5am my train strolled into Hanoi. I had 2
hours or so to get to the tour office and get ready for the trip to Ha Long bay
I had already booked.
Hopping off the train with my 28kg backpack
and 7kg daypack I headed out of the station and was greeted by a wave of
motorbike taxis. In Vietnam because cars only recently came to the country
there is more motorbikes than there is cars. Taxis as such are a new thing
still, and on every corner in Vietnam there is a cheerful man with a old bomb
of a bike waiting to take you where you need to go for $1 USD.
At 5am in the morning and with such weight
on my back, I was not really willing to hop on some random guys motorbike. Especially
when he smelt strongly of beer… don’t care how cheap it was. So I hiked the
2odd km to the tourist office and arrived as the sun was rising in the city.
Its not really practical to walk around or
do much when you have a big backpack with you so I camped out and had a nap
while I waited. With drool on my face and a expression, I think of “where am I”, I was woken up at 8am by the office manager needing to get to the
roller door lock behind me.
A few minutes later we were off on the long
5 hour car trip up to Ha Long bay.
Arriving at the tourist port in Ha Long it
was packed with backpackers, Chinese tourist, Japanese, Italian and every other
manner of large noisy tourists. Ha Long was no secret rice town it was a major
tourist attraction. 
The harbor was full
of “Junk”. Junk being the term they use to call there boats here, no idea why
but its funny calling a boat that looks nice and clean, “junk”.
We boarded our junk and was joined by
another group from another bay and our guide for the next 3 days, “Zu”.
I checked into my room on this 8 room boat,
it was very nice, clean and above what I had expected for $30 a day tours.
After a few minutes sailing, lunch was
served. No what I had expected again at all… Crab, Fish, Prawns, Octopus,
Clams, Salads… it was like 5 star dining on the open seas, compared to my last
4 months of travel, and with the living quarters it was the whole kit.
After Lunch we had 45 min of sailing
through some amazing channels and past some islands before we stopped off at a
small floating village, where 150 odd families live. They are born, grow up, go to school, get married, and die in the small village (granted some will move away but for most..).
The houses are about 3mx3m mostly and are floating on
drum’s. If a house is to small for a family then they have a boat to which some
sleep on as well.
When we arrived there was a young 12 or so
year old girl rowing a boat with her feet, while she played and fought with her
brother on the small boat. As our boat arrived she would row over (using her
feet) and try to sell us some sea shells. Another boat with 2 small kids and
there mother selling all manner of chips and drinks. 
They pulled up next to our
boat and tried to sell us some bottle water among other things. The drinks on
our boat were extremely inflated so buying water wasn’t a bad idea. The 2 young
girls were mimicking things that I was doing, so I showed them the “money sign”
(rubbing 2 fingers together) they copied so I snapped up a cute photo. 
We hopped into some smaller boats and had a
nice little tour around the village and got some information on the town. The
local school was only for primary school kids, and it was free. The teachers
would come from the mainland during the week and teach at the classes. Then go
back for the weekend. 
Our guide was quite a barrel of laughs on
the tour; she had possibly the largest PFD (Personal Flotation Device, Aka Life
jacket) she could find on, so funny.
Back on the boat, one of the other people
wanted to buy some beer an cookies. When the bargaining went bad for the lady
in the small boat the kids were given to silent sign to cry. They let it rip
too.. The American lady promptly paid up. I couldn’t help but laugh it was so
cute the girl cried right on queue but when she was hit in the head by a piece
of her boat falling on her, she didn’t make a sound. Ahh kids. 
After this we had another 45 min of
sailing. The sun was starting to set over the bay and it made all the mountains
in the distance really stand out. It was such a beautiful sight.
We pulled up next to some caves and had a
evening swim, the water was unbelievable warm, and the current was strong as
well. I assume the tides were changing as it would pull you from the front of
the boat to the back in no time…
I started jumping off the roof of the boat
into the water, a mire 3m jump but it didn’t take long before I had the other
guys on the boat jumping as well. Loads of fun.
That night we had a nice spread for dinner
as well, and we even had flowers on the table… well flowers made out of vegies.
Yeap impressive… $30 a day ;)
Morning came far to quickly, not sure why
but I didn’t sleep a wink. The islands we parked next to seemed to get a orange
glow to them in the morning sunrise.
The boat tour would take us to another
floating village in a cove were we would hop in a few kayaks and have a paddle
into some caves which led into some lagoons.
