Ha Long Bay

After our evening in Hanoi, we again got up early (in what was becoming an unwanted bad habit) and shlepped our stuff down to the Real Kangaroo Cafe where we'd booked a Halong Bay Tour on the recommendation of a guy I met in my French class back in HCMC. Kangaroo Cafe, by the way, is run by an Aussie/Vietnamese couple who seem to have run into quite a few problems with copyright infringement (for those who don't know, there is no copyright law in Vietnam so anything goes). Their cafe and website are plastered with signs telling you that yes, it is indeed the REAL Kangaroo Cafe and that no, you shouldn't trust anyone else because yes, they are all crooks. We could understand the sentiment and we went with them because of a) the recommendation, b) the prices, and c) the highly advertised fact that they don't have a bunch of unannounced add ons.

Anyway, we met up with Alun and his parents and got on the bus for the three hour drive out to the boat. The drive was pretty uneventful, but there was, of course, the obligatory stop off at a trinket shop. We held firm and decided against buying the 12 foot tall marble statues of intertwining dolphins playing with a soccer ball. Eventually, we arrived at the port, ferried out to our boat, and picked rooms. Kate and I got one of the double beds, but Alun got partnered with the other single traveler who was, much to Alun's chagrin, male. Anyway, we lunched, meeting the other passengers, then spent a couple hours cruising through the dramatic landscape, which was, despite the cloudy sky, still pretty amazing.

After a bit, we stopped off at a cave, which gave us sweeping views as we climbed to the entrance alongside about 1500 other tourists. Despite the crowds, however, the cave was definitely worthwhile. It is, firstly, huge, spanning about 5 chambers with the largest dwarfing most stadia. The stalactites and stalagmites dripped and folded, toothlike, as we wound our way through the caverns, which were once only accessed by one winding staircase. Given the current tourist influx, it would be hard to imagine going in an out of a single entry point but again, even the hordes couldn't take away from the spectacularity (which my computer tells me, despite my instincts, is actually a word) of the place.

We got back to the boat, then promptly left again, this time to do some sea kayaking. Kate and I partnered up whilst Alun - left stranded amongst the couples - found a shipmate in the form of a 13 year old Turkish boy whose father was a diplomat living in Hanoi. For those of you who have never kayaked in the sea, where you don't have the benefit of a river's current, it's hard work. After struggling to get our timing down, Kate and I finally got into a good rhythm and zipped out through the bay. The scenery was, again, amazing, but the real highlight was gliding into a little (semi)secret cove which was surrounded on all four sides by karsts and only accessible by a small tunnel under one of the limestone outcroppings. The cove itself was unbelievably serene with no noise other than that which we made. And we did, it must be admitted make some noise once we discovered the sweet spot for echoes, which had the crispest, most perfect echoes I've heard in a while.

After jumping off the boat a couple times and doing some swimming, we spent the night aboard the ship but we docked on Cat Ba island shortly after breakfast the next morning and went on a short hike through a mangrove forest to reach another cave. Not as impressive as the first, but full of creepy spiders and with a doorkeeper who taught us how to make leaves into flying missiles. We went to the main town on the island for lunch at a place called the Green Mango. Good food, but more on this place later. At the time, we left it satisfied, dropped our bags off at the hotel and relaxed for a bit, then got back on a bus, then another boat, and went out to nearby Monkey Island which did indeed have monkeys. We'd all planned on swimming but no one really wanted to get in the water what with the cold and the wind. So we watched the monkeys, climbed some rocks, and returned to our hotel for a nap.

That night, we went out in search of food. We wandered for a short while before running into Paul and Indra, an Irish-Belgic couple from our boat, who had wandered much further and found no good food options other than the Green Mango, where we had lunched. So we decided to return as the food had been quite good. The place was busy but there were empty tables. Regardless, we were told we had to wait an hour for food. We were shown to a drinks table in back and ordered drinks. We tried to get some appetizers, but they wouldn't listen to us. After about 40 minutes, we tried to order our food so it would be ready when they did move us to one of the still-open tables which we weren't allowed to sit at for some reason. They still wouldn't take our orders. Finally, they moved us to one of the tables which had been free the whole time. We tried to order immediately but were told to wait. After about 15 minutes, I got up and asked to order. They just laughed at me. At this point, we stormed out, to the applause of a couple other tables who told us that it was the worst service they'd ever had and they wished they had left as we did. So if you do go to Cat Ba, don't go to the Green Mango and tell your tour group not to either.

We eventually found a cheap little place down the road that actually wanted us to eat there so we did. Then, they apologized for closing after we'd been there for a couple hours and we all went home and went to bed. The next day was our last - we woke up to the sound of jackhammers at about 7AM as the hotel (called Princef Hotel, FYI) was renovating the floor directly above us and, despite assuring us that they wouldn't start until 10AM, they were already going. We then had breakfast on the rooftop which would have been simply substandard had it not been for the ridiculously loud jackhammering going on in the room next door. To add insult to injury, the hotel ran out of pretty much everything worth eating by about 8AM. Then, when we complained at check out, the hotel told us that we were imagining things and the work didn't start until 8:30. They also tried to keep my passport because I, at this point, refused to pay for a single water bottle I had taken from the minibar the night before. I would have paid, of course, under normal circumstances but I - and everyone else on the tour - was pretty shocked that the hotel didn't try to apologize in any way for waking us up early with construction despite assurances they wouldn't only to accuse us of lying about the hour at which it started. So that's the story of how I lost my passport, but sometimes you just gotta stick to your principles, you know?

Our moods improved on the boat trip back to the mainland as the weather had finally brightened up and we had some excellent views of the sprawling bay. Ha Long means "Rising Dragon" as the limestone islands are thought to resemble a dragon's spine protruding from the water and, while I'd have to disagree with that particular interpretation, there certainly is something magical about the place. We took turns taking pictures of ourselves and our friends (and marveled at Steve's - who is Alun's stepfather - new camera which can do pretty much everything except fly) then bid goodbye to our boat and hello to our bus. We had lunch in Hai Phong City (where the port is) at a hotel restaurant which, due to a wedding, shoved us into a little room in the back of the hotel with no windows and wires sticking out of the walls. They then gave us not enough of their less-than-delectable food which, combined with the hotel mishaps of the morning, left everyone in a pretty bad mood for the rest of the drive back. It was an unfortunate end to what was otherwise a good trip and the only advice I can give to future travelers is to not bother with Cat Ba island as it's not worth it. On a personal level, Kate and I also reaffirmed our general distaste for group tours, as it just felt like we were always rushing somewhere, had no say in what we were doing, and (with the exception of the boat itself which was quite nice) got second-rate food and service while staying in an insulated foreigner bubble.

Despite these whinings, however, we did enjoy the trip as a whole and would probably even go so far as to recommend Kangaroo Cafe as their service was good - they just don't necessarily contract with the best places in town. But it was fun and it was worth it to get out and see Ha Long Bay, one of the natural wonders of the world.