June 21 – We checked out of the Serendipity Hotel, and might I say, highly recommended. Very centrally located, very friendly staff, great complimentary breakfast, clean rooms, and decently comfy beds, and GREAT PRICE. Not necessarily the fanciest or prettiest, but still a good option for travellers. Of the things I forgot to mention so far about Hanoi and Vietnam in general, most hotel, travel, or tour service people and venders know some English. It is pretty easy to communicate. If they don’t know English, they all have phones with internet to translate what they mean in real time. Awesome, right? But I think it’s good practice to learn at least a little bit of the language, anywhere you go, because local people appreciate that you try.
We made a mad dash from the hotel to the train station. I think we took the route less travelled by tourists because we were the ONLY non-Vietnamese people on the train. It was a little daunting, but I was proud of us for not doing what everyone else does – or rather, doing what none of the tourists typically do, which was take a luxury bus straight from their hotel to Halong Bay City. We took the train to Hai Phong, and from there a ferry or boat to Cat Ba Island.
Before the train left the Hanoi station, a very short woman (shorter than the seats we were sitting in) was selling candies and fans. It felt like she honed in on us because we were the only tourists on the train. She gave us a very pitiful face when we said no, and Noe ended up buying a pack of gum. She came back several times before the train left to push a fan on me, but I didn’t need one (my pack was already too full of stuff). Her voice was very guttural… I thought perhaps she might have been a Vietnamese indigenous woman.
Goodbye Hanoi, nice knowing ya – the train left the station. I had the window seat, and was enthralled with all of the sights to see, from rivers, to rice paddies, to cemeteries, to super tall skinny colourful buildings. I feel bad now, because I realized that while I was enjoying the scenery, Noe was tirelessly working to figure out how to get to Cat Ba Island and where we would stay. But here are some of the things I saw:
At one of the stops, we saw locals digging up gravel in teams of three – one man would guide the shovel, and two men would hull ropes attached to the shovel, giving it more power with every swing. They would shovel loads of gravel into a bucket on the rail, that would be taken somewhere else. Quite ingenious really. I might try this next time I have to shovel snow for my mom.
The toilets on the train are what you can expect for a toilet on a moving vehicle – messy. I would time going to the bathroom for when the train wasn’t moving, because if not, I would surely get someone else’s pee on me.
We made it to Hai Phong, and as I expected, we were the only non-local travellers on the platform. One local lady approached us and offered a great all inclusive deal to Cat Ba Island. She took us on two scooters to her business office, where we waited for a local bus to take us to the Hai Phong ferry terminal. The bus was full (with all local people), so we sat in the middle of the bus on two little stools, packed tightly between the seats, drinking beer haha.
At the ferry terminal, we realized that we lost our ticket for the boat…oops. But I think the ticketers were smart, because how else would two tourists in a sea of locals find themselves here to this particular boat, if someone hadn’t sold us a ticket? So we scrambled on sheepishly without our ticket, and reached Cat Ba, where we got on another bus that would take us to Cat Ba Town. A little girl was smiling, spying and waving at us. I think we have this effect on young children and dogs…for some reason, they like tourists.
The views from the bus were amazing! I saw so many boats, clear waters, hilly islands, goats, kingfishers, and little villages. When we got to Cat Ba Town, we were very disheartened, as it seemed all of the reasonable accommodations were taken. It was the weekend – duh – all the locals come here for vacation too. I easily became frustrated, and gave up, leaving the responsibility to Noe to figure it out as I enjoyed a Matcha Bubble Tea and an icecream bar. I also feel bad about this now, because I basically left all of the travel planning to him. He finally found us something close by – Baolong Hotel. At this point, all I wanted to do was sleep, even though it was 4pm in the afternoon. I slept all afternoon and night. I needed to sleep off the jet lag, the frustration of the day, and my bad mood overall. It took a good 15 hours to get all of that out of my system.
I was in a better mood by the morning, just in time to go on an unforgettable boat tour around Lan Ha Bay and Halong Bay. Cat Ba Ventures is a local travel company that does all sorts of treks around Cat Ba National Park. I highly recommend them for all of your travel tour desires. They are reasonably priced, and are very friendly and professional. We chose a day tour that would involve a stop at a local fish farm, cruising around the bays, swimming to secluded beaches, and kayaking through caves. We were taken from Cat Ba Town to Ben Beo Port, where we got on a luxurious boat with a downstairs dining area and an upstairs lounging deck.
There were about half locals and half tourists on the boat. These groups seemed to naturally segregate with tourists upstairs and locals downstairs. It may be because the locals do not like the sun, whereas tourists make a point of soaking up the sun. The guide explained that dark skin is not sexy for Vietnamese people. It is similar to Mexico in that respect. I think Noe looks part Vietnamese, because several locals have talked to him in Vietnamese, thinking he knew the language, and the guide asked him if he was half Vietnamese. Noe answered “I’m half Mexican and half Mexican” – the guide laughed.
The trip was beautiful! We passed Monkey Island, where mischievous monkeys roam – harassing tourists. Apparently they steal beer and get drunk, as well as other shenanigans. The guide said that there are macaques and super critically endangered white-headed langurs in Cat Ba National Park (there are 60 individuals left). I wasn’t fortunate enough to see a monkey that day. But I did see HUGE Vietnamese man size grouper fish, man(finger)-eating carps, bats, hidden lagoons, and numerous pillar-like limestone islands. Stay tuned for details below!
