Whew. That is a tortured pun if ever there were one. And even that took me FOREVER to think up. I am... out of practice.
After showing Zach around Hanoi, the first leg of our adventure was an overnight trip out to Hạ Long Bay (Vịnh Hạ Long). It's not difficult to find a variety of boats and tours and many of them include the bus ride to and from Hanoi as well as meals and activities once you are out in the bay. We went with Kangaroo Cafe (the website does not instill confidence but they are a legitimate outfit, I swear) which I was pretty happy with. It's a mid-budget tour, there are definitely more deluxe but we still dropped about $120 per person on this and I would say we basically got our money's worth, considering it included bus ride to Ha Long Bay, lunch, tour around the bay, entrance to a famous cave in one of the carsts, a hike up to the top of another carst where there's a nice view of the bay, swimming on that island, dinner, breakfast and lunch the next day, and a ride back to Hanoi. We also rented some kayaks for our morning on the bay and although we had to pay for them they came out to about $4 or so. The only other thing that wasn't included was drinks, which while not as cheap as perhaps you can find outside the Old Quarter (aka less than $1), were still reasonably priced by tourist standards. I've heard of and seen cheaper tours available, but I've heard once you start getting into the budget tours you get things like boats in the bedrooms and sub-par food, neither of which were complaints we had. In fact, just about the only complaint I have from our two days out to sea was something Kangaroo Cafe and our tour operators had no control over; our fellow passengers. A group of three Frenchmen living in San Diego, two of them were friendly and not irritating but the third was annoying idiot. It was a small group so it was just Zach, me, a nice German woman, and the three Frenchmen (actually, technically one guy was Swiss but they all spoke French to each other so I'm lumping him in there, deal with it.)
So it goes.
However, before getting to the bay, which is about a 4-hour drive away, we stopped at the halfway point to visit a shop that sells all sorts of handcrafted things, many of which are made by local disabled people. It was interesting and might have been a really unique experience if we did not stop there again on the way back (and if I had not been taken to similar shops on other trips out of Hanoi). Still, there was a lot of really beautiful stuff for sale that really put on display the bounty of resources and talent Vietnam has to offer.
Large stone carvings, paintings, some of the workshop space.
Outside, the really big marble and other stone carvings plus the shipping rates for all over the world. Many of them were understandably astronomical.
Hungary!!
New York!
Finally, we made it to the bay. Here's our first sight of it. The quay was packed with smaller motorboats whose purpose is to take passengers out to their respective cruise boats.
Zach enjoyed the sea air gently wafting through his stubble.
Our boat, the Marguerite.
We definitely felt "Warmly Welcome".
The first stop was to put our stuff down and get some lunch. Here are our deluxe accommodations:
Just kidding! Apparently I only remembered to take pictures of the bathroom. It was a pretty sweet bathroom, though.
Helpful instructions.
I devoured our delicious first course before I could even take a picture. It was a crab cake in the crab shell and it was awesome. In the background you can see the squid and vegetable dish and the white fish we would consume afterwards, plus Ha Long beer! Which tastes pretty much the same as Hanoi/Saigon/333/any other Vietnamese beer. In the land of lagers, the stout girl is not queen.
The carnage.
Taking in the sights. As we passed this island and the pagoda-like structure at its summit, I distinctly remember turning to Zach and saying, "We're going to have to hike up there, aren't we?"
Later, we did.
We really could not have had a more perfect day to have gone on this trip. Our first little activity in the bay after lunch and some sight-seeing was to grab our bathing suits and get back onto the small motorboat, then make our way to the popular Surprise Cave (Hang Súng Sốt), located in Bo Hon Island.
Passing a small altar built into one of the islands along the way.
Like I said, it was clearly a popular site. I could tell by how our tour guide subtly hustled along from the first chamber (seen here, after climbing about 100 steps and looking out over the bay, you turn and descend the carved stone steps into the space pictured) to the second and then back down the stairs to our waiting motorboat. We were obviously on a schedule.
But there was still enough time for him to give us some history on the cave (most of which I've forgotten). Seen here, tour guide (I think his name was Đức) talking about the morphology of the cave while Zach stands in the foreground, the two less offensive Frenchmen and the German woman stand to the right and left, and dead center in the white shirt is the most annoying fellow passenger I've ever had the displeasure to get to know better than I wanted.
Descending another set of stone stairs into the second, much-larger chamber.
Old school graffiti, left behind by the French and Vietnamese alike.
