Wednesday, 19 February 2014

Halong Bay (18/2/14)

Today was the start of my two day trip to Halong Bay. Bus leaving at 8 I got up with plenty of time to shower, breakfast and check out before putting my rucksack into storage. The bus arrived a little later than planned but we're on our way by half 8. It's a 4 hour bus ride with one stop. I got chatting to some Australian blokes, 5 in total, who were also on the same trip, and it turns out they're all from Perth. First ones I've met from WA. Our halfway stop takes us to a very odd service station. Toilets, yes. Anything else useful, no. If you want to buy a big marble statue, a painting or a very large, ornate, wooden chair and table set, the world is your oyster but as we weren't in the business for any of these for our boat trip our stop was unnecessarily long. We got to the harbour about half 12 and were on the transfer boat in a very short space of time. The plan once we'd been ferried to our sailing boat was to check into our rooms, have lunch while we were still anchored and then travel out to the karsts visiting a cave in one of the islets, visit a pearl farm and visit a floating village before doing some kayaking and an island trek. And then back to the boat in time for dinner, drinks and karaoke, with more activities planned for tomorrow. Lunch was great, loads of food, and very fresh as usual. Spoke to more of the people on the trip, during the meal, who were from various backgrounds but all spoke English. I even understood the couple from Liverpool! We then set sail and pulled into the ring of karsts that surrounded the cave islet and an announcement was made. The officials at the dock had decided that the weather was going to take a turn for the worst and all ships had to come back to the harbour as soon as possible. I thought that meant just sleeping on the boat in the harbour but our tour company decided to cancel the trip and take us all back to Hanoi that night. We did, however, manage to do the cave visit which was definitely worthwhile. One of the rock formations inside was lit up red and our tour guide claimed it was called the pointing finger. We all laughed and thought otherwise. You be the judge. Once back on the boat we checked out of our rooms and brought our bags up to the main deck. I made a few phone calls and sent a couple of emails and booked me and the Aussie's into a hostel for the night. It seemed most of Hanoi were in the same position and had also had their trips cancelled and so finding rooms was hard, but not impossible. As there was a two hour trip back to shore followed by the 4 hour bus journey, we figured the best option open to me and the 5 Aussie lads was to drink beer. And so the beer can mountain began. I think we all bought a round by the time we hit shore and were all in high spirits. There had even been time for karaoke on the way back. I wasn't THAT drunk. We were just getting back on the bus when it became apparent that as two extra passengers had been put on our bus we were now one seat too few. And so the sentence from our tour guide began "OK Michael I'm going to show you another bus and tour guide and you're going to travel with them". Seriously? Just cause I was doing the trip on my own. But 3 of the Aussie lads who were waiting to get on shouted out and said "no, us 4 will go together". The tour guide looked put out but I was well chuffed the lads stood up for me. After a discussion between the driver and tour guide they decided to rearrange all our luggage and miraculously found 4 seats. The bus cheered when we all got on. Grins all round. However, the rearrangement meant stacking the bags up in the doorway once the doors were closed and so barrackading ourselves in. That's when us lads realised the error of our ways. We'd had six beers. Our bladders were complaining, and once the seal is broken..... So on the way home there were a few mass exits at the side of the road but we still made it back to Hanoi by the estimated 11pm. We checked into our hostel, met some Argentinians in the same boat (excuse the pun) and some of us, including them, decided to head out for a few beers. I'd also bumped into Marc and he came too as his trip was also cancelled. But as it was now nearly midnight most places were surprisingly closed or closing. We were advised by a hostel that the clubs would still be open and so headed for them. They were in the slightly dodgier part of town and it was about a half hour walk from our hostel. With some difficulty and after a really long time we found the club and, as expected, it was seriously grotty inside, 'hangover 2' style. But that's Vietnamese clubs for you and they had beer so we stuck around for an hour or so. After that time mark, me, and the two Argentinians headed back on what seemed like a very long walk but we kept chatting the whole way and kept ourselves to ourselves and returned unscathed to the hostel about half 2. And so ended a slightly disappointing but still eventful, enjoyable day. Queue photos...


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