Vietnam: Ha Long Bay

Morning at the new hotel. I get picked up at 08:00 as scheduled. No time for breakfast as I had been preparing the smaller backpack for the 3-day trip to Ha Long Bay. Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO protected site made of over a thousand islands most of them of a smaller size, and not inhabited. They make a picturesque and dramatic scenery with the floating fishermen villages, the boats and their characteristic sails.

The trip there would take us roughly three and a half hours -including a “happy” stop at a big shop intended to have tourists buy.
Once at the bay the chaos is phenomenal, or the feeling of chaos at least. Hundreds of boats moored to the piers. Our guide is in charge of figuring out which boat will be ours.
Me at the port with a few "junks" behind; yo en el caótico puerto con unos cuantos de los tipicos barcos detrás:


We finally board the boat and start sailing towards the bay while having lunch. The sky that had been gray and heavy til then starts opening and the clouds to clear, letting a warm sunshine bathe us on the top deck while enjoying the views and start getting to know each other in the group.
We are sixteen guests, the maximum bed capacity of the boat. Origins are Germany, France, Malaysia, India, Switzerland, China and myself.
We slowly arrive to a smaller bay where the number of boats seems like the number of cars in a traffic jam in Mexico City. It is as if most boats at port had all moved here.
The bay where we stayed the first evening/night / La bahia en la que nos quedamos la primera tarde/noche




A luxurious "junk" on the bay, not mine / Uno de los barcos más lujosos en la bahia, que no el mio



The reason is a famous cave which could almost take a small football stadium. Capricious shapes, stalagmites, particular lighting makes it worth fighting with the hoards of tourists piling at the same spot. Maybe I am exaggerating but I happen to be here during the Easter Holidays and I am sure that has a lot to do with the high number of "junks" and tourists.
one of the shots inside the cave / Una vista desde dentro de la cueva


After the cave across the bay we have time off to climb up to Titop panorama view and beach. By that time and close to dusk clouds were back covering the sky in a heavy air but not preventing magnificent views.

A dramatic view of the bay in b/w / Una impresionante vista de la bahia en blanco y negro



After dinner on the boat I spend some time on the upper deck contemplating the view with other boats, lit in dimmed lights reflecting on the water. Then I feel sleepy so I avoid the group's night talk and go to bed where I have a good night sleep until the next morning.

Morning time, I get up at dawn to see what the little bay looks like in the light of the early morning. Peace and quite. Not even the crews are up yet.
Once the breakfast gets going we start our cruising on to another part of the archipelago. The views don't get but always prettier. The second day is a beautiful sunshine day that afford us some of the most striking views of this unique site.
We arrive at a little harbour where after mooring, we would get some mountain bikes for a cycle to a forest barely 30minutes apart. At the forest we would simply walk to a cave walking across through it to the other side of the mountain. Goats and butterfly nestles (probably) are the only “nature” in this forest probably in a frenetic activity at night.
Me on the bike to the little village and before the hike in the forest / Yo en la bici yendo al pueblito antes de iniciar la marcha en el bosque hasta la cueva

El grupo a la salida de la cueva, el calor insoportbale / the group at the exit of the cave in a horrible heat

Back from the cave and bike ride, on the bay where we were moored / De vuelta de la marcha y paseo en bici, en la bahia donde habiamos amarrado


Back on the boat we head for a fisherman's house where we moor to have lunch and then one hour kayaking. We entered a lagoon through a small opning in the rock. The lagoon had accumulated some of the rubbish present all over, but the highlight was a massive white jellyfish that actually came afloat right by the boat as dolphins do in a sort of greeting gesture.

We then continue on the boat, called "junk" by the locals, to Monkey Beach where I would get some sand sample for Peterkan, alias Pedro. Monkeys are not my cup of tea. And after that we went to CatBa where we stayed at a hotel.

The next morning we come back to land spending the morning sailing about and we are taken to a restaurant with a view over the bay to enjoy lunch and yet another 3 1/2 hrs bus ride back to Hanoi where I would have time for a shower before catching th train to the mountains, to Sapa, but that is another chapter...