Floating in Halong Bay, Achieving Travel Bliss

Photos: Vietnam: Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island Trip

Above me are familiar shapes: Cassiopeia, the Pleiades, Taurus the Bull and Orion, just peeking above the karsts of Halong Bay. All around me are other boats, humming generators and bright pinpoint lights making it impossible to pretend they’re not there. The lights reflect in the water, making the night picturesque, even if the cool air has the tang of diesel fuel in it. Below me the boat hums slightly with its own generator, but that noise is buried beneath the Vietnamese karaoke going on in the dining area.

It has been a good day and ending it on the top deck of a boat, open to the sky and wind, surrounded by eerie projections of rock islets, is absolutely fitting. Of course, it didn’t start out this way…

At 6:45am, my alarm went off and I quietly changed, packed, tidied up and left Michaela and Andy’s apartment. They were fast asleep, having been out quite late the night before at an Austrian ball put on by the embassy, so I assume that they had no idea when I left. At least, I hope so!

My big pack on my back, my day pack on my front, I headed down the street towards the Van Ho Hotel, which is where I’d asked to be picked up. On the way, a young motorbike driver called to me, and it wasn’t until I’d absently replied with my usual smile and “No, thank you!” that I registered his words: “Halong Bay?” I turned around and went back and sure enough, this was my ride to the tourist agency shop in town. My big pack was too big for his bike, so I wore it, making it a more precarious ride than usual because of the tail-weight. We made it, though, and he was a friendly enough guy, chatting with me the entire way in halting English.

Once arrived, I checked in and was told the bus would be coming by at 8:30am, so I had time to go find breakfast. I went across the street and ordered the only thing that I thought I understood: beef steak omelet. It turned out to be eggs in a big hoagie-type bun and it tasted all right, if a bit plain. That done, I went back across the small street and started chatting with some other arrivals. Particularly, there was a couple, Yana and Stephan, who I connected with pretty quickly. They raised their eyebrows when I told them where I’d eaten, and thirty minutes later, I had to question my own sense.

My stomach was roiling slightly, so I asked the tour agents if they had a bathroom. One guy pointed up some pretty steep wooden steps and said, “All the way to the top of my house, please.” So I climbed… and climbed… and climbed. It turned out these steps went up through four trapdoors on four successive floors, each floor containing a small room, maybe ten feet by ten feet, and each room with a function like a regular house that I’m used to. Oddly enough, in the bedroom there was a white man laying stretched out next to an infant, who was fast asleep. He held his finger up to his lips and pointed up, so I climbed further. The kitchen, bathroom and dining room were on the fourth floor.

Fifteen minutes later I headed back down. Everyone was gone and I saw Yana banging on a window from the inside of a small bus, waving at me frantically. I grabbed my packs and ran after, clambering aboard the still-moving vehicle. The only seat left was one with the wheel well jutting up into the foot space. I cringed. My knees haven’t been feeling the greatest and the thought of a four hour ride with my knees up to my chin didn’t sound good. To make matters worse, we soon picked up even more people, meaning that the seat next to me was filled with a six foot behemoth from Germany. I put up with it until our first rest stop, about an hour and a half or so, and then I figured out that I could unfold an aisle seat. We reached Halong Bay City about four hours after we’d left Hanoi, all passengers relieved to have survived the two near miss accidents our driver nearly caused. Our tour guide had collected all our passports earlier, so we clambered off wondering what was next.

We stood around, waited, and were eventually told that our passports would be returned to us when we checked out of the boats we were sleeping in the next day. Then we were led along past several vendors and finally to a dock, where we waited another fifteen minutes.

That was the end of the stressful and crappy part of the day. From there on out it was fantastic! We were taken on a small ferry boat to our main boat: the Halong Bay Pearl. It’s what is called a “junk boat,” and it’s made of wood. It has three decks, with the top one being open to the elements as described earlier. We were promptly seated for lunch, which I felt was pretty danged good and better than I was expecting: prawns, a cucumber salad, french fries, and a host of other dishes. Our boat only has eleven passengers, seven of whom are Vietnemese and Korean and don’t speak English. There are four of us who can chat with each other: Yana, an Italian from Canada living in Switzerland; her boyfriend Stephan, an Italian who lives in Rome; and Megan, an American with Chinese ancestry who has been living in China for the last five years. And me! Pretty interesting crew!

After lunch we were shown to our cabins. I have a double all to myself and I love it! It’s two full beds pushed together (but with a gap in between), a night stand and a bathroom. Small, like you’d expect on a boat, and no open window, just wooden slats at an angle across an opening that might have once been a window. Seriously… I love it!

I quickly changed into a bathing suit, shorts and a t-shirt and went up to the top deck to soak up some sun. Yana and Stephan were there and Megan joined us soon after. Then we were called down for the day’s excursions: first, kayaking. I shared a kayak with Megan and we had a grand old time paddling around the karsts and gaping at the gorgeous views. Unfortunately, we got a bit carried away and our tour guide, whose name sounds like “Juan-Juan,” had to come chase us back to the floating boat dock. We were then shipped to “The Amazing Caves,” which consistrd of some pretty incredible, cavernous and beautiful caves inside one of the karsts. We were there for about an hour, following a well worn path and having to wait as the tourists clogged up the place. It was still  pretty, though, and the views from the landing once we climbed lots of stone steps was worth it all.

We were then shipped back to our boat and told we had free time and could swim if we wanted. Well, I love the water and so in I went, jumping off the side of the boat. It was absolutely gorgeous, cool water but not cold. The sun was setting and the landscape… seascape?…bayscape?!… was absolutely majestic. It hit me that I was well and truly dazzled by everything. I was swimming in a magnificently strange bay of Vietnam, and everything about the experience was right. I floated and I dove and I jumped off the boat again. I had achieved travel bliss and it was good.

Once I wore myself out with swimming, I hauled myself onto the boat again and showered. My bathroom is a toilet, sink and shower hose with a head on it, all in one small cube, but the water was hot and it felt good. I think that I really have gotten a bit tired of traveling and that this trips was serving it’s purpose: to remind me that I was doing and seeing something foreign and amazing.

Dinner was delicious and I ordered a glass of Vietnamese white wine from Dalat. I can’t say it was particularly good, although I liked it enough to finish it. Our little English-speaking group chatted for quite some time after everyone else left, which is how we were invited to partake in karaoke with our tour guide and, eventually, the boat crew. I sang “The Devil Went Down to Georgia,” “Barbie Girl,” and “The Gambler.” Megan sang a few too and we even got Yana to sing one. Then the boat crew started with Vietnamese songs. We listened for a bit and then everyone was ready to retire (except the boat crew).

That’s when I came up here to enjoy the top deck, which I have all to myself. It’s barely 9:30pm and I feel like it should be midnight.

Orion is fully risen now, hunting Taurus and chasing after the Seven Sisters. What a great sight to bid a cheerful: good night!

--Z