Along the way out the driver stopped us at a spot for refreshment. Of course it turned out to be an enormous souvenir warehouse, or if feeling charitable, a craft workshop. It was a warehouse though. It actually was rather like a department store, there was indeed a coffee 'shop' area. i was reminded of Camp Hopson before they refurbished! The difference being all the items were made in front of you, on site. This included all the enormous marble lions, Buddhas, greyhounds, dragons, incense burners etc. And the tailoring and the embroidery, lacquer and jewellery making. It was actually rather impressive. Furthermore, many of the crafters and 'hosts' (for want of a better word, they follow you around trying to interest you in things, which is annoying at first but useful when you want something!) are disabled. This warehouse provides works for them. It's all very clean and bright with good facilities. I was impressed. If you buy the marble or larger items, they arrange shipping. It's actually quite tempting. Unfortunately I've no idea what it was called as it was all a bit of an endless featureless stream of warehouses by then. (I found out, it's a company called Dai Viet).
Eventually we made it to Halong City. The roads are being improved but I get the impression government and private individuals are preferring to spend the money on the end destination rather than the infrastructure. My guide book is also similarly cynical about this. More road construction straight through the front of people's houses and more stretches of concrete road but in a less advanced state than on the Ninh Binh road. A bit of a queue of traffic as we got closer to Bai Chay too. Bai Chay is the name of the old fishing village that has been merged with Hon Gai and renamed Halong City. There is a new 900m suspension bridge linking the two 'sides' of the town now and an artificial beach and promenade have been constructed. Apparently UNESCO has said stop, now, however only the inner part of the 400 sq km of limestone karsts are part of the UNESCO site. It's difficult to tell what that means, as when you are in amongst them, they just seem to go on forever.
We had lunch as we left harbour. Crab, with a garlic press to use to crush the shell, and some fried sweet potato cakes. The weather was clear for Halong Bay, in that there was no mist and some tiny patches of blue sky. We checked in while we motored on. My room was a lovely twin berth, all wood, with those classic Vietnamese rock solid but actually quite comfortable beds. It was quite clean and the bathroom is a wet room in the same style as back home in Hanoi, only cleaner and whiter. It was a comfy little nest by the end. There were only five cabins on board in total. I was in the prow, port side. The bow of the 'junk' is open. Unlike some of the modern cruise junks, ours did not have any sails or in fact even a sunshade on the sun deck. Once I discovered the sun deck I spent most of the rest of the day up there, while the others talked about the price of fuel etc, as you do in one of the most beautiful places in the whole world. Our other cruise company were Richard and Sandra, from Nelson, South Island, NZ. Both in their 60s, Richard was loud and amusing and unfazed. Sandra smoked. Five of us in total. (It worried the crew a little as to how to seat us at table for a bit, until they just pushed all the tables together.)
We chugged on for about an hour and a half through the most incredible scenery of random limestone outcroppings, black, white, grey and tan streaked, covered in lush green and ringing to bursting with the sound of cicadas singing. The noise of the crickets was constant. If the Bay was ever silent, which it is not, now, I think, ever, the noise of the crickets would drown out every leaping fish splash anyway. I am reminded of the film Princess Mononoke and understand the import of that forest sound more now (even though that it Japanese and apparently not popular in Vietnam!)
About 3pm we had anchored with a number of other tourist boats to see Sung Sot Cave, 'surprise cave'. This was a two hundred step climb up to one of the largest cave grottoes in Halong Bay. It is, I think, approx 2km long in the main part of it anyway. It is a classic limestone cave with stalactites, stalagmites and pools. It has been carefully done and lit for the tourists and despite the numbers takes it quite well because of its sheer size. It is still impressive even though you know the conditions inside are never going to produce what they did in the way of geological formations ever again. Just too much human sweat in the air! It was extremely hot and humid but not smelly. The cave had apparently been used in the past to hide various invading and defending forces (there were major sea battles in Halong Bay in the 10th and 13th centuries, including at least one against the French; and a large amount of timber was hidden in the cave at one time also.) Many of the geological formations had shapes to them, which the guides love to tell you about but the only one of note was a small ceiling feature resembling the back scales of a dragon. Got some good shots from the top, we were being lucky with the weather.
Most of the photos shown here have been enhanced already. The humid air is just too much for the camera to cope with. It was blazing sunshine! I recall this was the same with Jamie's photos too? Incidentally, all my electrics are finding the heat and humidity in Vietnam to be a challenge, my camera has a humid smear on the lens and I am charging batteries almost daily.
At the bottom of the descent a wooden catwalk takes you along the waters edge. This feels like a reason to convey you past the hawkers but is actually quite clever and interesting: despite the odd bits of rubbish you do get to see the base of the karst. It quite shallow around the base, there is a little shelf and the water is clear enough to see this quite well. The hawkers themselves are interesting too once you get past the endless pressure to buy. They are the locals who live in the Bay on rafts of rowing boats. Their boats are rowboats with full length upright oars designed for one person to use. They are just a little flatter in shape than one of our rowboats, not so much side to them and the ends are not 'closed' at stern or prow. Made of wood or possibly some bamboo, they have rectangular shaded midsections in some cases. Most now sell pre packed biscuits etc but I did spot one or two selling fresh caught fish, crab, crayfish, shrimp, starfish and oysters. The rowers, usually women, have the ability to row completely silently.
