Ha Long Bay

Junk boat on Halong Bay

Matt and I passed the last few hours of the train ride listening to standup comedy on his ipod. By the time the train pulled into the Hanoi station I was so antsy I could barely sit still. I was so anxious to get out of that cramped, filthy car with it's humid stifling air (recycled flatulence and second hand smoke...). Feeling exhausted, hot, hungry, and more than a little grimy, we met the driver from our guest house who had agreed to meet us. Strangely enough he tried to convince us to stick around and recruit others from the train to stay at the guest house as well. Too tired to even be annoyed, we explained that we hadn't met anybody else on the train (How could we knowing absolutely no Vietnamese?).

Despite the guest house web page, which had promised sleek, luxurious rooms (for $3 a night -- who were we kidding?), we found instead a 7 flight climb to a humble room that had the unmistakable and overwhelming scent of.... pOOP. We tried to ignore it, but it was just too overwhelming and in light of the previous night's discomforts on the train, I asked if there was anything we could do about the smell. The attendant returned with a can of deoderizer, and pointing emphatically at the rose pictured on the front, smiled and said "You see?.... FLOoW!" and proceeded to spray the entire room. By the time he left it smelled like a turd covered in burnt hair and moldy rose petals. This if course prompted us to think of dinner.

Fortunately we found a fantastic little restaurant in the Old Quarter and enjoyed our first hot meal in two days. First thing in the morning we met a van out front to take us to Halong Bay. We had decided to stick to a slim budget for most of the trip with the understanding that this would be our one big splurge. In my opinion we couldn't have made a better decision!

Halong Bay is a beautiful system of limestone islands, caves, and outcroppings in northeastern Vietnam. The place is truly deserving of it's World Heritage Site designation. When we saw our junk ship waiting at the dock, we were immediately relieved to have spent our money in the right place. After the uncomfortable train ride, this seemed like royal luxury.

We were greeted with a champaigne cocktail (high class I tell you) and immediately given free reign to explore the ship. Adorned with beautiful hardwood wainscoting, plush lounge chairs topside, and a gorgeous cherrywood dining room, this was one of the most decadent boats I had ever seen. Our cabin had it's own bathroom and a picture window looking out on the stunning scenery beyond.

Matt gratefully testing out the bed

View from the quarter deck

The splendid dining room

Phew! Unlike the previous bathroom, this one was ''Desiphected!"

View from the sundeck -- wow!

We had some time to relax on the sundeck and enjoy the spectacular scenery around us. We sailed past a fascinating floating village, where the subsistence fishing-based way of life has remained unchanged for thousands of years. Finally as the sun began to set, we were called to dinner -- an extravagent 10 course meal. We joined the company of several other couples from New Caldonia and Australia. They were significantly older than we, but our mealtime conversations over the next two days certainly didn't suffer because of it!

Interesting rock outcrop

Women from the floating village selling produce and snacks

In the morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast and set out for a day of trekking on Cat Ba Island. We had a wonderful guide named Hi (I found this funny because the other guide was named 'By') who explained quite a bit about local species of animals and plants as well as legends from the local island culture. We wound along a simple road through a small village and scrambled up to the tippy top of one of the jungle-covered peaks overlooking the interior village on one side and the Bay on the other.

Rice paddies and water buffalo...

At the top -- Woo hoo!

The weather was misty and actually a little cool -- such a welcome change from the scorching heat of previous days. After stumbling our way back down, we found ourselves at a home in the village, enjoying a home cooked lunch. When we returned to the boat, Hi took us on a kayak tour around the Bay. This was one of the highlights of the trip, as we paddled through a tiny one-way opening into a secret cove -- the perfect location for Dr. Evil's future lair. These little coves are all over Ha Long Bay, and you can only access them at certain times, when the tides are low enough to permit passage.

The secret cove lies through this passage!

That night we enjoyed another amazing multi-course dinner and split a well-deserved bottle of prosecchio under the stars on the topdeck. What a wonderful day!

When we awoke the last morning we dreaded the moment the cruise would end. At least we had breakfast, complete with mimosas, and a cave tour to distract us. The cave tour was interesting, though a little hokey (...and if you squint one eye and turn sideways, the shadow of that stalagtite kind of looks like a giraffe wearing a derby hat... What?!). We had to hike up a bit to get to the cave, which provided a splendid view of junk ships on the Bay.

View of the Bay from one of the caves (Notice the very large Pelican Cave in the background)

The ride back to Hanoi was uneventful aside from a disturbing mandatory pit stop at a tourist trap where disabled people work at sewing machines to create hideous (Sorry, but a 'painting' of a kitten made entirely from embroidery is just not my thing) works of art.