Travelogue - Hanoi, Vietnam April 2013 (3)

That day, we took a day trip to the UNESCO Heritage site - Ha Long Bay! Woke up really early to take a 4-hour bus ride!

We arrived at a jetty, got onboard on a small ferry and lunch was served while the ferry cruised out to the bay. The jetty was pretty crowded and it dawned upon me that the day we went was a Sunday hence many Vietnamese may have brought their families there for a day trip too.

Waiting for lunchhhhhh.

If this is Vietnamese fried spring roll, then I like it.

After about half an hour, the bay was in sight! Woohoo!

Bad hair. Because of bad wind.

Ruth's is worse. Hahahahahaha!

Yep, we have arrived at the famous Ha Long Bay. "Ha" means "down" and "Long" means "Dragon" which also means "descending dragons". Legends have it that in the ancient times, Vietnam entered a war hence as the gods tried to protect Vietnam, they sent a family of dragons to protect Vietnam. The dragons spat out jewels and jade which later turned in islands and islets around the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Eventually, they won some battles and the dragons decided to live in this bay.

Nope, didn't see any dragons.

Not in there either.

Guy in light blue was our guide. They speak pretty good English and are quite helpful!

The ferry stopped at kelong-like site where we all disembarked from the ferry and got ready for kayaking!

Seriously, I cannot emphasise more on being situationally aware about your environment. I am one of the most clumsy persons I know on earth but even my common sense told me that I should not kayak to where the big boats are. Right!?

If you look at the photo below, two of the tourists on my ferry actually kayaked to the back of these ferries. Worse, the ferries were trying to reverse out to leave! And they were clueless about how to manoeveur the kayak away from the ferries hence people at the kelong were desperately shouting, screaming to those on the ferry, in order to get their attention. Thankfully, the ferry stopped moving in time and the two tourists moved away slowly. I think they may have just cut their kayaking short and rested on the ferry to wait for us, haha.

Ruth looking totally like a coach!

Kayaking there was an experience of a lifetime. It was serene, we could heard our paddles being pushed into the water, the ripples forming and just enjoying the majestic scenery around us. We could paddle really close to the rocks and touch them and that was just awesome. I felt so small and humble being surrounded by nature.

 Also felt like at any point of time, an ancient swordsman would just fly out and start to duel with his opponent, like those we watched in 武侠片! Hahaha!

Yeah, that was what we did - kayak, stop, take photo, rest, kiao-kar, kayak, admire, go "woooowwww", kayak, laugh, kayak super fast and competitively, explore, rest, kiao-kar somemore.

Bringing my dry bag was one of the best decisions made in my life!

We were one of the last pairs to return to the ferry! Went onboard the ferry again and they brought us to another islet.

This one is called The Paintbrush Island or something. Can't remember.

Disembarked the ferry and enter a cave. We didn't like it because it was crowded with people and with all the lights, it looked way commercialised. Quickly breezed through the pathways paved for the tourists!

Ha Long Bay is definitely becoming a super super hot tourist spot! I will be coming back in November this year with my parents and this time round, I hope to do something different or at least visit a different place!

On our coach back, we met a British girl whose name is Ruth as well and she was travelling alone so we invited her to join us for dinner! She had to change hotels that night so we went back with her to her hotel to grab her bags and helped her move to another hotel, settled down and out for dinner we went! Brought her to the roadside BBQ place we patroned the night before and she enjoyed it! :)

We were all tired but happy from the day's travels! Ha Long Bay was the highlight of our trip! :) I think it wouldn't be easy to travel there by yourself so you would probably have to book a day trip out.

Till the next! :D