I got back yesterday from my tour of Halong Bay, and it was fantastic! I went on a tour with my hostel and we were gone for three days and two nights. I did the Rock Long Rock Hard tour with Ma May Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, and I can give a very positive review with only one real annoyance. The first day we bussed for 4 hours to the shore and then went onto our junker, the Jolly Roger, for an hour and a half to get to our spot for the night. We cruised past the hundreds of islets that dot the bay. There are supposed to be almost 2000 of them, the biggest being Cat Ba Island. It's a sight like nothing you will ever see anywhere else--almost otherworldly. There are also fishing villages that nestle themselves in the karst landscape and, unless for school, childbirth, or selling their wares, they never step foot on land. They all give birth in the same place, a building set atop one of the islets. It's quite odd--the women are sent to the house to give birth but are not allowed to have any help along the way. They are left for an entire month on their own, and if they or their infant die during the time no will know or be able to help. How I would hate to be a woman in that village!
I was the only American except for our tour guide's girlfriend in a group of 40+ people. There were a group of Dutch, French Canadians, and Australians, but most people were Brits. I guess Americans just don't do SE Asia as often. Once we got to the Jolly Roger we got ready to swim--it's always ridiculously hot and humid here and you pretty much just surrender yourself to the sweat. We jumped off the boat and swam around. It being a group of young backpackers and our guide being a partying alcoholic, there were offers of free beer for people that jumped off the boat naked. I can't say I regret not participating, but it was still funny to watch. After that we went kayaking through the bay for a bit. We wanted to under and through a cave with our kayaks, but since it was high tide we couldn't fit. Instead, we moved to a different cave that we could enter and went spelunking for about an hour. The cave was pretty nasty because of all the bats and bat droppings, but it was fun to explore and we saw some good stalactites and stalactmites. Also, the limestone glistens in a pretty way when you shine light over it--it was a lovely effect.
After kayaking, we came back to the boat and had a delicious fresh seafood meal, followed by a good amount of drinking (beer never gets more expensive thatn $1.25) until I, tired as hell from traveling and jet lag, went to bed at 10. I woke up at 6:30 but couldn't really see sunrise because an islet was covering the horizon, but it was beautiful and very peaceful the sit on the deck of the ship, rocking in the bay and listening to the island bugs buzz with lfe. With our Jolly Roger cruise out of the way, it was time to go to our private island for the day, Castaway, to indulge in some great sprorting fun.
We cruised another two hours deeper into the bay, which only got more beautiful as we continued. We saw significantly more fishing villages here as well. Our private island was beatiful, and since it was now low the beach was huge. We went swimming for a while and then I learned to wakeboard, which was fun but difficult with only 8 tries! They also had climbing set up, one medium course and one difficult one, and I was able to do both without falling and/or slipping. Both climbing guides were Americans, so it was fun to talk to them and hear their story. They really wanted me to try solo climbing, which is when you get a boat and ride up to the rock face in the islets and climb without any gear. Once you get high enough you just jump back into the water, and repeat until you're too tired. It sounded really fun but I didn't have the time. Maybe next time I find myslef here.
The whole day I spent a lot of time meeting all the different groups of people--the one nice thing about traveling solo is it forces you to meet people and to be social. They all had interesting stories and had traveled quite a bit already, so I also got some helpful tips for my other destinations along the way. Everyone is so nice, and so pleased to find an American that really wants to learn about their culture. It's crazy that it was not unusual for the Dutch group that they knew 5 languages proficiently, and here I am with more language knowledge than the average American and I only know 2!
Later that night I got to know them better as we played some more drinking games and went swimming. I guess this trip is known for being a party one, but our group had a good balance and never got out of control. However, our guide wasn't so happy about that, so when he realized no one was going to be getting naked again without an incentive for free drinks he pouted and went to bed--I think him being pushy about drinking was really my only complaint about the trip. After the party was over, we went swimming again for a bit and admired the bioluminescence in the water and went to bed. We slept in huts on the beach, and about 6 people fit in each one. There were padded mats on the ground and mosquito nets, and though it was very simple I had no problem sleeping. The next morning we go up bright and early and started our cruise back to land. We boarded our minibus and after four hours of cramped driving got back to our hostel at around 5 pm. I was really tired but knew if I napped it would continue my jet lag and make it harder to go to sleep again, so I just relaxed in the hostel and got some dinner. After a good night's sleep, I got up and took my time with breakfast before going on a walking tour of Old Town Hanoi, which I'll talk about in a separate post.