We returned to the boat to motor over to another bay to go sea kayaking. I was pleases to take a kayak on my own as I imagine it is much harder with two, given my canoeing adventures in Canada. Sure enough David and Sandra did not enjoy themselves overmuch. This was the highlight of the trip for me but unfortunately the risk of camera loss was too great. Sandra kindly took a few snaps of me in the kayak but after that I was camera free! We paddled about a mile to another karst. This had a cave at the base this time that you could paddle straight through. Duly did so, to the sound of water dripping and emerged into a cut off, secluded lagoon entirely surrounded by towering karats. The sound of the cicadas was incredible, a mellow cacophony of clicking. There, on a shore of rocks a the base of a cliff were golden macacs, monkeys, not too ugly, waiting for a banana to two. There were only three kayaks and a party of Vietnamese tourists in a rowboat present. The Vietnamese had brought bananas (which in Vietnam are short and fat and more real) and tossed them at the monkeys. An alpha female with a small baby clutching onto her decided to descend for a banana but dropped hers in the water. A younger male duly flung himself in after it and got it. When he emerged from the water however the female was furious and a full on fight started, the male with the banana in his mouth. The female lept for him and gouged his arm and back a little, and then went under! Baby and all! The male swam off further round the rocks while the female hauled herself out. We could see the baby was still hanging on tight so greatly relieved were the audience. However mum was still very pissed off. She climbed up about 15 feet where she was met by possibly last years baby, a brother or sister to the baby and a big clean up session on baby commenced, with the baby literally getting fluffier by the second. Meanwhile Rebel had eaten his banana, somewhat half heartedly and swum quietly round back to where he'd started, hauled himself and was looking himself over, accompanied now and them by a wounded whimper or too. I'm not sure he felt it had been worth it! He was not badly injured. The icing on the cake was that Dad had descended during the fuss to see what was going on and was now sitting just where Rebel would have hauled himself out. However he had lost interest in the meantime and when Rebel swam back round, he was inspecting his bits of course. Even Rebel completely ignored him! It was hilarious and rewarding to watch, about 10 mins of drama.
We paddled back out, Richard and I spotted some silver fish in the water. A perfect fish shape, they were mildly striped and about eight inches long. There were sea hawks in this particular bay, at least two pairs and also a pair of cormorants that flew over.
We paddled further round the edge of the bay. The others had got tired by now but Hughie (Hue), our exuberant guide, suggested I paddle on to another cave visible about 300m away. So off I set on my own in the middle of Halong Bay on a sunny Saturday afternoon at about 5.30pm, with just the fish and sea hawks for company. I made it quite well, inspected the cave (limestone, y'know) and headed back to the 'Jewel of the Bay'. Where I went swimming off the boat. (Yes, deliberately!). It was warm but not too warm. Some of the boat crew jumped in too and Hughie leapt from the deck into the water. It was about 6pm. I watched a sea hawk fishing about 100m away from me. They had a nest on the karst next to us, we were now moored for the night.
Having had a wonderful shower I went up on the sun deck to watch the sunset and wish at least one of you was there with me. It was spectacular and worth every penny. Totally on my own except for my gin and tonic, the sea hawks and the cicadas, I never thought, given the time of year, that I would see the sunset, let alone the moon and some stars.
The day was not over yet though! After a seafood dinner, prawns, fried calamari and delicious grilled crab, served in the shell, Richard and Hughie decided to have an arm wrestle, which was fun to watch, especially when Hughie went to get one of the boat crew, who turned out to have lovely big biceps. It was no good though, the little Vietnamese could not beat the retired New Zealander! By the way, I was asked whether I watched Union or League rugby but could not remember which one was Aussie Rules?
We then did a spot of squid fishing! The fish, cuttlefish and squid of the bay come to the lights on the boats in the evenings. So we were handed a bamboo rod with a line and small fish attached as bait. We were to lower the bait in near the lights and tug up and down for a while. "Don't worry," said Hughie, " they are coming"(up from the depths). Well Colleen and I were the only ones remaining by the time one did show its tentacles. He poked at the bait a bit but I guess that is where the skill comes in as I could not jerk the line up fast enough to catch him! He was about a foot long, brown in colour and we were treated to a fine show of his manoeuvring capabilities. I was quite relieved he got away.
We were not the only ones interested. While we fished I'm sure I saw a skimmer of some sort. I had seen swifts earlier while kayaking but this was not a swift. The sea hawks and their chicks ( could hear them cheeping before sunset) had also gone to bed. However, humans were also on the prowl. A silent rowboat approached the boat as I watched from the sun deck in almost pitch dark. It had a single light illuminating a young man tying knots ( I presume) really fast, while a young woman rowed. They made an entire circle of the boat, going right under the prow, before setting off for the other ships in our little bay. All told to do all the ships here, about 10, may have only taken them an hour, they were so fast. And silent.
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