Howling Bay
Trip Start
Jan 01, 2009
1
50
Trip End
Ongoing
Halong Bay, Vietnam
Sunday, May 1, 2011
As we neared the dock, traffic grinded to a halt. Apparently, tonight their is going to be a huge celebration to rally support and votes for Halong Bay to be selected as one of the 7 wonders of nature. Currently, it is one of 28 finalist competing for this honor; Halong Bay is already a UNESCO World Heritage site. Combine this celebration with the Reunification Day holiday equates to A LOT of people trying to catch their boat to the bay. Deciding to walk part of the way, Tracy shepparded the group to our ferry. We lucked out. There will be no other people on the boat, so we have the junk all to ourselves. Sailing for 1.5 hours, we passed many karst islet on our way to our anchorage. Using some imagination, you can make out all kinds of animal shapes in the rocks like a toad, turtle, horse, buffalo, elephant and rooster...maybe they should have called it zoo bay instead of descending dragon bay. Before dropping anchor, everyone gathered in the dining room for lunch.
At our anchorage, almost everyone elected to spend the rest of the afternoon kayaking. Allie with her bad ankle decided to stay on the boat. I wish I had a map of the bay so I could identify the islands nearby. There was one island with a shrine at the top and noticeable beach area. We had the option of kayaking to the beach, but we would have to pay a 20,000 Dong (hehe) entrance fee. Since the beach looked crowded and it looked very far away, we all chose to kayak to a nearby island with a cave entrance. There was an entrance fee of 5000 Dong(haw it never gets old), which we paid. Hopefully, they did not mind getting soggy notes because they got wet during the kayak over to the island. The cave entrance led to a lagoon enclosed by high limestone walls. A troop of monkeys entertained us for a while until the group of Koreans showed up. They must be on an identical itinerary because they keep appearing at the same places. Their singing scared the monkeys away, so we decided to head back to the boat. It was difficult identifying our boat from the dozen junks anchored. Fortunately, I remembered that our boat was flying sails with Bien Ngoc written on it.
Probably due to safety reasons, it is forbidden for passengers on the boats to go swimming in the bay. As we watched people on other boats break this rule, the two Steves were able to convince the captain to allow us to swim around the boat as long as we paid any fines he might receive. Lisa joined David, Laureen and the two Steves for a swim even though she could not swim. She kicked herself around the boat using one of the circular life preservers for flotation. Instead of swimming, I chose to sit up on the top deck and watch a glorious sunset. I thought we were busted when I spotted a small boat quickly, motoring towards out boat. It turned out to be a local villager trying to sell fruit and snacks. She was very persistent and would rap on the stateroom windows trying to get people to buy her stuff. This reminded me to make sure to lock the windows...you can not be too safe.
After dinner, everyone enjoyed a drink at the bar. On the TV they were broadcasting the pep rally for Halong Bay. There was a lot of singing and dancing. This got Lisa in the mood for some celebration on the boat. She had the stewards start up the karoke machine and enticed people to sing and dance. The two Steves obligued with a rendition of Dancing Queen. Paul did a very good Wilson Picket and sang Mustang Sally. Occasionally, Lisa or one of the stewards would sing a Vietnamese song. We even joined in a chorus of one Vietnamese song...it was easy "Da da da da da da da da da". Lisa amazed us by singing Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On". After quite a few liquid encouragements, I even bellowed out Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman". After a few more rounds and a few more songs, the steward shut our celebration down because it was almost midnight and they (along with the rest of the boats near us) wanted to sleep.
Some of the non-singers in the group woke up at sunrise for a morning yoga session with Tracy. As we were eating breakfast, the boat moved back towards shore. Before disembarking, we did have one more adventure when we took the transfer boat to a nearby island named Surprise Island. There was an extensive cave system on the island with some interesting rock formations, especially one in the third cave we entered which contained a phallic form; hence the surprise. I liked the formation that looked like someone dangling their feet on a rock ledge. I wished we could have spent more time on Halong Bay. I would definitely vote for the bay as one of the 7 wonders of nature.
