Halong Bay: The Land of 2,000 Islands

This place is REALLY cool!

I can't load any pictures on the computer I'm using, but I will go back and add some soon, I hope. Until then, hopefully my writing will suffice. I have included some random google images pics for now. I'll put mine up as soon as I can.

(Source: http://www.beihai2000.com/images/viet/halong/halong27.jpg)

We booked a 3-day tour, which included a night stay on a fancy junk boat, and a second night on chilled out Cat Ba Island, the largest of all the islands. We had a great crew of Brits, Irish, French, and an older Malaysian couple who probably wished they booked another tour without us young folk. Oh well, we were nice!

Day 1: An interesting 3.5 hour bus drive from Hanoi to Halong City started off our day. In case you're not familiar with Vietnamese driving, picture your busiest city street, say Rene Levesque Boul. in Montreal, but instead of cars and stop lights, the street is filled with 5 times as many motorbikes, and no stop lights. In fact, I don't think there are brakes in the country. Only gas pedal and horn. And boy, do they know how to use it. I'll post a video I took in our bus, that is pretty self-explanatory. Every couple of minutes or so, our bus would pass a bus that was passing another bus, with a huge trunk coming at full speed in the on-coming lane. This is where that zen/don't care anymore attitude needs to kick in. It's crazy driving. The sooner you accept that, the better your stay will be!

Needless to say the islands are one of the most beautiful areas I've ever been to. It's a paradise-like setting, with endless limestone islands that emerge from Halong Bay like tree-covered giants. We visited some HUGE caves and chilled around the Bay. We then took the kayaks out and went for some exploring, where we got to see some jelly-fish, an awesome monkey shaking a tree branch to scare us (he failed, we just laughed at him) and an eagle diving into the water to catch fish for the little ones in her nest. Awesome!

(Source: http://www.crossingjournal.com/images/halong%20bay1.jpg )

We got to jump off our boat's 2nd storey roof (the third was just too high!) and swim the warmest waters I've ever been in. The night was amazing, and the first time we've seen the stars in Asia. Everywhere else is either too polluted or cloudy.

Day 2: The second day saw us and the Brits go on, while the others had only paid for 2 days and made their way back to Hanoi. We went biking into one of the larger islands. Biking in the hills without breaks is interesting. Once in the little village, we witnessed a few odd things:

1) a siamese-twin dog, with two front bodies, but one rear body. Weird. I went back to get a photo, but it disappeared, BUT I SWEAR I SAW IT! you'll have to take my word for it ;-)

2) a little vietnamese boy from the village, who took devilish pleasure in hitting one of the Brits (Ben); first with his fist, then whipping him with a stick, which he proceeded to throw at his head. When Ben and I walked back past him, he now had a little knife in his hand. We ran past him and continued down the road. When we left the village, back to our boat, other kids made sure to punch us again. Nice goodbye present!

Later that day we went to Cat Ba Island, chilled out, and ended the evening with a small micro-brew type drink called Bia Hoi; it's basically home-made 3% beer that costs about 33 cents, and is REALLY good.

The next morning we headed back to Hanoi and left behind the beauty that is Halong Bay. Truly a must see!

(Source: http://www.friedrichs.us/Vietnam-Photos/3-239-Ha-Long-Boat-Islands-R.jpg )

ZA