Halong Bay - After taking the night bus from Sapa to Hanoi we met up with our friends, Win and Rachel, and hopped on another bus to Halong Bay. Popular for its gigantic limestone rock formations emerging from the Gulf of Tolkin, it is a Unesco World Heritage site. We booked a popular excursion, a two day, one night stay on the Inception; one of the numerous boats that shuttle tourists around the 300 some islands. We were joined on our lovely boat by 10 other adventures and a small staff of three Vietnamese. After boarding our boat we enjoyed the beauty of Halong Bay on a gentle cruise towards our first destination, a local cave. Obviously doctored for tourists with a stone laid path and florescent purple, blue and green lighting, the cave was still pretty cool and held a smidgen of awe. We then re-boarded our boat and continued cruising around the bay. It was a relaxing ride with books, beer and great company. We were then assigned our rooms and made our way to the cabins located on the first floor of the boat. Stacy and I were somewhat impressed with our one night accommodations; the beds were extremely comfy! Dinner was pretty good and though the weather was a little cold we all made our way to the top deck for some drinks and to check out the other boats in the bay. At 11:30, we were promptly told by our tour guide that ‘we should go to bed because it is good for the health’ though a little less enthused there was also the motivation of having to get up at 7am for breakfast and kayaking so we all made our way downstairs for a great night’s sleep.
The next morning we were awoken by a buzzer to alert us breakfast was ready. We then docked at a platform where we were issued kayaks and told we had 45 min to explore. After taking many breaks, I finally instructed Stacy on how to hold her paddle; also that by simply skimming the surface of the water, as opposed to digging down into the water as far as possible, she would exert less energy. The water was surprisingly warm and it was fun to drift around the limestone rocks. We all then boarded the boat to make our way back to port. Though we thought there was still one stop left on our itinerary, we happily grabbed books and enjoyed our slow journey back to the city. When we arrived we were then told by our tour guide that we would have to wait (on the side of the road) for 45 minutes for our bus, while he “went to have a drink with his friend”. We were all a little less than thrilled with this and made our distaste known. We also realized we had paid for a superior cruise, when in fact we had just experienced a standard cruise. We weren't too pleased and when we tried to explain to our guide our displeasure, he immediately took the defense. After trying to reason for some time, we gave up and proceeded to wait for our bus. When it arrived over an hour later we were happy to just have lunch and head home. This turned out to be very difficult; we drove a total of 5 minutes to “lunch” and then had to wait again for our bus to return. When we re-boarded the bus there was already another group of tourists who were returning to Hanoi. This resulted in two separate groups scheduled to take the same bus back. When the second group tried to get on our bus they were promptly told by our guide that they were not allowed on the bus. Though first they were told that if they paid to get back to Hanoi they would be reimbursed once we arrived, though no one took this offer. In short a very vocal fight ensued with our tour group telling this other group to just get on the bus and our guide trying to stop them. Unfortunately, it got very intense; with our guide getting to the point of being physical and threatening to call the police. After making a few phone calls, he then told us “sorry I made a mistake, everyone get on the bus and lets go”. The day ended with Win, Rachel, Stacy and I trying to get reimbursed for the difference between the trip we had paid for and the one we went on. We lucked out and received a little over half our money back, which was about as lucky as we could get!
Ninh Binh - Out next stop was Ninh Binh, about 2.5 hours south of Hanoi. Though a pretty dull city it does have one amazing Charm – Tam Coc. It is known as "Halong Bay of the rice paddies" and that is exactly what it is. We took a small paddle boat powered by a Vietnamese women though the rice paddies and visited the beautiful rock formations. We all really liked it more than Halong Bay because it was so unique. Seeing these huge rocks just spring up from the middle of all these rice paddies was really cool to behold. Though the city was not much we were really glad we made the stop over to visit these amazing natural wonders.
~ Randi
No comments:
Post a Comment