We bit the bullet and joined another tour. It's pretty much the only way to get on a boat in Halong Bay. The 3 hour drive wasn't bad, and thankfully our guide wasn't partial to long-winded multi-lingual speeches. We had been told by our hotel and by the driver that there would be 14 people on the boat. We found out, after-the-fact, that this meant 14 people sleeping on the boat. 20 other Asian tourists joined us for the day, including a group of Vietnamese Karaoke singers. This was broadcasted over the speakers for the first hour and was less than entertaining. Bad singing in a language you don't understand, and LOUD, well, we won't continue to complain...highlights of the day included:
1. Enjoying the spectacular views. Halong Bay is a body of water filled with tons of tiny karst mountain islands. You boat among these islands and watch the sun set. Really sublime.
2. A jaunt inside the "Surprise Cave." Or, as we thought, our guide was saying, the "Amazing Sublime Cave." He walked us through the cave and pointed out lots of rock formations, asking us to guess what they were. We would, of course, guess wrong and then he would tell us the story behind the elephant, the happy buddha, the lucky buddha, the sea lion, the dragon (does anyone know the difference between a European dragon and an Asian dragon?) or whatever it was. He had a sense of humor, too:
Yap (our guide): Does anyone know what this is?
Dutch guy: It looks like a turtle.
Yap: Yes, it is a turtle. Is it male or female?
Dutch guy: I think male.
Jen: I think it's a female.
Yap: It isn't a male or female turtle. It is a rock.
Hahaha, Yap! From then on when he asked what the formations were we simply said they were rocks.
3. Kayaking around one of the islands
4. Clare jumping in the water from the top deck of the boat and not getting stung by any jelly fish
5. Chatting with Yap about his aspirations for a better job
6. The other characters on our boat -- here's the line-up:
1 lone Irish traveler
2 Canadian ditzes (they didn't know why their kayak wasn't moving forward....yeah, it was still tied to the dock)
3 young goofy/talkative British college boys who are motorbiking through Vietnam
2 older Dutch women eager to coax the British boys into diving into the water naked (awkward)
1 Dutch couple who really hated the karaoke and learned on the boat that Oreos were delicious cookies and not made of licorice
1 French couple who we couldn't communicate with
4 or 5 crew members who took copious notes on our beverage consumption so they could charge us later
7. Row boat ladies who rowed up to our boat on numerous occasions to sell cookies (Oreos and others), Pringles, beer, wine, etc.
We had a comfortable night in our air-conditioned cabin. Unfortunately, we missed the sunrise (we were told it would be at 6 but that was false), but we enjoyed coasting on the boat until noon when we disembarked and headed back to Hanoi.
Tomorrow we're going to see the Perfume Pagoda, and on Friday we fly from Hanoi to Luang Prabang, Laos.
