Halong bay, Vietnam

June 15,2010




As we drove to Halong bay we passed fields filled with people harvesting rice. As they sloshed through the knee deep water they carefully cut the long stalks to be carried out of the field in baskets by the next worker. They than placed the stalks of rice onto the highway or diked up area and let it dry before placing it into the thresher. We saw many different ways that they removed the rice from the fields. Sometimes they used oxen or water buffalo.Sometimes they carried it out on baskets and sometimes they left the stalks in the fields in little piles to dry before threshing.

a village on the water in the bay

As we arrived at the coast we couldn’t help but marvel at the amazing Halong Bay islands in front of us. Our small taxi boat arrived to carry us to the bigger junk boat. As we left the bay on the junk boat I couldn’t believe how silent it was. It felt so surrene simply floating along through the amazing islands. No yelling, asking if we wanted to by very cheep anything and thank goodness no more honking.

The food and sleeping quarters were better than we had been expecting. We had heard a few stories about very dissatisfied tour groups and so we hoped our boat would be better. It definatly was. The food during the tour was some of the best we have eaten so far. There was always more than we could possibly eat in one sitting. The rooms on the boat were also great.

That afternoon, we stopped at a huge cave. We to got to hike through the caves for an hour or so and then got onto cyaks to inspect the islands from close up. It was very fun to search for small caves that we could paddle into. Most were only 10 feet deep or so.

In the late afternoon we put on our bathing suits and jumped off the boat for a refreshing swim in the bay. It has been 36-38 degreees with 100 % humidily and so we really needed to get into the water. After our swim we were again treated to an amazing assortment of dishes including shrimp, fish cakes, beef dishes, chicken dishes and squid dishes. Also including rice and watermellon. So good.



In the evening we all hung out on the top deck of the junk boat talking about our travels with the others on the boat and amazed at the beauty around us. We all snuggled into our cabins for the night and had a great sleep. Luckily we had A/C.

this lady is drying her peanuts on the sidewalk

In the morning we sailed over to Catba island to stay our second night. We were picked up at the harbour by bus to transfer across Haylong bays biggest island to the town. Along the way we stopped at the National park for a long hour hike up to the top of a very high mountain. It was one of the hardest treks ever. In the hot sun and humidity. I felt like turning back many times. At the start of the hike there were 300 or so steps before the hard part started.

After the hike we loaded back onto the bus for the 20 km ride to the town. At this time Dean started feeling a bit under the weather and still feels a bit crummy from heat stroke. That afternoon we went by ferry to another island called Monkey island for the monkeys that live there. After another swim in the ocean we went to search for the monkeys. We found 1 fat one near the beach. I’m sure he was waiting for the tourists to come and give him some treats