Halong Bay
From The Otherside in Halong Bay, Vietnam on Mar 08 '07
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Kevin and I opted to take the public bus rather than do the whole tour thing from Hanoi to Halong Bay, on the coast of Vietnam. Well, we chose poorly with that
decision. Our taxi driver was supposed to bring us to the bus station and, instead, decided to drop us off on the side of the road at (looking at it now)
You buy from me! You buy from me nowwww!
probably the first public bus he came across. We kept asking the bus driver and the man who collected the money, "Halong Bay? This bus goes to Halong Bay?"
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Getting our money, of course his answer was, "Yes, yes, Halong Bay." So a very crammed, yet surprisingly comfortable (no locals getting sick!) two-hour long
bus ride later... we arrived in... Hai Phong! We saw this one coming from miles away - in Hanoi. Hai Phong is actually Vietnam's third-largest city and is supposed to have the feeling of Vietnam of old. Our impression is that are not as many motorbikes as in Hanoi, but there are just as many people hassling you
to buy stuff. We had to keep on keeping on to get to Halong City (where we were supposed to be heading), so we found a metered taxi (who spoke absolutely no English) and managed to translate to him where we needed to go through a nice Vietnamese man who could tell we were in trouble, especially since we were the most obvious tourists in the town. Come to think of
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it, we were the only tourists in Hai Phong. I guess those happy little tourists who had booked the whole tour to Halong Bay were happily on their way to the
right city. Our driver had never been on a highway before and you could definitely tell. He was gripping the wheel like he was superglued to it and driving
about 15-10 km/hr, honking NON-STOP. He would stop every 15 minutes to ask directions (as he probably only drives in Hai Phong), but what matters is that
somehow miraculously he got us to exactly where we wanted to go: The Thong Nhat 2 Hotel in Halong City. Who cares if he overcharged us and then demanded more money for an alleged "phone card" that he bought for us, we had finally made it!!! Our San Fran friends, Ryan and Kelly had gotten on the right bus and were there to greet us with open arms.
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Ryan and Kelly had been having some rough times in Vietnam, getting scammed left and right, so they had been lying pretty low since we first got to Hanoi, but we all went out to dinner in Halong City and then found a cozy little bar where hopefully they could restore their faith. Bamboo Bar had opened 3 days before we went there and was run by this really nice guy named Phong with his friend Tung (whom we all LOVED). Tung was born in Hanoi, but his father was from Saigon, so Tung says he's truly "Saigon at heart." His father fought for the Americans in the beginning of the Vietnam War, but was put in prison for 8 years at the beginning of the war for fighting for us. When the war was over, he was released from prison and attempted to flee the country to the United States, but his government kept catching him and putting him back in jail. We are so unsure sometimes here how some Vietnamese feel when we say that we are
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Americans, and Tung really restored any doubts we had. He was one of the first genuine smiles we have all encountered here in Vietnam, not just to sell us stuff, but to make friends. It was great talking to Vietnamese people of our generation and being able to say, "Hey, it's not wartime anymore. We come here in peace, looking to make friends." Our generation, starting with our tourism into these other countries such as Vietnam, is what is going to change any bitter
feelings from old battles. He's dying to come visit America, so we all promised him he had a place to crash if he made it. I'm not sure what the Visa situation is for him trying to get one for the US, but he was making it seem like it was pretty tough. Great night at the Bamboo Bar, Tung let Kelly play bartender
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and show him how to make fancy drinks and Ryan brought his iPod in to play DJ. Kevin, of course, could not end the night there, but dragged me to some tiny
little food vendor at 3:30 AM where all they eat are noodles and raw eggs. The locals just absolutely gawked at us the entire time, as the owner urged Kevin
to eat the raw eggs and I sat praying that the monster rats wouldn't attack us and thanking my lucky stars that I'm not Kevin who had to take a shot of some awful alcoholic substance out of an old Coke bottle that the locals had him drink with them. We're sure that it contained cobra and scorpions at some point. It was on to Halong Bay the next morning. Halong Bay is Vietnam's second World Heritage site. It's made up of hundreds of massive limestone cliffs jutting out of the Gulf of Tonkin. Legend has it that a giant dragon created Halong Bay when he fled from his home in the mountains towards the coast into the water. His enormous tail carved out all of the cliffs and rock formations that protrude from the emerald bay. Halong actually translates into "where the dragon descends into the sea."
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We all hopped onto an overnight boat filled with 16 tourists (more than half American, surprisingly) and 8 bedrooms. The boat had a really great set-up with a huge sundeck with lounge chairs on top and then a big dining room underneath. All the bedrooms were down below, right near the lovely engine. It really does lull you right to sleep. :) We spent the day boating through the limestone cliffs (no suntan for us as it was cold and rainy) and stopped to check out Halong Bay's biggest and most beautiful cave. This thing was huge and filled with hundreds of tourists pushing their way through the crowd to get a good camera shot.
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Our favorite part of the trip was when we got to take our own kayaks with the guide. It was only 6 of us and you really could just go at whatever pace you pleased, so it was very relaxing to get away from the hustle and bustle of the whole tour group thing and set meal times and everything. At one point we went through a small cave in the side of a cliff and entered the most peaceful place on Earth. I swear, I have never heard anything so quiet. You could whisper and it would echo through this little haven amidst all the limestone structures. It was absolutely beautiful. My favorite limestone cliff looked just like Castle Greyskull from He-Man (I think my brother is the only other person who will understand what this means). I yelled "Castle Greyskull from He-Man!" as soon as I spotted it, only to be received by blank stares from the rest of the kayaking group. Thankfully Ryan has a random brain like myself and said, "Totally," agreeing with my observation. Maybe he just felt bad for me and really didn't know what I was talking about but who knows... haha.
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Kevin wanted to jump out of the kayak for a swim, but it was about a 100% chance that his actions would have us both tipped over in the water, camera and all, so it wasn't worth taking the risk. Besides, he got to swim as soon as we got back from kayaking. We all wanted to go swimming, but at that point it was pretty late in the day and it was getting very cold, so Kelly and I called it a day while Ryan and Kevin jumped off the top of the boat. Our boat was surrounded by little feisty Vietnamese women selling Oreos and Pringles in boats yelling, "You buy from me! You buy from me nowwww!" and on Kevin's first jump, he almost jumped right into one of those little boats. It would have made for an interesting picture, but might have caused more havoc with these seriously aggressive little ladies. They really can be vicious - we saw two get into a fight over who was selling a pack of Pringles to a tourist and one of the ladies started screaming and hitting the competition with a stick!
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The boat tour was very relaxing and Halong Bay is very beautiful. I can only imagine how stunning it must look with blues skies and the sun out. I can see how the people who come here during the warmer season stay for days on these things, just laying out on the sundeck and jumping off the boats. I'm a little envious, but we had our own misty/rainy enchanting experience.
We're heading back to Hanoi and hopping on an overnight train down to Hue on the 11th. We'll see how that goes! More public transportation, here we come!
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P.S. I'll add more pictures in a day or two when we get to a faster computer!
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