It was quite special paddling into this small opening and then coming
into a massive opening where the cliffs surrounding you were impassible otherwise.
The kayaking was far to short, only 45 min.
I would have loved to have stayed out there all day in this small vessel but
alas there were people waiting. As I hopped out I didn’t realize my legs had
fallen asleep and when I put my foot back on the pontoon it collapsed under me.
I almost did a backflip back into the water, but the guy on the pontoon managed
to grab me by the life jacket. 
We headed back to port at lunch and hopped
back in a car. A small drive later we were at Bai Tu long Bay, the sister to Ha
long bay. This place looked much nicer to me. The water seemed to be cleaner,
and there was NO TOURISTS (except us….).
We hopped on a smaller boat than the
previous one. This one was not a sleeper, and grabbed some lunch. Again…
Prawns, Fish, Rice and other manner of sea food. I guess I shouldn’t have been
surprised as we were in the ocean so seafood should be “cheap” but the food was
so well prepared and nice.
We spent a long time sailing this time
through Bai Tu long bay, till we reached the 2nd kayaking trip. We
had dropped 5 members of the tour as they were heading back to Hanoi, so it was
only the Spanish couple and me and our guide Zu. So “sadly” Zu had to come with
me in the kayak as they were 2 seats… *evil grin*, If I wasn’t so nice
she would have been drenched. We had a quick paddle around a small island then
another swim.
The current was even stronger here, it was
difficult to swim against and I liken it to being in a very strong rip at the
beach. I had a few jumps in the water then exhausted…
We had 2 hours or so till we reached the
island we were staying at, so what better to do then play cards outside on the
front deck of the boat and admire the surroundings and have fun with a game.
We arrived at Quan lan, just as the sun was
setting over the ocean.
We boarded the local took took and headed
to a small beach, it was far to cold and the sun was setting. None of us really
wanted to go for a swim when I came down to it. The walk to the guest house we
were staying was nice though.
That night at the guest house we learned
how to make Vietnamese spring rolls.
The table we were using was definitely not
meant to be used by tall westerners… it was perfect height for our guide and
the locals though. The spring rolls were to be made up of pork, mushrooms a lot
of them (I know yuk! J just kidding), glass noodles, onions, carrot, spring onions, salt
and pepper. With a few eggs cracked over top.
You then place a tablespoon of this onto
rice paper, roll and deep fry it for 10 seconds or till golden.
They were sooooooooooooo yummy it was
crazy. We had a few visitors while we ate dinner, the local gecko’s had moved
in to eat all the bugs around the lights in the guest house. 
The next morning, I was up a bit early so I
headed to the local market. I “should” have been there at 5am, but was not
feeling crash hot so slept in (excuses I know). The markets were still alive
with a bit of activity but for the most part they had finished for the morning.
I also headed past a few temples, which
would later become alive with activity.
After breakfast we headed to the local bike
shop and picked up our bikes but we couldn’t go anywhere. It turned out that
today, of all days was they day the island was moving a major temple’s
artifacts to a newly built temple. So all the streets where closed and a
massive parade with all the villages was underway.
The parade was led by music and drums,
followed by young ladies and gentlemen with weapons as guards then high monks
with the artifacts and a dozen young guys carrying a large throne like chair.
It was so high and well decorated that the local military was using large
bamboo poles to move power lines and phone lines out of the thrones path so
they could proceed.
As the parade walked past the crowds the
people watching would fall into line behind the proceedings, men on 1 side,
woman on the other and young children down the middle. They all headed for the
temple with there offerings of food and gifts.
Once the parade past we headed on our old
bikes for a nice 9km ride. We rode to a small beach and had a break but nothing
really special to see sadly but it was a nice change of pace from the boat.
The ride took us back to our nice little
boat, the ride back to port we past a few more floating villages and some
amazing rock formations. 
The car ride back to Hanoi was super long
though, good thing im use to long trips and promptly pass out, when I’m not in
control of a moving car/ motorbike …. 
The bays were amazing to see, I really
liked Bai Tu Long bay over Ha Long, it was cleaner and the island the locals
were very nice and funny. If I had been on a single day trip to Ha Long or even just Ha Long I think I would have been disappointed, but the other bay really made it a nice trip and I would highly recommend it. Again I used a tour company that seems to move away from the “traditional” tour spots and is reasonable (Ethnic travels).
I think ill see if I can go on a trip up to
the north east of Vietnam which will finish off the north for me.
Till next time, you know what I’m going to say…
HAVE FUN!
Steffen.
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