One of the big highlights of Vietnam was Ha Long Bay. Matt and I knew that this was a must-see trip and had decided to book a three day boat cruise, setting off from Hanoi. Ha Long Bay is an area off the coast of Vietnam consisting of huge limestone islands in all kinds of shapes and sizes, but it really is hard to describe it in words so I'll let the photos speak for themselves.
We weren't really sure what to expect with our package cruise but it wasn't long before our ship set sail and we were finally out on the sea. Hurrah! About half an hour passed and we were in the thick of it: hundreds of karsts (think that this is the technical name for these islands) emerged around us and all the strangest shapes and sizes! To make matters more exciting, lunchtime had arrived! Yay! Here we experienced about 10 courses of seafood. Yes, 10 courses! This was not the weight watchers cruise! Matt was a bit wary of the seafood menu I think, given his aversion to crustaceans (he would later overcome this, even ordering crab in restaurants..!), and even I was a little wary that we would end up with fish head soup or something of that nature. But needless to say, we were both very wrong in our trepidations about the food and ended up loving it all! We ate all sorts, from squid to shrimp to catfish, and I don't think there was one dish that we didn't enjoy. We were also both sooo relieved that Matt had finally recovered and was now ready to fully appreciate all the deliciousness Ha Long Bay had to offer!
Unsurprisingly, meal times do take some time and it was well past midday until we got the chance to do some exploring. After passing by various vessels (some of them with their own sea dogs! Super cute!) we stopped at a floating village, which is exactly what you'd expect it to be: small communities going by their daily lives on the river. Here we got to kayak or take a rowing boat around a few of the islands. After our fun rowing in Kampot, we opted for the kayaking option and were pleasantly surprised by just how quiet and calm the waters were here. It is really quite a relaxing experience - or at least it is until you become aware that you are surrounded by literally MILLIONS of jellyfish! Matt wasn't half as bothered by this as me but I knew there was no way I would let this boat capsize among all of this freakish sea-life! Anyway, I tried not to let my weird (and probably irrational) fear of these critters get the best of me and we had a pleasant little row around the floating islands before hopping back on to the cruise ship. Such amazing sights. And I'm pleased to say that we didn't capsize.
After this, the boat set sail again and we were on our way to a lagoon where we we would stop for a swim. Apparently less jellyfish here - but I wasn't willing to risk it. Matt was the guinea pig and took the plunge. I used the excuse of having a cold (no idea how I managed to catch one in Vietnam?!) so just watched and took some pictures, also making sure there were no jellyfish giants lurking around waiting to attack haha. Matt had an explore in the water; he even did a full loop around the ship, (also ending up with a lung-full of boat exhaust pipe fumes, not in a hurry to do that again!). I hear the water was fairly cold but the swimming looked like lots of fun actually!
After this the boat set sail again from our night time spot and the sun began to set. Although the sky was fairly cloudy on this day, we got some excellent views that we admired from the top deck as the sun set with some happy-hour cocktails in hand, and felt very lucky to have experienced it this way.
It also didn't seem too long after our mammoth lunch until it became time for dinner: a twelve course seafood banquet this time! It was excellent and we had dinner with some interesting people. After this, we had the chance to go squid fishing so headed to this area to see how it was done. Coincidentally one of our new-found friends had some experience in fishing and managed to catch two small ones with an interesting technique of bobbing the fishing rod up and down near the light. It was unbelievable to see how much ink came out of them when caught, and not to mention weird to think they would be ending up on the menu the next day.
On day two we were to set sail for a more alternative route around the bay, which involved a pearl farm and more kayaking - this time around some of the natural caves and with the hope of seeing yellow crested monkeys, which are supposedly quite rare sights. So we departed onto a day boat and headed to the pearl farm, where we were to learn about the ins and outs of this lengthy process which takes years apparently! So according to our guide, a pearl is formed when a grain of sand is embedded between the two shells of an oyster, (in a process that is comparable to artificial fertilisation) and time and care is taken to develop a perfect gem. Some of them are perfect at least. The others sell for less! It was all very fascinating.
Following this, we visited some weird and wonderful caves via the kayaks, which made for some excellent rowing experience. We even saw the monkeys! And quite a few of them in fact! They didn't seem too perturbed by all the gawping tourists, and were quite happy to sit and stare at us by the shore. The baby ones were especially cute. We spent some time here before visiting a private beach, which turned out to be an excellent spot for a panorama!
At the end of the day, we ended up back at our night boat with a 12 course meal ahead. It's hard to remember some of the specifics about all the food we had but the dishes that stood out in particular for both of us were the monk fish and barbecued crab. We also got a cookery demonstration this night, which involved steaming shrimp with vodka, which is a speciality in Vietnam. This created a steam-room in the restaurant (definitely something to remember, but not sure we will be trying this at home!)
On day three we had half a day left to explore Ha Long Bay and were taken to one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) cave in Ha Long Bay. This was an incredible sight, laced with some magnificent stalagmites and stalactites, and a small Buddhists shrine which created the smell burning incense throughout the passages. So cool!
We then head back for a spring-roll demo and the chance to try our hand at rolling a few. The process seemed easy enough, involving some clever folding of pre-made shrimp, pork and veg mixture into little rolls with egg yolk. They were then deep fried and formed a part of another mega-brunch buffet, as we said our final goodbyes to the Bay and our glorious cabin!
