The Hanoi trip Pt 2 (Halong Bay)

The Ha long Bay trip was an unforgettable experience.

There are numerous travel packages around and for $25, it includes the transportation to HaLong Bay, cruise, lunch on the jung, kayaking and a visit to cave. And trust me, the experience worth every single penny. We were picked up by this small van at 830am in the morning with the rest of 10 other tourists from various countries such as US, Germany and UK. Travel in group is much more enjoying than traveling on our own as its really interesting to listen to the life and travel stories from all around the world, from different walks of life, and the best thing is when they are never stingy in sharing them.

Along the journey, I get to know this woderful lady named Emily (the one with white hair in the photo), she is one interesting lady with endless friendly aura radiating all over and very much down to earth. It come to me a surprise later the end of trip that she is actually a phD holder and an executive director. Thanks to her chattiness, the atmosphere in the van was light and easy, it really helped us endured the three and a half hours of boring journey in a cramp and stuffy van.

We were brought to the destination with a Oriental looking Sail ship called jung with dragon head and a nice open deck. I was wondering why on earth that all the jung have dragon head instead of you know mermaid head or other mystic creatures (i thought chinese are the only race that obsessed about dragon). Browsing through internet and i found the stories behind halong bay which is very much related to the dragons. Apparently, the legend tells a story of the Jade Emperor sending the mother dragon and her band of child dragons to help Viet people when they are attacked by invaders. The dragons descended in flocks from the sky, spat out immumerable pearls which changed into jade stone island the moment they touch the water, the islands linked together to form firm citadels that checked the enemy's advance and smashed their vessels to pieces. After the invaders were driven out, Mother Dragon and child dragons stayed on earth and soon landed on Ha Long and Bai Tu Long (from http://www.halongboat.com/halong/legend.htm)

At first we see nothing as the jung sailed into the wide open sea, however, in just a short 10 minutes, the jung entered into this mysterious path which was surrounded with more than 1800 limestone mountains dotting the sea scape. As the the Jung sailed through, the path just opened up and every island is very much beautiful by its own.

Emily and his husband, cant remember his name, but we secretively called him Albert Einstein (because of his white hair)

Finally we reached one of the island with the biggest limestone caves -Hang Sung Sot in which we were led by the tour guide to visit caves where the art was drawn by the hand of the nature. The stalactite/limestone formations was fascinating and vision to behold, hanging on the cave's ceiling, it forms various structure and statues, some looks like the mystic creatures of Vietnamese legend: turtle, dragon, phoenix and the unicorn, not exactly look-alike but well, sort of, according to our vibrant vietnamese tour guide. For a short (or petite) guy, he is full of vibe and zest. He spoke of the legend and the stories with so much of enthusiasm and pride, as if he live through the times itself.

After the cave visit, we went for Kayaking. It is not a new thing for me but was definitely a highlight of the entire Halong journey. I have tried kayaking in Lake district, UK and Permai beach, Kuching before, but kayaking in the middle of the wide open sea surrounded by limestone islands, that’s something new. Its pretty funny that the tour guide just throw us into this small kayak and expecting us to start kayak by our own. Well, I am not saying it’s a tough task, however, imagine the dunno-how-deep-is-the-water running underneath of you and once a while waves beating the kayak and threatened to turnover, and furthermore the only protection you had is the piece of life saving jacket which is hanging loosely on your body. It can be quite scary and real fun at the same time (once you get the hang of it of course).

In the middle of ocean, suddenly the sound of the crowd ceases, the whole world turned still, the sound of the waves, the buoyancy, the clear blue sky, its very much just nature and you.
Anyway to cut the story short, after the kayaking, we went back in a speed boat which cruise at 120km/hr speed. With the wind blowing so hard, my face nearly turn into plastic. So in one short day, i've experienced the jung cruise, kayak and speed boat, and Emily joked that maybe the next is life boat. -___-