Cruisin Halong

January 26, 2010

At 8:00 a.m. we caught the local ferry to Cat Ba Island. It was a car ferry, but only transferred one taxi (which the drivers tried to get us to use their services as soon as we walked on the boat), a few motorbikes and mostly pedestrians. We were the only ones who weren't from the local area. However, the ferry ride was nice and gave us a good idea of what Halong Bay would behold for us the next couple of days. The limestone peaks, covered in green, just popped out of the water sporadically and there was a calm essence in the air.

When we arrived we thought we'd be close enough to Cat Ba Town to walk, but then realized shortly later we were actually on the other side of the island and would have to take the bus. However, the bus ride was super scenic and it inspired us to rent a motorbike and bike around the island for the rest of the afternoon. We found a hostel right on the waterfront of the bay in Cat Ba Town for only $6 per night and then rented a motorbike to head out for the afternoon.

We first looked for a place to eat and we thought we had found one, but when Kristin got off the motorbike to ask, a man standing nearby quickly ushered us away - so it must have been a private party. Oops! So we turned around and found another place instead. After lunch we rode out to Cat Ba National Park and went on a hike up to the top of the small mountain. Towards the end of the hike there were a lot of rocks we had to climb and it was steep in places, but getting to the top was worth it. At the top they had a tower that you could climb for an overall view of the area. We climbed up and the view at the top was just breath-taking, we honestly felt like we were on top of the world. We got back to the bottom without breaking anything and then headed out for some additional motorbiking.

We zoomed all over the island and with the cooler temperatures and the wind, it got a little chilly; especially for Alex since he had ignored Kristin's suggestion that he change into pants instead of shorts back at the hotel. ;-) So after a while we had to stop for some coffee at a roadside cafe to warm up. The cafe was pretty awesome and the eating area was suspended on stilts over a little canal with the beautiful scenery in the background. Then we headed back to our hostel for the evening. Cat Ba was really nice, serene and quaint -- definitely a nice escape from the city of Hanoi.

January 27, 2010

We woke up this morning with no electricity at our hostel. Luckily there was just enough warm water left over in the water heater for Kristin to have a shower; but unfortunately, Alex got the leftover lukewarm to cooler water by the time he got up.

Today we went on a sailing boat cruise within Halong Bay. We boarded our sail boat and set out to explore the Halong Bay area. Our boat cruised through the gaps and bays between the green mounds that ascended out of the water. It was such a nice day for a boat ride; plus, there was no rain, which made it even better!

The first stop on our boat trip was to kayak in a cove. We boarded our kayaks from the boat and then paddled over to the small entrance, which was a hole that we could enter the cove. We kayaked around there and the surrounding areas and then headed back to the boat. Although it was nice, the weather wasn't quite warm enough to get wet, so it was a little uncomfortable when the paddles brought up water and dripped them on our legs inside [Disclaimer: This was mostly uncomfortable for Kristin who doesn't like being cold and set].

We stopped for lunch around a scenic area and had a really good lunch with rice, squid, vegetables and fish. At the beginning of the boat ride, Alex and I watched them preparing the food downstairs at the back of the boat. They would actually lay the fish and the squid down on the floor of the boat, which wasn't too far from the floor of the bathroom; so much for food serving standards here.... However, we tried not to think of those previous scenes and ate up -- cooking kills it all, right? It amazed us how good of food they could prepare with such limited resources on their boat.

After lunch we stopped at some caves that looked like they were off of Indiana Jones or National Treasure. We wandered around there for a while. However, we came across the same scene that Alex had posted as his screen saver for the past 6 months in anticipation of being able to come on this trip, and now it was right in front of us! It was cool to see it at last!

Our last stop of the day was at Monkey Island where there are several monkeys that inhabit the trees and forested areas of that particular island. Many of the monkeys would come up to the rocks on the edge of the water and watch us unload the boat. As we neared the center of the coastline, there was a little house with some monkeys hanging out on the railing. We went to go look at them closer and one of the monkeys looked directly at Kristin, which she then started clicking her tongue at him, which he apparently didn't like because he swooped down to swing through the trees right at her. Some Aussies were nearby and started shouting "run! run! run!"; which Kristin blindly started to do because she had put her arms over her head as the monkey started to swing towards her. She escaped any harm from the monkey and shortly after, the attacking monkey made his exit from the area, so we could resume checking out the others nearby.

As we pulled back into the harbor for the end of our boat ride we went past a Floating Village. These people build their houses out on the water and then farm fish for a living. It was amazing to see how many of them had dogs at their water houses, especially since there were not many places for the dogs to go except on the little planks surrounding the fish areas and into the water. We thought maybe the dogs were just a back-up for food if the going got too rough. In a way we were disappointed that we didn't have more time on Cat Ba, but we had a great time there and we are excited to move onto warmer weather tomorrow.