We arrived in Hanoi late on Christmas Eve, but it was OK....the whole city was still out in force, apparently celebrating Santa. Everyone was in the streets dressed in full santa's outfits, or at worst, holding onto a huge helium balloon of his face. Come the next morning, actual Christmas Day, not a red suit was in sight and all the kids were at school. It was OK though, we were off to Halong Bay - the bay hosting thousands of limestone rock formations emerging from emerald green water.
Halong Bay was undeniably spectacular. What was even more spectacular were the whole communities that lived and worked...even went to school......on the water miles out to sea. Growling guard dogs were planted on each floating property to secure it of any valuables (and to terrify us people kayaking past incase a freak current bore us into their lair) and lone women loitered near the tourist areas in their small boat 'shops' offering any kind of (overpriced) refreshment you could want.
Halong Bay was beautiful, but I felt stifled by all the tours. I didn't enjoy the bizzare cave tour ("what does this rock look like.....? It's a penguin, see, a penguin") or having the regimented kayaking, eating, waking, swimming times. I was also a bit miffed that no-one else wanted to unleash the karaoke machine with me, so I persuaded Lee to abandon ship and at the nearest island make our own way from there.
The nearest island was Cat Ba, and a beautiful island it was! A scooter for $5 a day and you're off! We found a cheap hostel on the bay which boasted a lovely collection of 90's soft porn pictures, as well as the best Vietnamse food around, and headed out for adventure. White sand beachs on the coast, conical hat-wearing workers in the fields & forest clad mountains all around. Needless to say I was click happy.
The only shame of this island, same as Halong Bay, was the ever-looming precense of tourism, existing and in the make. Every nice beach had been made into a resort, and huge areas has been flattened to make space for more. I wish I could have visited 10 years ago and I think I would be sad if I visited in another 10. The fear that Vietnam is selling out long-standing beauty for short-term gain hit me numerous times on my trip. But what country doesn't, we might ask?
One place certainly devoid of all tourists was the almost-impossible-to-find 'hospital cave' where the Viet Cong had secretly lived for up to 10 years at a time during the American War. Just as we were trying to find our way up to it a local man appeared, produced a set of keys and offered to show us inside. After cranking open the rusty metal door he stepped inside and beckoned me in. I stepped into the clammy darkness and then he put a gun to my head. My mind raced between believeing this was a joke and that it was serious, but his unsmiling face didn't make me feel better. Suddenly, the old devil burst in raucous laughter, took great joy in mimicing my facial expressions (which im sure were more exaggurated than my cool reaction) and showed me that it was a replica gun. Ha ha.....nice one.....haha.
The cave, ingeniously built from the inside, and utterly invisible from the out, once boasted washing areas, a kitchen, even a swimming pool and cinema. Sounds almost 5 star. Actually, once inside the air was clammy, thick and dark and I wouln't have wanted to spend 10 hours in there let alone 10 years. One section required you to crawl, on your stomach, about 30 metres into another section which opened up again. Lee led the way, but after about 20 metres realised he 'wasn't really enjoying it' and wanted to go back. I started to crawl out but I suddenly became hooked on something in the ceiling and was trapped. I wasn't hooked onto something....something was hooked onto me! The local man had silently crawled behind me, stretched his body onto the pitch black ceiling of the cave and had grabbed me! Once again, his raucous laughing echoed around the cave. "Two times....haha.....Two times!". Once again, old man, thank you. As we left we gave him a tip for showing us the cave, but really, the old bugger should have paid me compensation.
The following day involved a boat trip around the quieter Lan Ha Bay - which is identical tro Halong Bay but with numerous hidden white sand beaches, and considerably less tourists.....making it considerably nicer. We kayaked, swam, visited beaches with monkeys, got sunburnt and returned at sunset. A beautiful day.
The next day we were Sapa bound - so we had just one thing left to do on Cat Ba - visit the National Park in the morning. We expected an easy saunter through some rainforest, me in my flipflops and Lee with a beer in hand, until we realised what a terrible error we had made with this hugely steep, climbing ascent up to the viewing point. Too stuborn to admit defeat, I did it mostly in barefoot while cursing all the hiking-boot clad tour groups around me.
The view at the top was spectacular - unending rainforest as far as the eye could see. But once again I felt stifled by tour groups, especially after one too many "should have brough your hiking boots, hey" comments and so was eager to move on to less touristy lands.....
Sapa and the North!
Ahhhh, there's more! just discovered all this x
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