Halong Bay

Everyone said that Halong Bay was a must. J doesn't like being on water, no, her semi-circular canal doesn't like it. So I said fine, we'll do other things. But she talked to several people and read the books and all said the water was flat calm. And it was mostly, and the little part that had ripples she got through with no problem.

These are pictures of the bay, our hotel at Catma Island, and back today in the bay again.
We've just started the cruise. There is something wonderfully serendipitous about being on a short tour, thrown together with people you will share a day or two with and probably never see again.

Here's a little boat that came up along side and a

little boy climbed onto our ship to sell fruit.

Getting lunch ready in the boat's kitchen. There was a separate vegetarian table which we shared with an Austrian vetinarian. She and a friend were traveling while their husbands were diving.

We stopped to see a large cave that was only discovered in 1996. I asked why there were no bats. I was told, they got rid of them because of the tourists.

You can get a little sense of the scale by looking at the people in the lower left hand corner. The main room was huge - probably 75 meters high.

Here are J an a couple from near Southhampton, UK.

J hadn't wanted the trip that included sleeping on the boat. So our group got a bus on Catma Island and rode through a National Park to the town on the other side. Here's our hotel from where we had breakfast this morning.

The town from the breakfast deck.

T is from Vancouver. He and J bonded because they were both very sensitive to the water. It was a little ripply this morning so they both got outside.

Then off the boat at Halong Bay for lunch and then back on the bus,
to make our way back to Hanoi.

But not without another pottery stop. Here's T with his Vietnamese-Canadian girlfriend.

Halong Bay itself was pleasant and peaceful, but with grey skies it wasn't quite as amazing as it was billed. Perhaps it's that we've been spoiled by Prince William Sound and Resurrection Bay. The rocky walls looked a lot like those Alaska Bays, but without the snow capped mountains rising above them. And the Bay itself seemed dead. There were raptors flying above the islands and a few other largish black birds, but we saw not one bird anywhere on the water. We saw no animals in the water. There must be fish in there. There was a fair amount of debris floating around.

The rest of the trip was relatively quiet. I had Robert, a Dutch young man on one side. He's been traveling around SE Asia for four months and goes back to Amsterdam in a week or so. On the other side was a Taiwanese engineer who works in Ho Chi Minh City. Now we're at the Star Hotel and tomorrow we're headed for Bangkok where we'll stay with Jim Lehman, an old Peace Corps buddy, and then we'll got back to Chiang Mai Tuesday night. My co-workers are all in Bangkok anyway for the demonstration so I haven't missed anything - well, I missed the demonstration. Maybe we'll have time to go say hello tomorrow.

Back From Halong Bay - Hanoi Hotels - Vietnam Riders

[Sunday, March 8, 2009, 10pm Hanoi Time]

We're back in Hanoi at the Stars Hotel on Batsu, right next door to the Hanoi Boutique Hotel where we stayed the other night and thought we were staying tonight. But people on the tour to Halong Bay said we were paying too much at $35 per night. So we checked at the Star and we could get the same room (balcony on the street) for just $20 with a computer in the room. The room is exactly the same size, not quite as spanking new, but also with breakfast and close enough I can use the wifi from next door. Actually, people were saying that $8-$15 was the going price for pretty much the same hotel room all over the Old Quarter. As it turned out, the old hotel didn't have any empty rooms anyway and wanted to send us to their other hotel. There are little hotels all over the old quarter of Hanoi for very little. This is one case where internet prices are much higher than you can get if you just show up and ask.

Apparently the hotels make their money selling tours. It appears to be best to go directly to the tour company itself. Halong Bay, two days, one night, prices ranged from $40 (2 star hotel on land) to $250 (private car, sleep on fancier junk) per person. If you're on a budget, you really need to bargain and check out other places.

We had a very pleasant trip to the bay. I'm going to show you the trip in photos. This first post will be of the way there through mostly motorcycle pictures. Rather than crop the motorcycle pictures, I decided to leave them as a I caught them from the bus and you can get a sense of the 3 and a half hour ride to Halong Bay from the backgrounds in the pictures.

Our tour guide Bang.

The bridge over the Red River back into the center of Hanoi. Bang got a phone call, we had to go back and pick up some more passengers. Bang said that 6 million people live in Hanoi, and 8 million in Ho Chi Minh City.

Brooms.

The highway just outside of Hanoi.

Rice fields outside of Hanoi.

Not sure what these are. First I thought they were jackfruit,
but now I think they are a big squash, but I'm not sure.

One of many factories.

The obligatory Asian pit stop at a ceramics factory.

These little piggies are going to market I suspect.

And here we are at Halong Bay, getting ready to board our junk for the ride through Halong Bay.

Here's one more motorcycle picture. This is from the bridge again, coming back into central Hanoi at rush hour.

Hanoi Traffic

We spent the day walking. I did get my ATM card back and it still works. It seems if you don't get the right pin the first time, they keep the card. I didn't get it right because I didn't push the buttons hard enough. Viet (above) whose headed to school in Texas worked out the card.




This is the headquarters of the bank whose ATM ate my card. The guard came over to tell me not to take pictures. Then when I asked Viet if I could take his picture he said sure, right in front of the guard, who got angry, so we went outside to take his picture.



We're booked on a tour to Halong Bay tomorrow. Overnight onland in a hotel, then back on the boat Sunday. Everyone assures us the water is totally calm. Prices shifted from the original recommended internet company that wanted $250 per person, to $125 per person, and finally we got it at $57 per person. Granted, we aren't staying on the boat overnight so that lowers the price, but J was worried about being seasick. And I think the first one included a private car and now were in a van with others, but that's fine.

So here's why I'm feeling a bit headachy today. The video is short, but gives you a good sense of getting across the street in the old quarter of Hanoi.

Hanoi Morning Walk

Our walk this morning. We're back at the room to get my passport. The weather is delightfully cool. I'm wearing a long sleeved shirt, though now at almost 1pm a t shirt would also be fine. So this will be mostly pictures with minimal commentary.



All was great as we learned to negotiate the motorcycles until I tried to get money from the ATM machine. I did get my receipt. But no money and no card back.




Michael, in the hotel where we found the ATM machine, was helpful. This isn't too unusual. But he couldn't get through.


We walked on to the travel agency the Australian couple at breakfast recommended. She called and got through. They are going to try to get our card and we might be able to pick it up at 2pm nearby. If yes, we'll go to Halong Bay tomorrow.






If not, we'll try to get the card tomorrow, Saturday, and go for just one day. So we slowly wondered on, using a walking guide to the Old Quarter of Hanoi as a general guide. Different streets have shop after shop of the same item. Sewing stuff, travel shops, shoes, kitchen stuff, etc.