It was an early departure, at least by our standards, from Hanoi to board our boat in Halong City for our cruise around the bay. I say by ‘our standards’, since the Vietnamese are very early risers, with the streets busy as soon as it is light. Despite being several hundred miles east of Singapore and Malaysia, the country is actually one hour closer to GMT (+7), preferring I suspect early starts in the cool mornings rather late afternoons in the hot sun. Sleeping, in fact is seen as a sign of ill health and getting up anything later than 8am is considered a rather indulgent lie in, which I think explains why hotel maids are usually banging down your hotel door at around that time always expecting an empty room. Having made it up for a quick breakfast, it wasn’t long before we were on the road and after a couple of hours we reached our destination on the docks to board our beautiful Vietnamese ‘junk’ boat. Whilst we were immediately impressed by our boat, we weren’t so impressed by the weather. It has been raining all morning and our guides weren’t getting our hopes up on it clearing up anytime soon. When we got to Halong City itself a heavy mist hung in the air, which had turned everything grey. However, once we were underway we realised that the weather would add a unique atmosphere to our afternoon cruise through this otherworldly place. Halong Bay is made up of 3000 thousand tiny islands that rise steeply, often like huge sharp teeth, out of vivid green emerald waters. Made of limestone, the sea and wind has in places carved strange shapes and created hundreds of caves, some of which are so vast they are attractions in their own right. Whilst the water wasn’t as green as usual because of the clouds, the islands took on an eerie quality as they continuously materialised out of the mist. With little wind and calms waters, it seemed like the place you’d expect to find a pirate ghost ship roaming the waters.
However the inhabitants here are not pirates, but Vietnamese families who live on floating villages around the bay. The main livelihood is fish farming by techniques passed on from the Japanese who have an appetite for their other big income generator, pearls, which are produced by farming oysters. We were heading for one of the largest villages, which was not in fact in Halong Bay but the adjacent Bai Tu Bay and here we got an opportunity to see the farming for ourselves. All the families that live here farm fish in enclosures which form part of their floating homes. The income is enough to support a family, but little more than subsistence, with the average income around a dollar a day. However it is a relatively steady risk free income, unlike those more adventurous families which grow pearls. Cultivation of pearls is a painstaking process, with a typical pearl taking two years to produce and sold for around $30 USD.
We watched with fascination as an oyster was opened up before us and a shiny pearl was pried out with a knife. A big change however for floating villages like this one was tourism, which had brought a new source of income and we were happy to see that the companies running cruises to the villages had funded a school for young children giving them a rare chance of an education. We were told that children as young as three would make the trip to school by themselves in a boat so they could attend lessons. After visiting the village the weather began to clear up and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon cruising the bay taking in the magical natural beauty. We stopped along the way for some diving off the top of the boat, but the water was a little too cold for an extended swim. Finally, we parked up for the night seemingly with every other junk that had been out on the water for the day and enjoyed a luxurious sea food meal accompanied by some surprisingly good local wine.
We watched with fascination as an oyster was opened up before us and a shiny pearl was pried out with a knife. A big change however for floating villages like this one was tourism, which had brought a new source of income and we were happy to see that the companies running cruises to the villages had funded a school for young children giving them a rare chance of an education. We were told that children as young as three would make the trip to school by themselves in a boat so they could attend lessons. After visiting the village the weather began to clear up and we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon cruising the bay taking in the magical natural beauty. We stopped along the way for some diving off the top of the boat, but the water was a little too cold for an extended swim. Finally, we parked up for the night seemingly with every other junk that had been out on the water for the day and enjoyed a luxurious sea food meal accompanied by some surprisingly good local wine.
We started the next day in Vietnamese fashion with a very early breakfast to head to the final highlight of the cruise; a visit to the Sung Sot caves or as the French had names it “grotte des surprises” (cave of surprises). A popular stop with other junks on the water our guide assured us that our timing would mean we missed the big rushes and we wouldn’t have to deal with crowds of other tourists. As we left the boat he explained the caves had been “discovered” by French explorers in the 19th century who had given the caves their name since each cave was more surprising than the last. As we descended down into the first cave we were already impressed as our guide pointed out huge stalagmite and stalactite formations. However the caves lived up to their name as moved into the second cave, which was huge by comparison and something truly special. Here our guide explained that many of the unusual formations had been given nicknames based on the form that they resembled. and so began a guessing game as our guide pointed to using his laser pointer to show us. The final cave however was to blow away everything that had come before. As if the natural awe of Halong Bay itself wasn’t enough I was stunned by this vast underground cavern. It also featured some of the best rock formations, including the infamous “cock rock” which had been mentioned in our Lonely Planet; though our guide preferred to describe more politely as a cannon. After posing for some group pictures at exit of the caves it was time to board our boat and make our way back to Halong City. The sun, which had been missing the previous day, was now out in force and we lay out on the sun beds up on deck enjoying the scenery as we headed back to shore. We had somewhat hesitantly shelled out a little more money than we would usually spend on such an excursion but Maren and I both agreed that it had been money very well spent. Halong bay truly lived up to its reputation as one of the best natural wonders of Vietnam, if not the world and the beautiful boat that took us round had been a pleasure to stay on. Having enjoyed the buzz of Hanoi and the beauty of Halong Bay we had decided it was time to get back to the beach having not enjoyed any sand, sea and surf since the Perhentian Islands. Our friend Vincent who we’d met in Laos had given us a recommendation a little bit of the beat and track when he had visited the country years earlier, a sleepy seaside town called Sam Son where he had enjoyed spending time. We’d already booked our train ticket that would be leaving from Hanoi before taking the cruise, so it was back on the minibus to the capital to spend the night before leaving at lunch the following day. We were looking forward to our next adventure in Vietnam. All the pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/kris.lander/HalongBay
