Ha Long Bay in the northeast of Vietnam is a
bay that features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and
shapes. It has a 120 kilometer long coastline and is approximately 1,553 square
kilometers in size with 1969 islets. In 2011 it was declared as one of the
seven new wonders of nature according to the New7Wonders Initiative, a
Swiss-based foundation led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber.
My trip to Ha Long Bay started on early
Saturday morning around 5AM. Two blond girls couldn’t show up at the bus
station in Thai Nguyen without being noticed and without Vietnamese people
trying to sell us stuff. Some random guys were trying to make us go with their
buses to completely different destinations, even though we told them that we
were going to Ha Long Bay. They are always really persistent in trying to sell
you something and the worst thing is that there is no way to explain them that
you are not willing to buy anything from them. Luckily, our bus came in 20
minutes and as soon as we entered in it, they gave up. The bus ride to Ha Long
City was 5 hours long and I wanted to get some sleep but it was a mission
impossible. As usually, the bus was packed and there were many kids whose
mothers were just letting them play some crazy Vietnamese songs very loud on
their cell phones. Lucky as I am, one of these kids who were playing loud music
was sitting right next to me, and another one behind me. There was also some
music in the background. Moreover, since the traffic in Vietnam is absolutely
crazy and with no rules, my bus ride
looked like a slalom ride with the main goal not to hit motorcycles, which was
accompanied by noise that our driver was making by honking every 3 seconds.
Even though this probably sounds as a complete chaos, this is what actually
gives Vietnam its special charm. So I gave up from trying to fall asleep and
decided to just admire the view from my window, which was absolutely amazing;
with unlimited fields of rice, farmers doing harvest and buffalos walking
around.
We arrived in Ha Long City around 11 AM and
needed to figure out what to do. You can choose between many boat cruises that
you can book through tourist agencies and have everything organized, but it
wouldn't be me if I didn't make it on my own way. I read on Internet that you
can get a cheaper boat cruise if you don't do an overnight stay on a boat, so
instead of sleeping on a boat I decided to stay on Cat Ba Island. We
booked a boat and were ready to depart at 1 PM. The cruise around the islands
lasted for 4 hours and we also visited one of the many caves in Ha Long Bay. It
was amazing; words can't describe that beauty and that feeling when you know
that you are finally there, after watching pictures of it on Internet so many
times.
There were other backpackers on the same boat with us so we made some
friends. Around 5.30 PM we arrived on Cat Ba Island. However, we soon figured
out that the boat left us in the middle of nowhere and that we had no choice
but to take a bus that completely overcharged us. This is what often happens in
Vietnam; in tourist areas you always have to be careful that they don't rip you
off or sell you something that you don't need. People from my boat were
extremely unhappy with the situation and were trying to complain, it was like
they were talking to a wall. When we arrived in the city centre of Cat Ba
Island, we found a hostel together with other backpackers. Probably the best
thing about going to very tourist areas of South East Asia is the chance to
meet a lot of backpackers from all around the world. So we had a dinner with them and later we
wanted to make a party, but everything closes really early in Vietnam so we had
to make a party on the streets of Cat Ba by ourselves. Locals were selling us
beers and we stayed there until early morning hours. We decided that it was
really about time to go to bed when we saw people jogging around and doing Tai
Chi.
Plan for the next day was to motorcycle
around the island. If you want to rent a motorcycle in Vietnam, it will cost
you almost nothing. We paid 4$ for renting a motorcycle and 3-4$ for petrol. It
was a really good decision because Cat Ba Island is very beautiful, with sandy
beaches and exotic vegetation, but there is not much to do there, except to
admire the nature. In the evening we had
one more party, and again a lot of international people joined. On Monday,
instead of going back to Thai Nguyen I ended up in Hanoi. Hanoi is a very nice
city, but this will be a story for the next time since I decided to move to
Hanoi.
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