First off let me say that if you plan a trip to Halong Bay you should book it from Hanoi and trust that you will get what you pay for. There are booze cruises and there are luxury cruises and there is everything in between. Also, be sure to check the weather as that will play a big role in the experience. But here is what we did….
I got back to Hanoi and formed an international posse consisting of Maarten from the Netherlands, Charlotte from France and Helen from England. Maarten and Charlotte I had met before and Charlotte had met Helen on their trip from Hanoi to Sapa or something. So we all decided to blaze our own trail by taking the bus from Hanoi to Hai Phong then taking a boat to Cat Ba Island and sorting it from there. Getting to Cat Ba was pretty painless and cheap so we thought we were ahead of the game. We arrived at sunset and it was also amazing. Since it was low season there were plenty of expensive, beach front hotels for super cheap so we walked around and checked a few then decided on one with great views and free internet for 6 bucks a night. The guy who had ‘recruited’ us to his hotel also offered to by us a local dinner so he escorted us to a very quiet area with no tourists and sat us down at some tables. Before we knew it there were plates of all kinds of random and delicious things. We spoke with him at length about boat tours, hiking tours and transportation to our next destination (Ninh Binh). We negotiated for a long time (becoming very typical here in SE Asia) before agreeing on a boat tour the following day, hike the next (weather permitting) and a bus-boat-bus ride to Ninh Binh. After tiring negotiations we headed to the fresh beer for some relaxation. Helen managed to place one leg of her chair in a hole and went ass-over-tea kettle onto the street, knocking a bike on top of her…all very funny once we confirmed she was ok!! Every city has fresh beer stalls and I LOVE IT! We played a few drinking games (one of which will definitely be coming home with me) and talked about travel, TV and ancient trendy movies.
We woke bright and early the following morning, grabbed a quick breakfast (actually it was painfully slow as we watched the Vietnamese style coffee drip so pathetically slowly that by the end the coffee was warm and we were finished eating…oi), and boarded our ‘private boat’….well that turned out to be a little fisherman dude’s rickety-ass boat but we thought, ‘what the heck, here comes adventure!’. He spoke no English and stopped on the way out of the floating village to pick up what appeared to be his wife. We plan was to see some amazing landscapes, kayak in some amazing caves and grottos, lunch at the floating fisherman village, chillin on amazing beaches and kayaking in a different bay….we were all excited. All of a sudden as we set out of the bay our captain steers the boat in a different direction and starts looking a little nervous. Using hand signals we are able to ascertain that he sees a police boat out in the direction we are heading and doesn’t want to get busted….at that point we realized that this was probably not a licensed tour boat and we were probably going to have to deal with some shit. He steered us around a rock formation, put down the ‘blinds’ and we basically hid out for 45 minutes during which the wife offered some of the most bitter tea I have ever tasted. Finally the coast was clear (hahah, literally) and we headed for the landscape. The boat was ridiculously slow but the scenery was amazing. It was slightly hazy….not foggy by any means but not perfectly clear. I can imagine Halong on a beautiful hot sunny day being absolutely amazing. We enjoyed the quiet serenity.
Instead of kayaking the caves then eating, we went straight to the fisherman’s village for some lunch. That was ridiculous as they were trying to rip us off on the cost of the fish…Everyone is yelling at everyone else and no one is communicating at all due to language barriers. I got on the phone with our receptionist dude and told him how horrible this was and he then talked to the driver to talk to the fisher-people…jeeeez, we were hungry and finally just paid the 20 bones for a fish and some rice. It was a hairy situation where I turned into ‘Burma Dan’ as Maarten calls it. Not sure how much I went into it during that chapter but I hit a wall at one point with our guide and was about to tell the whole country to piss-off and just leave. I know we are tourists and pay more for everything but I hate being blatantly taken advantage of and this fish was definitely one of those times.
The caves and scenery on the kayaks made up for everything. It was so beautiful to paddle through low caves with stalactites and beautiful water into lagoons with walls that went straight up. We all took a swim in the most beautiful lagoon and thoroughly enjoyed our time away from the ‘guide/tour’ and on our own.
We were supposed to go to another part of the island and do some kayaking and beach chilling but the whole ordeal with the cops coupled with the slow moving boat, long fisherman negotiations and the fact that our ‘guide’ was lost several times; made it so we were not able to do any of that and had to head home. It was a great day but not ideal and so we spoke with our tour planner about a refund. He gave us some money back and apologized for the service but it was still pretty pathetic. We boarded a bus the following morning to get a boat to get a small bus to get a regular bus to Nimh Binh. NEXT STOP!!
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