Halong Bay - Day 1

Sunday the 8th of June saw us rush home from work, pack a couple of last minute things, grab a bite to eat, say goodbye to Craig and Julie Sharratt before they headed back to SA and then try to find a taxi. Halong Bay was waiting for us. We took the treacherous drive to the airport (well lets face it, all driving in Vietnam is treacherous) to catch a flight up to Hanoi. We heard that the airport can get a little bit crazy as lines don't always mean anything in Vietnam so we arrived with ample time. We only had carry on luggage, so checked in relatively quickly. We then made our way to security so that we could go through to the gates, since there was nothing to do and no where to sit in departures. Through went Mel, no problem. Ross followed with confidence, only to be stopped. We had liquids in our one bag! In South Africa you can very easily get away with having a toiletry bag in your hand luggage. In Vietnam however, this is a huge no-no. So we were sent back to check-in the bag that housed our toiletries. We went to the counter only to be redirected to another counter. Ross kindly offered to sort it out and left Mel waiting at the original counter. After what felt like ages, he made his way back having finally managed to pay for the baggage (the line story - Ross was pushed to the back a few times). So off our bag went into the belly of the plane and through security we went, this time with no hassle.

Every time we reached an airport checkpoint or counter, somebody would ask Mel if she was pregnant. This was extremely strange and she eventually resolved never to wear the dress she was wearing ever again, as it obviously wasn't very flattering! We discovered why after we boarded the plan - after a bit of a (stinky) wait. We were seated at the emergency exit seats (yay for more leg room) and pregnant ladies can't occupy those seats. Crisis over, Mel could keep wearing the dress!

Waiting, waiting, waiting

The flight up to Hanoi is about 2 hours and luckily it went by quite quickly. The only annoying thing was that the airline sells 2 minute noodle type things, so the entire plane stank the whole way there!

After we collected our baggage, we were greeted outside by a wonderful sight... Cam and Lisa! They had taken an earlier flight up from Hoi An and waited for us so that we could be transported to our hotel together. It was great to be reunited again. The airport is about 45 minutes outside of Hanoi so we used the time to catch up, but most of the talking was done to distract us from what a terrible driver we had! We were all scared for our lives at one point or another, but we made it to our hotels in one piece.

After a great, but short, sleep (since we arrived so late), we had a quick breakfast and then we were fetched by our tour operators. We drove for about an hour (again fearing for our lives due to the reckless driving) before we had a pit stop at a marble statue shop. The store was extremely expensive, so our advice to all travelers is to pack some snacks as you certainly don't want to be buying any snacks there. After another hour of trying not to notice how many times we were almost in a head-on-collision, we made it to Halong City (the section we drove through was a real dump!) and had our first glimpse of the wonderful cliffs protruding from the sea. We were taken to the harbour to catch a tender boat to the boat we would be staying on. Lisa and Mel decided that no trip would be complete without a traditional Vietnamese hat. They were unfortunately ripped off as their bargaining skills weren't so sharp. Ross definitely should have been sent to be the negotiator!

The view while waiting for the tender boat to come and pick us up

Do we look like locals??

Finally on the tender

After some more waiting, we got onto the tender and were taken to our boat. We were shown to our rooms then went up for lunch. What a wonderful spread! Calamari, clams, carrot salad... all delicious!

Enjoying some tea on the top deck

Snacks anyone? The local vendors

After lunch, we were taken to a cave. We walked into the first chamber thinking 'no big deal, we've seen way better caves in SA', then we walked down a little gap in the rocks and into the spectacular main cave which we definitely were not expecting! Unfortunately we had some rather annoying kids on our tour who would not keep quiet so we couldn't hear much of our tour guide's explanation about the cave.

Can you see the legs dangling over the side of the cliff?

After the cave visit, we went back to our boat to get ready to go swimming! Unfortunately you cannot swim in Halong Bay due to safety regulations, so there was no jumping off the boat like we had thought. Thankfully, we were taken to a beach were swimming is allowed. There was a walk leading up to the top of the hill of the island were the beach was and Ross, Cameron and Mel decided to walk up to check out the view. Unfortunately none of us took our cameras because we didn't want to take them to the beach, so we couldn't get any pics but the view was amazing! Well worth walking up the 407 stairs. We then went for a very well deserved swim. We were a bit disappointed as the water in Halong Bay is quite dirty. There is a lot of rubbish in it and Mel and Lisa got very freaked out by a stray chip packet that viciously attacked them!

From there it was back to the boat for a wine tasting (Da Lat wine has absolutely nothing on the wonderful wine in South Africa) and springrolls. We then showered and it was dinner time. Yet another huge spread was put out in front of us. Everything was absolutely delicious. Some people then tried their luck at fishing for squid, and we joined. Luck was not on our side and no one caught anything however we did see a really huge jellyfish!

And so ended a very successful day in Halong Bay.