Brett’s Travelblog of Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and The USA

18/10/05 to 20/10/05

Oh it was nice to relax ( ish ) In Halong Bay for 3 days it went something like this…..

Day 1,

We got picked up from our Hotel at 8am and drove for about 3 hours to Halong City and the ferry port there were we boarded our boat and set sail.

Halong Bay is made up of around 3000 lime stone Islands, very misty and sureal, views like Ive never seen before!!!!!
In Vietnamise Halong translates to: Ha = Descends and Long = Dragon, so basically Halong Bay means Were the Dragon Descends into the sea. The story tells of how this female Dragon was sent to attack this part of the worl and the mountains are from the damage caused, after the dragons 6th visit she decided she wanted to stay and lived there.

Anyhows we sailed for about an hour before moaring up and we set of up a mountain path to explore a 250000000 year cave which was only found in 1993, its had lighting fitted throughout to set the mood and was a great place to walk through. After visiting a smaller cave we headed back to the boat and set sail again.

We stopped near to a floating fishing village and went by small boat to explore

another cave ( Apparantly part of a newish James Bond film was filmed here )

In the afternoon we stopped, surounded by misty mountains we

had the chance to swim and kyak. A few of us dived from the top of the boat which was around 25/30 foot above the water, Nerous at first but once I got my first jump out the way there was no stopping me. Climbed into a kyak(spl?) and went for a paddle.

That evening we stopped in the middle of this bay, again surrounded by mountains and the sky lit up by a full moon, we all talked for ages had a few beers and a few of us decided to sleep on deck as it was so nice. 1am it started to rain so we all headed back to our rooms…. Wish I had have stayed on deck cuse I got into bed and looked up and under my aircon was the biggest spider Ive ever seen, so big I could see the light reflecting in his eyes, to say I s@#t myself would be and under statement, the thing jumped onto my bed and I tried to hit it but it jumped back onto the wall. I ripped the sheets off my bed and hit the thing hard, held the sheets there for a few minutes squishing ever part, cause if I pulled it away and the spider had jumped I would have died. Well it didnt and there was spider legs the size of small chicken wings sticking out the sheets. Try sleeping after that!!!!

Day 2,

The next morning we were off early and headed to Cat Ba Island which is the largest inhabited Island in Halong Bay. We set off 3km on foot to a little village, the treked up a mountain. It was hard going on all of us and I never expected it to be so tough and pretty dangerous, even to the point of climbing up rock faces. Took us a couple of hours to the top but the views were worth it. Only thing was that the route up was pretty bad, sharp rocks if you fell, slippy mud and tree roots on steep banks. On top we were told we have to descend down the same way and it started raining which made it harder, talk about concentrating to get down. I nearly went arse over tit a couple of times but managed to regain my footin and can say although not sure how but we all got down safely and had lunch which was much needed. I didnt fancy the 3km walk back to the boat so I hired a motorbike of a local village guy and blasted my back to the boat.

That afternoon we went swimming again and Cathy and myself took a kyak out for a spin around the bay, bit more diving too.

We then headed off to a port on Cat Ba Island and we stayed in a hotel that night. Met loads of cool people on the boat trip, Ben and Adiefrom the states, Oren from Israel, Dan from Denmark, Henrick and Karp from Estonia, Marion and Chrestylle from France and others.

That night a few of us went for a drink and we bumbed into an Isrealy couple we met in Ho Chi Minh City. Early night as we were up again early in the morning.

Day 3,

Easy day just got the boat and had a 3 hour trip back to were we started.

The 3 hour trip home on the bus went ok apart from a traffic jam caused by an accident, they dont cover things up much here, we went past the accident and a biker had come of in front of a truck, the truck totally squished the person and there was a right mess in the road, didnt leave anything to the imagination…..

The evening then of Thur 20th we were back in Hanoi, Anns last night as she is flying to Bangkok 2moro to meet up with family.

Ive gone and done it again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Couldnt make my mind up whether to head to China with Cathy or head back to Bangkok. Still got the same coin I tossed to decide if to do Vietnam or back to Thailand, Star for Bangkok or Pagoda to go to China. Cathy called Pagoda and guess what??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

Im heading to China because of a coin toss, sorted my visa out that evening which I collect 2moro and getting train tickets when visa through. Cant wait to see the Great Wall to be honest as at the start of my trip it was no were on my itinerary.

That evening we went out for Ann’s last night, the two Estonian lads came out with us but we had an early night cause the trip caught up on us.

Tags: Halong Bay, Travel, Vietnam

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