1,600 Islets and a Junk Boat or My Cruise Though Halong Bay

Halong bay has been labeled as one of the 7 natural wonders of the world for its immersive beauty and unique geological features. It also qualifies as a UNESCO  World Heritage Site and is very deserving of the title. We were set out to leave on a 2.5 star cruise (Like a bottle of wine you never wanna go for the cheapest cruise, but rarely can you afford the most expensive. The second cheapest was well worth the money) We would spend two days and one night out on the bay. We departed from Hanoi early in the morning (the Hanoi post will follow shortly after this one) and spent 4 hours being shoved in a claustrophobic crammed bus honking our way through  the hoards of traffic. One curious thing that we continuously noticed on our travels were that hundreds of building shells littered the sides of shelves. Dozens of construction projects that had built the outside of the building without ever putting anything within, sometimes not even adding in a back wall. Shells of greed.

We finally arrived and quickly set out on our voyage and I was able to kick up my feet and just relax. 

Looking out at all the islets all I could see was a sea of faces. Like hundreds of giants, lying in the water looking up at the clouds floating by.

It was as if a land had been plucked from the mind of J.R.R Tolkien and placed in our own world. Halong Bay is undeniably a magical place, its mystique only growing as you see the junk boats floating in and out of the islands. (Even if most of them are tourist cruises)

Our days were spent looking out across this mystic place and exploring “Surprising Cave” By exploring I mean standing in a line of a few hundred people and shuffling through a series of caves. However, Surprising Cave was an apt name as each subsequent cave was larger than the last bringing an actual surprise and minor enjoyment to the tourist conga line.  Which you only get to see windows out of and not into, for the view outside of the cave far surpassed the beauty of the depths within the island. 

After the caves we boated between a few islets before arriving at an island with a fantastic view-point atop it. Sadly we were running behind on time and had to book it up the mountain so that we could revel in it for as long as possible before being ushered back to our boat. However, being behind on schedule ended up being one of the best parts of this cruise as we arrived at the perfect time.

Vietnam is a country of many paradises indeed.

We gathered back on the boat and begin our night of festivities in the traditional Vietnamese way.  Mot, Hai, Ba, YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo!!!!!  (3,2,1,yo) Yell yo for the rest of your life, until your last breath. Hai, Ba, YOOOOOOOOOooooooo! Yell louder, let the world hear your revelry.  Ba YOOOOOOOOooooooooooo!!! Now drink, drink and be merry. The rest of the night, and the rest of the trip was spent drinking with friends, talking with German’s and Brazillians , fishing for squid with the English, avoiding the dancing of the crazy Iranian’s on board with the Ecuadorians, and falling asleep underneath the vast ocean of stars dreaming of adventures had, and adventures yet to come.

 

As always, because she writes far quicker than me, check out Emma’s take here.