Ha Long Bay

Tuesday 16th to Thursday 18th June

Islands in Ha Long Bay

Ha long Bay consists of between 1600 and 2000 islands (the number varies with who you ask) which vary in size from tiny pinnacles to large islands with a permanent population.

First night sunset

There are also supposed to be some floating villages but our tour guide said these people had been relocated to the mainland.

Fishing boat

We booked a two night, three day tour, the first and last days included three hours of travelling to and from Hanoi.

Ha Long Bay

Ha Long City harbour

Once in Ha Long Bay we got onto a cruise ship and we sailed out to the islands to spend our first night on board ship.

Island where Ðong Thiên cave is

Fishing boat

En route, we stopped off at a show cave, Ðong Thiên Cung, poorly lit with coloured lights.

Ðong Thiên Cung

On arrival at our first stop off point there was time for a bit of relaxation and kayaking before dinner.

First night sunset

Fishing boat

The next day we had an early breakfast while travelling to a Pearl farm which we visited before transferring (those of us who were staying a second night) to a smaller boat for the ride to the Nam Cat resort.

View from our room at Nam Cat

View from our room at Nam Cat at night

View from our room at Nam Cat in the morning, no water!

When we got on to this boat, things looked bad, there was a bloke with a woolly hat (in this heat!What an idiot) strumming (badly) a small toy guitar. I thought there might have to be an accident involving a boot and the guitar but fortunately he didn't 'play' for long.

Approaching Nam Cat

The ride to the resort was through amazing scenery, you can see why it is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with lots of small floating houses and fish farms?

Floating house and cafe

Girl in floating house

Once at Nam Cat we had lunch before taking to the water for more kayaking, there was plenty of time for this and we eventually managed to find our way to complete a circuit of our island. After the kayaking we had a swim out to the nearest island, bloody long way for me, no problem for Ruth.

Kayaking at Nam Cat

The next morning, the water had all gone! It was possible to walk out to the island and the locals were all over the place, collecting seafood.

Approaching Nam Cat

Sea cave through trip

Our early morning kayak was rather limited as the water was too shallow in many places, it looked like it would have been possible to walk around the island!

Leaving Nam Cat

After breakfast we set off back to the Pearl farm to transfer (again) back to a bigger boat before cruising back to the mainland at Ha Long city.

Island pillar, how does it stay up?

Talking to other tourists, there seem to be mixed reviews about Ha Long Bay, some say it is just full of rubbish. While there is some rubbish, it doesn't distract from the sheer beauty of the place although one couple who were on our tour went to Cat Ba Island instead of Nam Cat and they said that there was too much rubbish to swim in the sea. So perhaps Cat Ba is best avoided as a stop over point. I would recommend the two night option as you do get to see a lot more of the islands.

Leaving Ha Long Bay

Hanoi

We're in Hanoi.

Hoàn Kiêm Lake

We arrived yesterday, Sunday 14th June, after a ten hour train journey. Our first two nights are staying in the Hotel Charming II.

Children on the street

Today's plan was to book a trip to Ha Long Bay and then see some of the sights in the city, just one problem, most of the attractions seem to close on Mondays. Still, we managed to book our trip and then spent the rest of the day visiting any places that were open.

Ruth by a temple tree

First up was the Ngoc Son Temple on Hoàn Kiêm Lake and we followed this up with a visit to the Womans Museum, quite interesting, with much information on various tribal customs.

Dave, cross dressing!

After a spot of lunch at a trendy cafe we went to the Hoa Lo prison where many of the resistance (against the French) fighters were held, some were even executed. Later on, during the American war (you might know of this as the Vietnam war), American pilots, who had been shot down were held here, with slightly better conditions, none were executed!

Go to jail, go directly to jail, do not pass go.

Finally we saw a performance at the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre, different.

Puppets in the water

Tomorrow we go to Ha Long Bay for two nights.

Ha Long Bay

After Ha Long Bay we returned to Hanoi, staying at the Splended Star Grand Hotel, where they upgraded us to the honeymoon suite. All very posh.

Honeymoon Suite

Friday 19th June
A quiet day with just a visit to the Museum of Ethnology which details the ethnic groups of Vietnam. So far this is the most interesting and best organised museum we have visited.

Bahnar Communal House

As well as two floors with displays on details of the ethnic groups and tribal life, there is an outside part which has actual buildings that you can enter.

Ede Longhouse

Of particular not is the Bahnar Communal house which is 19m high, and the Ede Longhouse which is 42m long although some examples are said to be up to 200m in length.

Giarai Tomb

The Giarai tomb is designed for up to thirty (dead) people but for some reason it is surrounded by sexually explicit carvings and pregnant women which are symbols of fertility.

I think this was built around the tree

On our final day we were catching an overnight train back to Dong Hoi, so we had plenty of time for a walkabout, including a visit to the Army Museum. This shows the history of the conflicts with the French and Americans as well as a bit of a 'scrapyard' of military vehicles.

Railway through Hanoi

Run over by a peanut wagon and kidnapped

Thursday 4th June

Just got back from a Tu Lan four day trip, on the first day we saw this fellow, looked like he'd been run over by his peanut wagon but on closer inspection I think he was just fixing it.

Trapped by his nuts?

After the trip, Uy invited myself and the four clients out for a meal (we thought this would be at his house). We arranged to meet at Ho Khanh's house and when we arrived Uy had arranged three motorbikes for us as we were eating at his favourite spot in town.

Uy swimming in Tu Lan, somewhat blurry, but that's how he looked at 2am

The spot turned out to be a small place on the edge of the market and once seated, a crate of beer arrived so we started on that. The first dish to arrive was 'cheap cheap' (or that is what it sounded like) this looked a bit like mince but was very tasty if rather spicy. Uy didn't know what this translated as, other than that it was from the sea, I later found out that it was possibly baby mussels. More beer and then a plate of snails of all sorts of sizes, more beer and more snails followed, we were still hungry so we had more beer and another plate of 'cheap cheap', less chilli this time.

Time to move on, normally I would have gone home but as I was on The back of Uy's bike I couldn't, and had to go to a Karaoke bar. More beers and dreadful 'singing' followed.

Pink Dragonfly

After the Karaoke, our Australian friends were still hungry so we went on to a late night (early morning actually!) snack bar for more beers and chicken soup.

Finally at 2am I was released and allowed to go home.