Halong Bay
From Hanoi we made an excursion to Halong Bay. Recently Halong has been added to the list of the '7 New Natural Wonders of the World'. So of course we had to check it out. By the way the Dead Sea was in the running and made it to top 10 but unfortunately did not win. Here is the list of all the nominees if you're interested: http://www.new7wonders.com/28-finalists
Every hotel and tourist agency in Hanoi offers a tour to Halong Bay, but we decided to go without it. We learned from our friends and from our trusty Lonely Planet forum that there is a company that offers a full trip to Cat Ba island including the bus and boat and all the transfers in between. (Cat Ba is the island from which everyone goes to Halong Bay) Sometimes it was disconcerting when you don't know how much time you have to wait between transfers, but if you are patient, you will eventually get there. The whole trip took about 5 hours and was rather painless.
The Cat Ba city has one main strip of hotels all of them facing the water. This time we splurged at $10 a night for a large room with a balcony vs. the $8 room which was a lot worse.
We also booked a day on the boat and were set.
The next day we set off on a full day adventure on what is called a 'Junk Boat'. They look something like this: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junk_(ship)
However, the boats in Halong never use the sails and are huge polluters.
The day started with beautiful weather and a ride for about 2 hours to get us to the bay itself. The scenery was spectacular. Along the way we made quick stops to deliver groceries to the boats that spent the night on the water.
We arrived to a little floating village, received our kayaks and were set free to roam around. The cool part is that you get to kayak through tunnels and into caves. And when you end up on the other side, there are more tunnels, caves and blue clean water everywhere.
In about 1.5 hours we decided to head back to the village. Upon arrival, we were yelled at by the captain as he was wildly gesticulating and pointing at his watch. I think he was indicating that we were late. However, nobody told us what time to return and we assumed to be back by lunch time :) In fact, between all the boatsmen they knew about 3 words in English. So our communication was strained :)
While we ate crappy lunch, the boat took us to our next destination. It was a huge cave that you can walk around in. It was very well lit and had carved stairs and ended up being the best part of the day. The pictures do not show the coolness of this place but try to imagine:
After the cave, we were taken to another island where we were supposed to be able to swim and hang out. On the way there, the weather became windy, foggy and very cold. Thankfully we had a towel that can be used as a blanket. As we were stuck and freezing at the island, a family of monkeys kept us entertained. They literally steal everything from the tourists and from the local cafe. They will take your bag, shirt, camera, etc. All in search of food or plain mischief. One little guy came over and said hello:
Another one helped Levka finish his soda. They haven't figured out how to open the caps but can chew through a plastic bottle.
In about 1.5 hours we were picked up by a different boat. It turned out that our boat's engine died. This second boat delivered us safely home.
Overall it was a good day. But we are not sure that Halong Bay deserves the 'wonder' status. We thought that the Ang Thong Marine Park in Thailand was even prettier.
At the same time I hope that this status will help the badly needed cleanup of the Halong Bay.
As always, here are more pictures.
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| 2011.11.20 Cat Ba and Ha Long bay |
