I received a hotel reception phonecall a little after 7:30 am to remind me that I had to go down and have breakfast before my bus was due to pick me up around 8:15 am. Being prepared I was already awake, just checking a few bits online and so was down and ready for breakfast soon after and ready for my pickup at 8am. Unbeknown to me the bus had already called for me once, around 7:15 but as I was not awake ( ie, no one told me ) I had forced them to change the route and do a loop to pick me up, so I am privately glad that I dont speak Vietnamese as I doubt I was their most popular person at that moment.
The journey bus coach was around 4 hours, if you include the minor stop off about half way to pick up refreshments, or more accurately for a chance for their soveneir salesmen to have another attempt at getting our money for overpriced tat, albeit handmade.
It is worth mentioning that borders betwen countries are a lot more blurred when viewed from above no matter which countries you are crosing from and so the edge of to Thailand nearest Cambodia looks and feels almost identical to the Cambodian border nearest Thailand. Here in northern Vietnam if you ignore the language of the sign posts as you drove past them it could easily have been one of half a dozen countries that I was passing through.
Dirty uneven roads, motor cycles everywhere, straw hatted locals tilling the rice paddies in the distance and the van driver thinking that he has to honk the horn every time he goes near another road user or cyclist, which is on average every twenty seconds, and this particular horn has a reverberating echo after it, drawing out the noise even longer.
At one point we passed a couple of construction vehicles which seemed to have had a medium speed frontal impact and although I could not see any blood splatters I could see easily enough that both front truck cabs were crushed and mangled together, so it is sadly fair to say that whoever was driving could not have escaped unscathed except by a miracle.
Rice paddies gave way to water bay and by the time we got to where we had to go I was itching to get off the bus and get away from that anoying horn as much as getting to view the bay.
Ha Long bay is meant to be a beautiful natural wonder, with clear blue skies, lush green covered cliffs rising from the sea and decorative red sailed fishing boats floating lazily about, but in the off season when the skies are grey you can barely see the ghost shadow of the cliffs until you get right upclose to them. I was midly surprised to spot that along some of them a ring of spot lights is set up, no doubt on clear nights they switch on the lights and light it up like a magical fairytale.
As usual with oriental tour packages, most of the price goes in profit to cover travel expenses, although I was glad that at least the entrance fee and a meal was thrown in, even if it wasnt a tour where the guide actually does any talking.
Once we arrived we had about a half hour wait while we mixed with other tour groups before being put on on of the tour boats, and for this reason more than anything I would argue against booking a standard tour with them. On the pier I could see one proper red sailed fishing boats and at least five ornate and beautiful tour ships that I would have gladly paid double to get to cruise around on, and yet the one that my group was foisted on was about as ugly and basic a ship as you could image. We passed some that had pagoda style roofing, skillfully crafted side rails and a more classic shape but ours was more a floating box with one redeeming feature, it had some of the worlds best designed wooden deck chairs.
Sitting on them they were a mix between a normal deck chair, a rocking horse and a hammock and I think with a little more effort to make the arm and leg rests more ergodynamic they could be a world beater.
We sailed around for a few hours, all the while snapping away at distant rock formations and preying that the sun would come out and burn away all the mist and fog, but sadly it never did. Around 2:30 we stoppedfor something to eat and as luck would have it I was sat on a table with some clued up Chinese, who had bought a huge sea bass, freshly caught, for about 3,500 dong ( about 11 pence ) from the floating mini market where we were moored up against and they were happy to let the entire table have share.
After the meal we headed off towards the illuminated caves just across the bay mouth from the main docking port and here we got to investigate the caves, in its eerie underground setting. Spot lights of red, green, blue, purple and yellow cast their light on the rock formations inside and it reminded me very much of the experience I had with my Chinese friend on the river Li so many years ago.
As we docked everyone was rushing to get some photos, including the couple that I shared a meal with and they rallid my ego no limits when first the husband and then the wife asked to have photos with me as I was a very handsome young man. At times like this you cant help but love the Chinese.
However now I had the benefit of having had plenty of recent practice taking illuminated and poorly lit shots so I was able to get a few great shots that otherwise I would have missed. The trick is to forget holding the camera but instead set a timer and slow exposure setting then firmly rest it against something solid, like another rock formation, that was there is zero wobble and your shots come out clear and blur free.
There were another set of caves slightly higher up than the first ones we went to, but due to having such a long journey to take on the return leg we had to skip it, which was a bit miffing but I gues it was understandable. On the way back one of the ships many life rings managed to find its way into the water, which sent the crew into activity and the ship into a controlled double loop while they tried to get near enough to rescue it without anyone actually having to get wet themselves.
Being unprepared for this eventuality they first tried with a clothes hook tied to the back of a broom but it was too flexible and wouldnt hold a hook shape enough to grab it, so in the end one of the crew got out and getting his foot wet managed to drag it back to safety.
There was a little confusion before we set off to get back, as we switched buses, but then we were off. For some reason although there was less traffic and the driver was clearly driving much faster ( as the amount of near takeoffs and bashed heads will attest ) it still took us about the same time to get back to Hanoi, which was a lot later than planned and I was glad that I hadnt made any plans as I would have been late for them.
Maybe it was the sea breeze, the honk of the horn of just the fact of being sat still doing nothing for hours but when I got back to my hotel I was pretty tired so I planned to have a quick snack in a restaurant and then have an early night.
That was the plan and it sort of when according to the grand scheme, but not before I had to most confusing of meals. After I found a rather nice restaurant just a few doors down from the hotel, I ordered a soup a sandwich and a drink. What I got was a bowl of bread and a tray filled with three tiny square serving dishes, one filled with a chilly sauce, one contianing a single fish stick and one with a sort of thick goop that may or may not have been the flavour that I ordered.
I can't really say exactly what it was, but there wasnt enough goop to fill two soup spoons full, and once I had finished I sat there for a few minutes before very being very puzzled at the lack of movement and finally asked for the bill. At this, my waitress was in a bit of distress as she informed me that I had not even had the soup, let alone the sandwich, so I have no idea what it was that they had given me nor why?
When the soup came it did resemble what I ordered, but having already filled up with on bread rolls ( as i thought the misterious starter was my soup ) I was in no position to then have the BLT sandwich, so I asked them to package it for me and I would take it with me. This was yet another mistake too as it was made with such a thick bread that as soon as it went hard it was impossible to break or eat without soaking it first and I ended up throwing more of it away than I ate.
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