we discovered a free beach around the corner, and as we were already in despair at Trien's organisational skills the four of us decided to go it alone. It turned out to be a good decision, as we had a wonderful afternoon swimming and sunbathing. That's not to say it was without a few minor dramas - the Vietnamise once again tried to excercise their ability to make all tourists pay extortionate prices for pretty much nothing, by claiming that all shade cast by the umbrellas on the beach had to be paid for! However we argued them down, and throughout the afternoon I rarely saw their tactics work on anyone.
That night we were due to sleep on the boat, so at 5.30 (after some life-sustaining pancakes at a nice cafe) the four of us were bussed back to the harbour to wait for the boat. Bearing in mind the four-hour delays the previous day we were pleasantly surprised when it turned up only an hour after we did. On board we were assigned our cabins - we did better than Deidre and Donad, who had no fan and were next to the generator, so all night had petrol fumes puffing in through their window! We cruised under the stars to anchor out in the area where we had kayaked the day before. Unfortunately very shortly after our arrival a larger, nicer boat turned up, blasting music and full of drunk people. So much for a romantic evening under the stars! Not wanting to spend an evening watching other people getting drunk, we went to bed pretty early.
We were woken at 5.30 by a Vietnamese man sticking his head through our window and offering kayaking. I promptly went back to sleep and missed a terrential downpour which was apparently fairly dramatic. After breakfast we set off for the harbour to pick up those passengers that had spent the night on land. The rest of the morning was lovely and went without a hitch - we lazed about on deck enjoying the scenery and chatting to some of the others whom we had got to know on the trek. We also stopped for a swim en route with was a lovely relief from the heat. We arrived back at Ha Long City at 11am, the first time we were on time for the whole trip!
After an extremely early lunch (standard meal) we were loaded onto a bus and set off. Much to our surprise there were two free seats - the Vietnamese usually load the buses to bursting. However we began to be suspicious when we set off in the wrong direction. It eventually became clear that we were making a half hour round trip to pick up a little old Vietnamese woman - presumably the driver's granny (or something) who wanted a free lift to Hanoi!
Once back at the harbour, Trien announced that we were leaving the bus because the driver wasn't very good, and getting into a new, much smaller one. Imagine our surprise when the same driver got in the front! I then had a go at Trien again, who said that the driver was more used to this bus so he would be safer driving it. I then asked how many more times we would be stopping before we reached Hanoi. He said no more stops, except to pick up four more people - there were only two small fold-away seats unoccupied! We shouted at him but to no avail, and four unfortunate Germans were squeezed in, with Trien himself spending the rest of the journey on the gear stick because the rest of us refused to move. We felt almost more sorry for the Germans, who had been waiting since 8am!
After a long, hot journey (the second bus had very poor air conditioning) and the predictable stop at a tourist trap, we arrived back at the Blue Sky Hotel. To our relief our bags remained intact, but predictably the receptionist had given our reserved rooms to other people and didn't have rooms for us! Eventually Chris and I moved to their sister hotel, which was not quite as nice, and Donad and Deidre had to pay $2 more for a three person room as that was the only one available.
While parts of the trip were lovely, they were slightly marred by bad organisation and facilities, not to mention the hated Trien. However I'd say it was definitely worth it, as we had some priceless moments that we won't forget. Plus we've learned that sometimes it's worth paying a little more for better service!
Emily
PS I apologise for the length of this entry, I wasn't in an editing mood.
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