Turtle-shaped rock in the cave that people leave money in because of their love for all things turtle/tortoise.
Outside, a woman goes about her day in her boat, fishing for various things living in the bay.
Looking out over the bay from a slightly different angle.
Boat, sweet, boat!
We barely had time to sit down back on the motorboat before we were heading out again to Đảo Ti Tốp, or Ti Top Island, where it was time... for another climb. This time it was a little more serious, taking us probably about 20 minutes to get up to the top. The only reason I have become as big a fan as climbing big hills as I am these days is for the views from the top, and I have to say: this one was a stunner.
Inside the gazebo at the peak, just soaking up the Ha Long of it all.
Afterwards we made our way back down and swam in the temperate waters of Ti Top (whose quality, considering how many motorboats make their way through the bay every day, we tried not to consider too closely). It was delightful, and all too soon it was time to head back to the boat and get cleaned up for dinner.
Checking out the impending sunset from one of the Marguerite's porthole windows. After showering (surprisingly good pressure but very, very cold water only) everyone gravitated towards the top floor for a cocktail and to watch the sunset, which despite not being the most colorful I've ever witnessed, probably makes the top ten list of sunsets I've seen purely on the basis of location and atmosphere. The bay was quiet, with other ships quietly drifting into a position to offer their passengers a similarly good view of the sun, and when the sun had finally sunk below the mountainous islands, strings of lights began to shine out across the bay, transforming each ship into a distant, bright island.
Dinner was similarly delicious to lunch, more fresh fish and rice, and after we had some more drinks while star-gazing on the lawn chairs provided on the open, astroturfed top floor of the ship. Zach headed to sleep early, I think still recovering from a long plane ride and the go-go-go nature of his visit from the moment he landed, and I socialized for a while, enjoying the time and the place, before also heading to sleep.
My first view the next morning:
My second:
Breakfast was not very fussy, just some eggs and toast and fruit and coffee, pretty standard fare. Then we coughed up the few dollars to rent some kayaks for a couple hours, and Zach and I proceeded to go out way farther in the wrong direction than we were supposed to before heading the lagoon we were meant to visit and returning long, long after everyone else had. Whoops.
Making our way through an island on the opposite side of the bay where we were supposed to find the lagoon we were intended to go visit.
The actual lagoon, which we headed towards after, had a mouth that to the un-inquisitive eye could look like a shallow cave.
In fact it was an island! It's hollow in the middle, filled with water, so once we kayaked under the wall of the island we found ourselves in the middle of some serious, Land-Before-Time, Jurassic-World, you-are-tiny-and-puny-and-have-been-on-this-Earth-for-so-so-short-an-amount-of-time kind of shit.
After paddling around for a while, taking some videos and humming the Jurassic Park theme song, we made our way back to the boat where everyone was waiting for us so we could head back to the harbor. Whoops! Sorry not sorry. The ride back is was nice, we relaxed on the top level of the boat again to take in our last views of the bay as we drank some coffee (obviously).
Some impressive topiary art spotted in the city of Ha Long on the way to the [deserted] hotel restaurant where we ate a very nice family-style lunch.
Some shots of the roadside sights on the way back to Hanoi.
So many thịt chó signs seen along the way, pretty as soon as you leave the city center of Hanoi they start showing up and every small town along the way had at least one establishment advertising for it. Thịt chó means dog meat. This is not something you will ever see me writing about extensively, since I have no interest trying it myself. Not curious to know what dog tastes like, not now, not ever.
Also seen in copious quantities: both the national flag of Vietnam, the yellow star on the red field, and the alternate flag that is especially prominent up north (or so I'm told), the yellow hammer and sickle on the red field. I think that speaks for itself.
These flower creations can be seen around Hanoi and are changed fairly frequently. I've never been able to catch someone in the process of making them (when I had my camera on me) so I was excited to grab a picture of this woman installing the final flowers for the center piece. A lot of times I've seen students working on them. They're beautiful and impressive, but.... again, the presence of the hammer and sickle in Hanoi is ubiquitous. These installations usually are commorating something, an important date or holiday, but there is still always that political aspect intertwined into every piece of public art. The people of Hanoi are not allowed to forget for one second the political system in which they are living, despite the proliferation of (seemingly) private businesses and profit everywhere.
Anyway, Ha Long bay is pretty incredible [despite what the jaded backpacking hipsters might say] and seems like a must-see for any tourist in northern Vietnam. I'm glad I went although I don't feel any need to return. One time felt like enough to take in the phenomenon that is "descending dragon" bay.
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