Plains, Trains, Automobiles...and a PIRATE SHIP!

Now I understand what all the driving was for...to get here, to Halong Bay. And more specifically, to our overnight cruise on a junket. Which really does look and feel like a pirate ship. After leaving the homestay village we had a 12 hour bus ride to Ninh Binh across the Vietnam border. It was a VERY long ride followed by a VERY uneventful dinner in the hotel lobby. In the morning we boarded the bus again for another four hour ride to Halong Bay. Now when I say bus and ride, I really mean rollercoaster ride. I can't complain too much because we did have a private 24 passenger van which meant we each had a row of seats to ourselves. But we also had super rocket powered springs that sent your body launching into the air at even the hint of a bump.



But then we arrived at the docks and boarded our own private junket for a two day cruise around the bay. I feel I am running out of adjectives to describe all the cool things we have seen and done so I am going to go ahead and just use...Awesome.



The boat consisted of three levels. The lower level, or water level, held the cabins and kitchen. The upper level was a plush dining room surrounded by windows with a bar at the back end and the captains area at the front. The upper level, or top deck was open air deck chairs. Again, Awesome.



The crew lined up on deck to welcome us aboard in full uniform. After a 5 course meal of steamed prawns, crispy vegetable eggrolls, sesame fried pork, steamed veggies and fresh fruit; we settled into the deck chairs, drinks in hand, to nap and enjoy the scenery.



Halong Bay is truly beautiful in the way that only nature can be. Formed by erosion, nearly 2000 islands or all shapes and sizes rise up from the surace of the sea. Vietnamese legend says that these islands are part of the great dragon that descended from the sky to help the people fight off an enemy attack long, long ago. Hence the name Halong or descending dragon. The bay was declared a UNESCO site and has been on the new 7 natural wonders of the world list. Our plan was to float around the islands, moore up for the night in a protected area, and return the next afternoon. We did all this and more...



First, we stopped to visit a small floating village. We climbed on small canoe like boats to for a tour of the village and a peek at their pearl farm. The trip, which cost a whopping 20,000 dong ($1.20) also included a visit to their fish hatchery, school and a floating gift shop. The school wasn't included but they were happy to let us take a look around. The various parts of the gift shop were fundraisers for the village. In one area paintings and small crafts were sold for the garbage collection and disposal project. The other area was devoted to pearls, both loose and set, and was raising money for a laptop project to bring their children more access to the outside world.



In the evening, we tied up in a smaller bay with all the other tourist cruise boats and went for a swim as the sun set and the moon climbed up into the sky. There was a big fuss over trying to take photos of the boys jumping off the top deck of the boat. We couldn't get the camera's to work so they had to do it over and over again. I am sad to say, I was too chicken to jump from the top and only jumped from about 6' up.



Afterwards, another great dinner (more giant prawns, battered fish cakes, squid, chicken and fruit). I ordered, and drank, a mojito that tasted alarmingly similar to mouthwash. Then we headed back up on deck for the night. Ben, Matt and I had elected to spend the night under the stars and see the sunrise. We kept ourselves warm finishing off the bottle of gin and then slept under the sky on the lounge chairs. A lot of cloud cover moved in during the night but I woke up momentarily around 4am to see the clouds glowing pink.



After breakfast we stopped at a very cool limestone cave full and then headed in to shore for the last leg of our journey to Hanoi.