Halong Bay, Vietnam

The view of the bay from Hang Dau Go caves.
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Halong Bay is a truly amazing UNESCO World Heritage site in Northern Vietnam. There are over 2000 pinnacle-shaped limestone and dolomite outcrops scattered throughout this tropical bay. Junks, or traditional Vietnamese sailboats, cruise through the bay carrying tourists, sure, but some junks do belong to the floating village inhabitants of the bay. No trip to northern Vietnam, no trip to Vietnam is complete without seeing them.

We booked a private tour that picked us up at a location that was coincidentally right outside of our hotel. It's a 3.5 hour drive in a small, air-conditioned, tour bus carrying about 12 people. Huong, or Rosy, was our guide. She immediately let us know that because the trip was 3.5 hours, that after a couple of hours we would be stopping for a Happy Stop. I'll let you figure out what the Happy Stop was.

Well, have you ever jumped from an old Vietnamese junk, into the warm tropical waters of Halong Bay?

Looking out to the bay while lounging. Do note our feet!
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When you arrive you board your junk, or cruise ship. Ours was called the Dragon Pearl. It's a beautiful mahogany boat with a classic Vietnamese junk sail. It was four stories tall, with the bottom two stories for cabins, the 3rd story had a deck and dining hall, and the top story was a sunbathing and sightseeing deck. We all gathered, while docked, at the 3rd story deck and the cruise manager came by with the captain and chef, introduced everybody, and welcomed us to the tour. After that, we were off. The ship would sail, slowly, about 4 hours into the bay. At that point we'd come along a beach to swim at, then return for dinner, and cruise around enjoying the sunset. The next morning we would cruise to an old limestone cave called Hang Dau Go and hike through it, then we would have another swim, lunch, and then head back.

Adam risking life and limb.
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The pictures here will never give the full story of what Halong Bay is like, you have to go and experience it. There's a tranquility and beauty that is rarely seen in life. As we gently sailed through the bay, I remember commenting to Laurie how we were in the midst of experiencing something just phenomenal. Private junks would sail by, or maybe small row boats, and all the while in the background, were these amazing krasts. I was just simply blown away. We both were. Going to the beach for a swim was fantastic. I dare say that Laurie and I frolicked in the water. There is something about the water that makes one want to frolick. The best was jumping off the boat though for deep-sea swimming. After returning from the beach and reboarding the junk, we sailed out for another half hour and then it was announced that we could dive from the boat for some deep-sea swimming. It was interesting to see how the ship had people at several points watching all the time, just to make sure that nobody got in trouble.

Fishing village at Ha Long Bay
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Well, have you ever jumped from an old Vietnamese junk, into the warm tropical waters of Halong Bay?  That, my friends, is an experience. There were several other tourists on board, of course, and some of them were doing it too, but nearly as many as you would think. There was this one couple from Italy, and the man, (in a stereotypically Mediterranean tiny black bathing suit, oiled up and ret to go), was unabashedly jumping off the boat, swimming to the back, climbing back on, and doing it again. Two Spanish couples made a jump or two, and two girls from Berkeley were jumping again and again. Laurie worked up the courage to jump off and wade around, but I found a higher place to jump from, and was having plenty of fun doing so, (see picture). The greatest fun for me, is that two of the local cabin boys were having fun jumping too, and before I knew it, the three of us were jumping off the boat together, in unison, to their counts of 1-2-3!  The next day, when they allowed us to do some deep-sea swimming and diving again, the Italian fellow and me worked our way up to the 3rd story deck and were jumping off of that.

Limestone karsks
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Hiking through the caves was also amazing. The limestone formations are stunning. It was really interesting to see how the Vietnamese would recognize shape formations in the rocks, (like a tortoise, a man, a phallus, a lion), and they would revere them, placing a deep significance to them.

Most of our time was spent just sitting on the deck, looking out into the bay at the limestone formations, watching junks sail by, and just simply chilling.  Oh, but we had to come back.