Halong Bay

It took a few days to get used to the fast pace of Vietnam in general and specifically Hanoi. Very loud, very fast, and very dirty - all very different from Thailand and Laos. After settling in at a fairly new guesthouse we ventured out to explore the Old Quarter, where most of the traveler amenities are located.

The excitement of the city brought with it lots of treats - good spaghetti (which is a valuable commodity when you're getting a little tired of rice), good ice cream, good shopping, and lots and lots of people watching. These good things come at a price of course - mainly the price of your life as you try to cross the street to get from one treat to another. For good ice cream, however, it's all worth it.

We next decided to take a 3 day/2 night tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba island. Halong Bay, pretty much due east of Hanoi, consists of about 3000 limestone islands in the Gulf of Tonkin. According to legend, the islands were created when a dragon that lived in the mountains flailed its tail around creating valleys and crevasses which were later surrounded by water, leaving little islands scattered all about.

To reach these islands you board a boat where we also slept the first night. Our tour group was small - started with 12 and by the time we finished there were only 7 of us as people got on and off, switching boats, etc. Our cabin was also amazingly small but it had a quaint view.

To board your boat you go to the boat, the boat does not come to you. This means climbing over however many boats are docked in front of your boat and hoping you don't fall in along the way. There were probably about 70 plus boats waiting to pick up travelers when we arrived so climbing over only 2 seemed pretty reasonable.

We visited an amazing cave - Hang Sung Sot. It has 3 huge chambers and probably takes about 20 minutes to walk through from one end to another. The view coming out the other side is pretty amazing.


To feed the foreigners small rowboats come along side the big boats to sell all kinds of goodies - oreos, beer, bbq-flavored cheetos (not so good), etc. This must be a really hard and boring way to make a living.

What is not always as pleasant is the food. Rice is huge here and comes with everything. That's fine. What's a bit more unclear is all the stuff that comes with it. More than once on this trip we've been served something that inspires lengthy discussion about whether the main ingredient of the dish is actually meat or not. Sometimes this debate can't be settled until someone (usually Michael because I'm not as adventurous) bites into a yucky piece of meat-based grizzle. Pass the veggies please.

Day 2 we ventured to Cat Ba national park where we did a very steep one hour hand over hand climb to a great lookout tower. My favorite part of the national park was the little museum at the end where they had preserved in little jars examples of all the species of critters found in the park. These jars looked like no one had touched them in about 30 years.

Our day finished with some kayaking around the islands and an evening in a hotel where the bedspread read, "Happy everyday" and there were two plastic swans acting as a bedside lamp. Very romantic indeed. Actually this "happy" theme is very prevalent throughout Vietnam. You see "everybody happy" and "be happiness" on everything from shopping bags to garbage cans.

Now to figure out where to go next.