I am sitting here in front of ha long bay – one of the trips highlight.
Earlier this morning we woke up around 4 and headed for the airport. Our taxi was a no show. The concierge got a cab off the street and told us he would pay him half the usual hotel overpriced fair due to the delay. The guy could have paid the driver less and say nothing, but these people are very service oriented and honest. The problem with this saving is that it increases my feeling of being screwed since I find I just paid 6 times the fair coming in to the city… silly tourist mistake, but I was jet legged…
Well, at the airport, I got a chance to modify my flight back and stay another half day in Cambodia, instead of another day in ho chi minh. After successful ticket modification I went to security. I asked a guard if I can bring water in and he said no, so I drank it outside and then he started talking with me, where I am from and so forth. Our next destination of hai phong is his home town and for some reason he just bumped me passed the security line- perhaps 50 people waiting, nice of him, but not sure if this is what the people in line thought. With short time to go, I wanted to get a Vietnamese sandwich, with omelet. Not available yet, and neither is chicken, so I ordered Pho soup with noodles. Boarding was in minutes so I was trying to eat the hot dish fast. So I grabbed the spoon and started eating where a couple of local ladies instructed me to use the chop sticks. These work for the noodles but not for the soup itself. They then moved my water bottle to better see my barbarian eating habits. I finished the noodles and missed the soup part, shame it was good, but the flight was leaving. 2 hr + later we landed in Hai Phong. From moment one this area seems nicer then Ho chi minh, less crowded, greener and quieter. We now drove for 2 hours till the bay, seeing lots of pretty green fields. The rice fields shade of green is spectacular. On the way we begin to see very steep and rugged hills, very interesting shapes in between many rivers, till the bay appeared which is filled with these types of hills. We now wait for the cruise to begin.
Yesterday's breakfast was great, but today since we left early we got a doggy bag. I don't think a doggy bag is something you want in this country where dogs are eaten… but the disappointment was finding 2 pieces of bread with a slice of cheese and ham- from a kitchen that can do so much.. lunch will be offered on the ship, I am starving.
Next section is written the next morning
I am sitting here on the deck of the oriental sails (which is the company name, not the ships name – I don't know what the ship's name is) the skies are gray thanks to a typhoon in the Philippians. You cant trust that country to hold its storms inside! so the sky is not in the condition to produce amazing photos. Still ha long bay is a world wonder of nature. In the selection that occurs few years back of world wonders of nature, this place was selected. World wonder, check.
The bay waters are some shade of dark green and from it, erupt 1900 island bluffs very close to one another and the side is very impressive. Our ship, one of possibly 1900 tourist ships is sailing in between the beautiful bluffs . There is not much visible wild life, I saw a couple of eagles or something similar far away the rest are craws and sea food.
Yesterday after the long starvation, we boarded the ship and were given a cold napkin to chill and a glass of juice, which had a good taste, and familiar but not quite. I thought it was the jack fruit and asked and was told it is mango. I was surprised since I don't like mango in any form. Till now anyways, so I drank another. We got very nice rooms with a huge window overlooking the waters and a large window in the shower as well. I took photos of the room to document everything.
Lunch , came next. Impressive. The style here is of quality numerous small dishes. Beginning with some salad of strange noodles and carrots in a strange a bit spicy sauce, the a sequence of tofu plate (not for me) chicken, beef, squid salad, fish, crab cakes served in their shell, rice and ending with water melon and pineapple.
Stopping for morning tai chi…
Back, after this excellent lunch of small dishes, we disembarked and headed for the cave. This is a large stalagmite stalactites cave in one of the larger bluffs, there are likely plenty of caves in this bluffs, but this is the largest known. we hike up the stairs and enter the caves with the usual shapes and every once in a while we here, that is a face, that is Buddha, this is a dragon, whatever the imaging brings to life, the cave hike itself is about 20 minutes with a few minutes of stairs before and at the exit, nice views of the bay. We took the tender back to the ship, changed for bathing suits and headed for titof island. Titof is a cosmonaut that visited ho chi minh and got an island named after him, not a bad deal. This island has a viewing pagoda on top of the hill and to get to it you have to endure 420 steep steps. 10 minutes latest I was catching my breath and the breath taking views. After a careful descend, I dove into south china sea (I think this is the sea here), cool waters and very suiting post the hike up and down. Today is much cooler compared to yesterday, thanks to typhoon Phil. On two swimming excursion is saw a couple of fish both large and slivery plain looking one and no more. On the exit from the cave, we saw tiny squid looking things, possibly they were squids. There are many ships in this bay of local fisherman come to sell their wares to the ships and to us tourists, these are rowing boats, each acts as a little Kiosk. They move from ship to ship and I don't know where they camp for the night, there is no village nearby, perhaps they dorm in the little boat or on the bluffs, poor life in a world wonder.
After the swim and a nice shower with bluff views it was cooking class time. The crew demonstrates how to make viet spring rolls and let us assist in making them, learn how to roll. After that dinner time.
Lunch was great, dinner was spectacular. Again with the same style of many small dishes one at a time, so you get to give each the attention it deserves and take photos.
Shrimp cocktail, sweet cucumber! mussels, spring rolls, fish, chicken, colorabi and carrot salad, squid salad, all beautifully served, wait for the photos, better than the average chef quality of display. This was truly an incredible dinner.
Later they had options for karaoke, dancing or squid fishing, I thought I would squid fish but instead in went dreaming till dawn.
At six am I went on top for morning blogging, followed by a muscle relaxing tai chi on deck with these wonderful views, and now it is time to go… kayaking awaits.
Breakfast was simpler but also nicely served, with slices of pineapple, bananas, sliced oranges, butter and jam, and the most perfect toast, white bread, not singed at all, and purely crispy, I don't know how they did it. A plate of healthy bacon and great eggs also arrived. This chef is awesome.
We started kayaking soon after, we thought we were heading for a cave that monkeys live inside. We took bananas with us. This cave turned out to be a tunnel under the bluff and in the other side was an inner cove, a little harbor surrounded by the bluffs. The perfect hideaway, we sail around this harbor looking for monkeys and found none. We did see some crabs, a and birds, but we did hear birds all the time, hidden away in the tall rugged pointy edged bluffs. The shores were filled with some sort of shell aligning the walls, occasionally there were people making monkey sounds, but the monkeys stayed away.
We left the tunnel mouth and went to a tiny beach where a hawk\ falcon or similar, sorry I am a racist, can't tell them apart. Was battling a group of craws for food, the hawk kept lunging and trying to snag the craws, a most amazing sight, and me with m water video less camera , missed capturing it all but my memory.
Now , after a shower, check out soon as we sail back to the main harbor, today we have a long ride to ha noy, followed by 2-3 hours in the capital and then a night train heading for Sa Pa
Signing off from Ha long bay.
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