After this feast, we practically rolled off the boat onto the shore, very happy to have seen these superb sights and bound for Hanoi once again!
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| Click to embiggen |
It takes a couple of hours in the bus North-bound to get to the Bay and once we arrived we were greeted with a thick fog over the distance and a fleet of docked boats that were all set for tourist cruises around the islands. Really, the scale of this was amazing and we could not believe how many cruise boats we saw at this stage. Weirdly, the water also had this emerald green tinge, which later made for some excellent photographs.
We weren't really sure what to expect with our package cruise but it wasn't long before our ship set sail and we were finally out on the sea. Hurrah! About half an hour passed and we were in the thick of it: hundreds of karsts (think that this is the technical name for these islands) emerged around us and all the strangest shapes and sizes! To make matters more exciting, lunchtime had arrived! Yay! Here we experienced about 10 courses of seafood. Yes, 10 courses! This was not the weight watchers cruise! Matt was a bit wary of the seafood menu I think, given his aversion to crustaceans (he would later overcome this, even ordering crab in restaurants..!), and even I was a little wary that we would end up with fish head soup or something of that nature. But needless to say, we were both very wrong in our trepidations about the food and ended up loving it all! We ate all sorts, from squid to shrimp to catfish, and I don't think there was one dish that we didn't enjoy. We were also both sooo relieved that Matt had finally recovered and was now ready to fully appreciate all the deliciousness Ha Long Bay had to offer!
Unsurprisingly, meal times do take some time and it was well past midday until we got the chance to do some exploring. After passing by various vessels (some of them with their own sea dogs! Super cute!) we stopped at a floating village, which is exactly what you'd expect it to be: small communities going by their daily lives on the river. Here we got to kayak or take a rowing boat around a few of the islands. After our fun rowing in Kampot, we opted for the kayaking option and were pleasantly surprised by just how quiet and calm the waters were here. It is really quite a relaxing experience - or at least it is until you become aware that you are surrounded by literally MILLIONS of jellyfish! Matt wasn't half as bothered by this as me but I knew there was no way I would let this boat capsize among all of this freakish sea-life! Anyway, I tried not to let my weird (and probably irrational) fear of these critters get the best of me and we had a pleasant little row around the floating islands before hopping back on to the cruise ship. Such amazing sights. And I'm pleased to say that we didn't capsize.
After this, the boat set sail again and we were on our way to a lagoon where we we would stop for a swim. Apparently less jellyfish here - but I wasn't willing to risk it. Matt was the guinea pig and took the plunge. I used the excuse of having a cold (no idea how I managed to catch one in Vietnam?!) so just watched and took some pictures, also making sure there were no jellyfish giants lurking around waiting to attack haha. Matt had an explore in the water; he even did a full loop around the ship, (also ending up with a lung-full of boat exhaust pipe fumes, not in a hurry to do that again!). I hear the water was fairly cold but the swimming looked like lots of fun actually!
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| Where's Wally??? |
After this the boat set sail again from our night time spot and the sun began to set. Although the sky was fairly cloudy on this day, we got some excellent views that we admired from the top deck as the sun set with some happy-hour cocktails in hand, and felt very lucky to have experienced it this way.
It also didn't seem too long after our mammoth lunch until it became time for dinner: a twelve course seafood banquet this time! It was excellent and we had dinner with some interesting people. After this, we had the chance to go squid fishing so headed to this area to see how it was done. Coincidentally one of our new-found friends had some experience in fishing and managed to catch two small ones with an interesting technique of bobbing the fishing rod up and down near the light. It was unbelievable to see how much ink came out of them when caught, and not to mention weird to think they would be ending up on the menu the next day.
On day two we were to set sail for a more alternative route around the bay, which involved a pearl farm and more kayaking - this time around some of the natural caves and with the hope of seeing yellow crested monkeys, which are supposedly quite rare sights. So we departed onto a day boat and headed to the pearl farm, where we were to learn about the ins and outs of this lengthy process which takes years apparently! So according to our guide, a pearl is formed when a grain of sand is embedded between the two shells of an oyster, (in a process that is comparable to artificial fertilisation) and time and care is taken to develop a perfect gem. Some of them are perfect at least. The others sell for less! It was all very fascinating.
 |
| Life is hard on the high seas |
At the end of the day, we ended up back at our night boat with a 12 course meal ahead. It's hard to remember some of the specifics about all the food we had but the dishes that stood out in particular for both of us were the monk fish and barbecued crab. We also got a cookery demonstration this night, which involved steaming shrimp with vodka, which is a speciality in Vietnam. This created a steam-room in the restaurant (definitely something to remember, but not sure we will be trying this at home!)
On day three we had half a day left to explore Ha Long Bay and were taken to one of the biggest (if not THE biggest) cave in Ha Long Bay. This was an incredible sight, laced with some magnificent stalagmites and stalactites, and a small Buddhists shrine which created the smell burning incense throughout the passages. So cool!
We then head back for a spring-roll demo and the chance to try our hand at rolling a few. The process seemed easy enough, involving some clever folding of pre-made shrimp, pork and veg mixture into little rolls with egg yolk. They were then deep fried and formed a part of another mega-brunch buffet, as we said our final goodbyes to the Bay and our glorious cabin!
After this feast, we practically rolled off the boat onto the shore, very happy to have seen these superb sights and bound for Hanoi once again!
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