On the border with China
Don’t be surprised, dear friends, we did not quite make it to China but turned around at the border. But before making it to the north tip of Vietnam and the highlands of Sapa, our journey took us to another marvelous place of Indochina, Halong Bay. Brazil has one “sugar loaf” in Rio de Janeiro and most people have seen it either life or on postcards; Halong Bay has 1000’s of small and high loafs, but I doubt that many know about it. My personal travel guide did, though, and chose perfect weather and general travel conditions for a three day trip from Hanoi.
A little minibus picked us up early in the morning, and lucky for a change, only 4 other people were collected from another hotel and we were driven to the port of Halong City, were we boarded a massive wooden junk. Lucky because we had the entire boat to ourselves, which normally (and overbooking is the norm) housed up to 22 travellers plus 6-8 crew members. A very exclusive lunch was followed by some slalom sailing through a countryside of rocks and loafs, growing out the sea to hights up 200 metres.
We stopped in a little bay for a short climb and a visit of a huge cave. And I mean HUGE!! The Grotte des Marveilles is probably one of the biggest in the world (not sure of that), but certainly the largest I have been in. On a surface of almost 20,000 m2 (3 rugbyfields), visitors walk passed an army of stalagtites and-mites (I am sure the spelling needs checking), little lakes with fresh spring water and other rock formations. Simply phantastic!
The rest of the day were spent diving from the boat, trying to climb back onto it and relaxing on deck. The beer tasted good and so did dinner; and sleeping on the slightly rocking boat was something else. In the course of the afternoon other ships had lowered their anchors next to ours and some heavy partying went on everywhere, people definitely did not adhere to the “no drinking no diving rule”. One could see some happy boys doing the “Acapulco death jump” from the 10 m high roof of some boats until late through the night. Even the travel guide herself had a go:
The entire next day we spent cruising through those strange looking mini peaks, we swapped boats, went cayaking to some deserted beach and lazed around in the white sand. After another good lunch we stopped on the main island and went for a byke trip into the interior. The boat then dropped us off at another major village, where we spent the night in one of those typical Vietnamese hotels, narrow but high. Our last bit on energy was badly needed to climb the stairs to the 6th floor.
The following day we returned by boat and van to Hanoi, but despite of more great sightseeing we could not really enjoy the day, Holland had lost its quarterfinal match in soccer at the European Cup games in Switzerland…. But the show had to go on so after a brief stop in Hanoi we took the night train to Sapa, at the Chinese border (as stated earlier).
Finally after 5 weeks of sweating and never experiencing outside temperature below 26 degrees Celcius at 110% r.h., we had a chance to cool off. No need for a.c. at night, on the contrary we needed blankets and long sleeves. And a rain coat, of course, because the idea was to visit one of those famous home stays on the hills and spend a night with the locals, and rain was part of the booked package.
We left most of our gear in the hotel and went hiking up and mainly down the hills. It was raining cats and dogs, the track turned into a mudslide and the only way not spend the entire trip on knees and bottoms was to accept one those many helping hands(and iron grips) of the local peasants, whose feet seemed to glued to the ground. The night in the homestay was one of the most confortable sleeps we have experienced throughout the trip, food and a couple (perhaps more) short nips of rice Schnaps must have helped, somehow; and even the cold bucket shower in the morning did not change our opinion.
The next morning the rain continued, so did our slip and sliding journey down the valley and wet like drowned rats we made it to the road, to confront our next challenge: survival of a motorbyke ride on slippy roads back to the hotel. Unlike one of our fellow travellers, whose driver crashed the byke in one of those river crossings, we made it home ok and in one piece. And now, after licking our wounds we waiting for the train back to Hanoi, and tomorrow the flight to yet another country, Lao.
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Tags: Travel
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