This morning I am visiting Ha Long Bay.
As I sit in the reception of my hotel I reflect on a conversation I had with a Muslim guy I was chatting to at the border between Singapore and Malaysia.
We were talking about the fact that, as a Muslim he could not eat meat that wasn't Halal. This means that the animal must be slaughtered in a special way. I asked 'what about fish'
' fish is ok, ' he said, 'it is not slaughtered, it is taken out of the water and it just dies'
I am sitting in the reception of the hotel waiting for my pick up. Across the road are various stalls, one being a fish stall, I have just watched a lady take an 18 inch fish out of a tank, it is still alive, wriggling like a 'good one'. She placed it on a board, took a cleaver and promptly chopped it's head off. Forgive me if it's just semantics but that looks a bit like 'slaughtering' to me.
Anyway... Today I am taking a tour to Ha Long Bay. This is the famous place where there are hundreds (1898 to be precise) of limestone islands jutting out of the sea ( with some pretty spectacular caves to boot!)
Ha Long bay is about three and a half hours out of Hanoi. The plan is we will drive there, get a boat, mosey around for a few hours and come back. Time is against me but they do live a board trips too which sound quite good. For once, what should have happened did happen and there was a pick up at 8.00pm.
My travelling companions were Vietnamese Dutch and Russian today.
We headed out of the city towards Ha Long Bay. The driving was a nightmare, trucks, motorcycles, bikes and coaches. No rules at all. I quickly sussed out that it is pretty much a no rules regime. The only rule appears to be that you are responsible for getting out of the way. Most of the 'b' roads have white lines down the middle, it is not unusual for undertaking, overtaking and even overtaking overtakes. The horn and flashing headlights rules. I was rather surprised we had not seen more accidents. Then we saw two in a row. One overturned lorry the other a tourist bus with it's front mashed in. One of the Dutch guys commented that 'at least they are not going that fast' hmmmmm.
We were nearly in an accident ourselves and I didn't look behind us but I could imagine we nearly caused a good few. Our driver was slightly unhinged and certainly not adverse to taking a few risks.
At the halfway point we stopped off for a break at a typical tourist emporium. Gifts and trinkets galore. Plus food!
Refreshed, we headed off again. Hair raising journey!
Ha Long city is really not that nice but as you get to Ha Long bay it is spectacular. This was probably not the best time of year to visit. It is just coming up to the start of winter and the weather while still warm was cloudy and overcast. The bay was shrouded in a blanket of sea mist. Nevertheless it was still an amazing sight to see these hundreds of limestone islands, green with vegetation, some with sheer rock faces dotted around the bay.
The disappointment was the usual one with these type of attractions. Around the attraction is a whole industry.
There were literally thousands of tours boats at the harbour, some for the day tourists and some for those that were going to be living aboard for a couple of days. We found our boat and were off. We darted between the islands an a leisurely pace and eventually pulled up (if that's what you do in boats) at a village pontoon. Around the islands are floating villages, some with their own schools, these are inhabited by the fishermen who have large nets of every sort of sea critter you can imagine (I didn't see any Geoduck though!)
Lunch was served in the price but if you fancied lobster, big fish, crab or langoustine you could pick one out, pay for it and they would cook it for you. Also around the boats and floating villages were small boats moving around the tourist boats selling fresh fruits. It was a real hive of activity albeit very touristy.
Lunch was sticky rice, fresh fish and vegetables followed by melon.
After lunch there was an option of kayaking or taking a small boat around the islands and into the inner lagoons through the small caves.
I optic for the latter which again was spectacular. The trip lasted about four hours, on the way back we stopped at one of the larger caves and got off the boat. This had been discovered as recently as 1994 by a couple of fishermen who we sheltering from a storm. It was incredible. It has been really made a place well with visiting.
By 4.00pm we were back on dry land and embarking on our trip home. If I'd thought the journey there was a bit hairy then this was a whole new story.
Our driver, for the whole four hours back played this game. It was a mixture of Cat and Mouse and 'chicken' ( and other drivers joined in too) you overtook someone and them slowed down so they overtook you. When you overtook them again you did it when a car, coach or lorry was heading in you direction. It's all part of the fun. By the time we got back I was high on nervous energy!!
Not something I would like to repeat but unfortunately I have three night buses over the next 8 days!!!!
On returning to the hotel I asked for confirmation that someone would be picking me up at 7.00am.
I got an 'if you say so' sort of response from the particularly unhelpful hotel owner. 'Si la vie' I thought and headed out for some dinner. I did think it somewhat strange that the bus to Hoi An took 15 hours and set off at 7.00am but it was a sleeper bus and I was not checking into my next hotel till Wednesday. He ho....
The weather was pissing down and seemed to have diluted the number of bikes around the old quarter. I had not got used to the area but made some mental notes and found my way to the lake and yet more celebrations for the 1000th city birthday party. Pork and rice, a beer and a wander, I them made my way back to the hotel. Across the road is a small cafe so I stopped for a beer and pick up my e-mails on an unsecured WiFi connection.
On getting back to the hotel a different lady was on the desk. She tells me the bus to Hoi An leaves on the evening. After the lack of pick-ups that had gone tits up so far I rang the local contact. She told me someone will collect me to take me to their office to get my bus ticket and the bus did indeed leave in the evening. I will get her address and go and see her myself. Mrs Tang is her name!
Siem Reap should be interesting, the contact name is Mr Cheat.....
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Location:Thanh Hà,Hanoi,Vietnam
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