Cruising Halong Bay

This has been in the works for the last month:

Ian and I despise tours. You and 10 - 50 some odd people pile onto a bus made for tiny-framed Asians. You are driven around terrible roads for hours until you arrive at an attraction. After disembarking the bus, you have 15 minutes to see it before you get back on to be taken to the next sight. If you are lucky, you get no food. The less lucky are taken to restaurants making food the locals wouldn't feeds to their dogs. All tours stop at the tourist trap retail "wholesale-for-you-only" store for at least an hour.

Why then did we deliver ourselves and money into the hands of a tour guide for a 3 day 2 night tour of Halong Bay? Partly because to see the area, which is 150 km from Hanoi, on your own requires such planning and time that even Lonely Planet suggests you take a tour. We went with Handspan, a Vietnamese owned well respected tour company.

After a 3 hour bus ride, Peter, Ian, and I board our junk in Halong City. Over the ensuing 72 hours, we fraternized with our fellow shipmates - a fun mix of 9 other tourists from Canada, NZ, Australia, and Ireland. Cruising around Halong Bay is of course stunning, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the Amazing Cave (actual name) which was quite touristy with lights and walkways. This was fine for me. Spelunking with minimal equipment is something I have already done in Hungary, and would like not to do again. The famous fog over Halong Bay made for an incredible sunset, competing with the group jumps off the upper deck of the boat. We spent the evening playing drinking games (such has Jenga on a rocking boat!) with some horrid rice whisky that smelled like rubbing alcohol. After 3 hours of playing, the majority of us were completely wasted, and I sneaked away never having lost and therefore never having to imbibe the Vietnamese rocket fuel.

The next day was a rare perfect sunny warm day in Halong Bay. We spent the time kayaking around a few of the thousands of coves and lagoons. Sprinkled all around the bay are floating fishing villages. These villages are made up of small wooden houses mounted on styrofoam or air filled tubes. Most have fish farms below or aside the houses. There is even a school. Some people have generators and pet dogs. We were awoken at 8 AM on the boat by some breakfast time karaoke in one of the floating houses. I though a cat was being killed.

After a perfect day of kayaking, we were then dropped off in a fishing village on Cat Ba Island and taken to the Sunrise Resort. I had not expected such a classy resort as part of an organized tour. We spent the night drinking bia hoy (fresh beer) with the Aussies. It was too cold for the beach or pool, but perfect for a Vietnamese massage (by the way, these are much better than the Thai massages. I don't feel like I am being tenderized).

Overall an extremely amazing tour. Highly recommended. Tours aren't now totally forbidden in my book. You just have to pick them well and add plenty of Vietnamese rice whisky.

~ Nisha