ha long bay & cat ba island
--Dec 17, 2004

Near the end of our stay in Hanoi, we decided to take an overnight trip to Halong Bay. This is a pretty standard thing to do, so there are 8 million little travel shops in Hanoi that will book it for you. After some research, we settled on an Australian-run shop (Kangaroo Cafe) that was quite popular. It turned out that this was a very high-class joint and the price was outrageous (over $100 each) not to mention fully booked, so we decided to check some other shops. We found one that seemed as good as any (Kim's Cafe - which there are several), with reasonable prices (about $20 each), so we signed up.

lots of boats ready to set off into the bay

The next morning, a mini-van picked us up, crammed us in with about 7 other people, and we zipped off towards Halong Bay. The journey takes about 4 hours although it feels much longer when you’re sleepy, a little carsick, and trying to magically shrink a few sizes in order to not squish too much into the stranger next to you. Fortunately, the drive itself is somewhat redeemed by some of the gorgeous farmland and rice patty scenery on the way. Eventually we arrived in Halong, were re-shuffled a few times with a bunch of other mini-van and bus passengers, and finally herded onto a big boat – “junks” they’re called. We were certainly surprised at how many boats there were – maybe 50 or so in all, though fortunately not all leaving the dock at the same time.

	descending dragon Myth has it that the islands in Halong Bay (Halong means “Descending Dragon”) were formed when a dragon (or many dragons, depending on the version of the myth) came down to help the locals defend their land from foreign invaders. The dragon spit jade and jewels into the sea. Upon hitting the sea, they turned into the over 3000 islands and islets, forming a formidable fortress and hindering the invaders, allowing the local people to keep their land. Afterwards, the dragon liked the area so much that she decided to stay (the long sandy beach at Bach Long Vi is her tail). If you’re more interested in a scientific explanation, a geologist will tell you that the islands were formed over a few million years by wind and water eroding the porous limestone and dolomite.

So we set off into the mist of Halong Bay. All the pictures you see advertising the trips show a misty view with small islands peppering the water and layering off into the distance. It really does look exactly like that, and seeing it from the boat, and in all directions, is a very memorable experience. Our guide spent some time explaining the folklore associated with Halong Bay (see sidebar).

After a couple hours of cruising through islands we made a stop at a place called the Surprising Amazing Cave. It was amazing, but it wasn’t really very surprising. Our theory is that the name is just a translation that went wrong somewhere, but stuck anyway. Our guide claimed that the surprise is actually a large stalactite that juts out upward from the side of a wall in the shape of a large male reproductive organ and is lit up by a dim red light. We did take a picture of it, but we’re not posting it to spare our mothers the embarrassment (send us an email if you’d like us to send it to you). Near the island was a floating village. We’re not sure if it sometimes floats somewhere else, but in any case, we felt lucky to get a good view of the houses and people (and even their pets!) that live exclusively on the water.

this is where we spent most of our time

Other than that one stop, we just slowly meandered through the islands. We simply sat on deck, traded stories and travel plans with the other passengers and took it all in.

Our first day ended at Cat Ba Island. We had elected to sleep onshore instead of on the boat (due mostly to Grace’s high susceptibility to sea sickness, but also because we thought it might be neat to explore the island). Upon arrival at the dock, we were unceremoniously plopped onto the backs of a couple mopeds (something we had fearfully avoided for our entire stay in Hanoi) and after a fairly harrowing ride, arrived at our hotel. The hotel was rather bleak, but fine for one night. We dumped our stuff and happily strolled through the tiny island village before dinner. It is a simple place, and quite enjoyable. Fishing seems to be the default way to make a living, and there are a smattering of small hotels and restaurants for the tourists that don’t stay on the boats.

In the morning we were whisked away on mopeds again to re-join our boat for another half-day of lazily wandering amongst the islands. No stops, no explanations from the guide, just hundreds of tiny islands. For something that seems like it might be quite boring, it was really quite nice - very relaxing and beautiful. We didn’t tire of staring out at the misty islands and watching the occasional boat go by. The views were unlike any we had seen before. Too soon, we arrived back at the mainland dock and were herded back into our mini-van for the long ride home.