D94 -- Halong Bay

We pulled into the station around 5:45 am and headed to the Hyatt to grab breakfast and capitalize on their free lobby wifi while waiting for our 8:30 bus to Halong Bay, where we had a junk cruise scheduled. Thomas also took the opportunity to shower and swim at their health club but I was too cheap to pay the $15 fee. We learned in an e-mail from Thomas' dad that Maddie has been up to her old bullying antics, this time sending Buck to the vet. That dog! I sure hope our kids turn out to have better manners than her.

The bus ride to Halong was cramped but scenic - vast, vibrant green fields punctuated here and there by what looked like little cemeteries and worked by people in traditional conical hats. The junk was nice. There was an enclosed dining area and an outdoor lounging area on deck, and cabins below, all done in a teak-like wood paneling. As soon as we got settled on board it was time to eat lunch. Yves, another passenger from France, was traveling alone so we asked him to join us. We ended up eating three meals together, which all turned out to be feasts that were heavy on the seafood. This seemed appropriate given that we were on a boat, but not fun for us since we don't eat much seafood. Every time the waiter would bring us another big pile of prawns or crabs Yves would just laugh. We really enjoyed talking with him – he made our meals more fun.

We sailed through the bay and admired the unique limestone rock formations and islands jutting out of the water. Halong Bay is famous in Vietnam for these (3000 or so) islands, and it was very beautiful. However, both of us got the impression that the bay has been spoiled due to poorly managed tourism. The water was a clear jade green color, but while we were sailing we would come across these streams of waste that had presumably been dumped by other boats. I liked to call them caca currents.

We stopped at a large island where many other junks were already moored or docked. There is a huge cave called Hang Sung Sot there and I went on shore with Yves to check it out while Thomas took a nap. It was very developed. There was a concrete path to walk on and enough lighting to see all the formations. Very different from our trip through the tight cave in New Zealand. Afterwards we went kayaking in the bay, which grossed me out because of all the trash floating in the bay. Again, a VERY different experience from kayaking in Able Tasman in New Zealand. We were both pretty disappointed, as we'd pictured the trip as being more isolated. We wished we had done some more research to find an eco-friendly option that went to less touristy spots.


After a nap for me and dinner with Yves we went to the front of the boat to chat with some of the other guests. Besides the three of us, there were seven other adults and three kids: another US couple on their honeymoon, an Australian woman traveling with her 13 year-old son, a German couple, and a French couple with their two children (one adopted last month from Saigon.) We watched the squid, fish, and jelly fish off the back of the boat and then turned in.

-Elva