Our first stop of the day was at the biggest local fish farm that brings fish to Cat Ba Island, and I think to other parts of Vietnam. This is a very serious business – it takes lots of work and resources and time to grow big 100 kilogram fish. Apparently, if they get bigger than 100 kilograms, they start to taste bad. These fish can cost one million Vietnamese Dong (or $57 CAD) per kilogram (I think I am remembering this correctly). The guide said it would likely be double for tourists – just because of the nature of the business.
Except not all of the fish at the fish farm are harvested. This is the lucky fish of the fish farm – the biggest grouper of the bunch. This fish will stay with the fish farm until it dies, and is replaced by another BIG fish. All fish farms have a lucky fish to bring prosperity to the business. They become part of the family.
There were also some sort of carps that are very aggressive. They would sploosh around at the prospect of any food (or fingers).
Families that run the business do well for Vietnam, making about $1200 USD equivalent per month (but I’m sure this does not include the cost of running the business). Children would have to spend the week days on Cat Ba Island with other family members rather than with their parents on the farm because it is simply too far away from schools and hospitals.
The guide bought a few fish from the family as we left the farm. I think I know what we’re having for lunch!
Our next stop was a lovely little calm lagoon with a small secluded sandy/shelly/corally beach. I jumped 4 meters high from the top of the boat to the refreshingly warm waters below and swam to the beach. We found some cool shells! I particularly like the lumpy one.
Back on the boat again, we travelled some more to another part of Halong Bay. A note to other young travellers: don’t bring your portable speakers and subject the rest of the guests to your questionable music tastes. Do you own the boat? Are you part of the guide staff? Then don’t spoil someone else’s experience of peace and tranquility in a beautiful UNESCO World Heritage Site with electronic music – or ANY music. Thank you in advance. Unfortunately, all I could do at the time (not wanting to be confrontational – even though I know I could have taken them down) is sigh audibly. Here are some of the things I saw, while trying to ignore the obnoxious tunes:
As we cruised to another part of Halong Bay, our guide told us the legend that gave this bay its name. In ancient times, the southern Vietnam people were under invasion from Northern attackers that would come by sea. The Jade Emperor called the mother dragon and her children down from the sky to aid the Vietnam people with their divine fire and emeralds. The emeralds remain to this day as rocky islands of all shapes and sizes to keep sea invaders away. Ha Long literally means “Descending Dragon”. And that is the legend of Halong Bay.
Lunch time! Complete with fish spring rolls, rice, shrimp salad, chicken salad, and squid salad (check out them legs I am mowing on). To wash it all down, we were invited to try Happy Water, also known as strong rice wine. We counted together to four in Vietnamese – “một hai ba bốn!” and took the shot in one swig and tipped our glasses upside down to show off, as the locals do.
Following lunch, we cruised to another calm area of Halong for the main event – Kayaking, caves and secret lagoons! Noe and I got a tandem kayak, where I forcefully negotiated Noe taking the back and taking the camera (to take pictures of me of course) – as shown below:
Despite me dominating the front, Noe and I made a great tandem kayaking team. I heard that tandem kayaking is a real test for a strong relationship, and I think we passed. We were SO fast, paddling in unison and doing some really nice steering maneuvers. Because of this, we managed to stay in front of everyone most of the time, ruining all of their photos with the butt of our bright yellow kayak – oops.
I might have started a mini splash paddle battle with Noe in front of everyone – another oops. What started as a friendly sploosh, ended with me being completely drenched. I hope the onlookers knew it was all in good fun – I laughed extra hard so they didn’t think it was some sort of malicious watery abuse.
Back to the boat we went – and our next stop was another swimming location near another secluded beach. Though there were a lot more people this time from different tour boats. After swimming for a second round (following strenuous activity, a lot of sun, and a full belly of fresh seafood and happy water, not to mention the huge waves), I started to feel queazy. It was not a particularly joyous ride back to Ben Beo Port for either of us. Noe decided to try bamboo tobacco, where you smoke one hit of very strong tobacco through a big bamboo pipe. He claims his day is defined by before smoking and after smoking. Noe does not smoke in general, but just decided to give this a try for the cultural experience, so he was particularly affected. Another guy almost fainted.
I was ready to get off the boat, only to discover that as soon as we get to Ben Beo, we had to hop onto another boat to get to a rural jungle part of Cat Ba Island, Viet Hai Village. The only other way is a four hour hike through the jungle. I was very reluctant to get onto another boat because I KNEW I would hurl (aka. barf, puke, throw up, lose my lunch). But I still got on that little puttery loud gas-smelling slow speed boat anyways. Any hopes of making it without getting sick on the choppy waves were not realized.
Vacation isn’t always paradise. Complimentary China Airlines barf bag in hand, I was ready. Though the moments leading up to and during were not at all pleasant. I had a moment similar to the hero of the Atlantis cartoon movie where he says “carrots, why is it always carrots? I didn’t even eat carrots!” Noe was there handing me tissues and water, and the little captain of the boat was encouraging and understanding and didn’t kick me off for being gross. Getting to land could not happen soon enough. What felt like eternity was probably just under an hour to get to Viet Hai.
Finally, on dry land, I could rid myself of my rancid goodie bag, and get to the promised comfortable jungle bungalow. The port was very dark and quiet, with not a soul around. We were going to walk four kilometers through the jungle, still with a sensitive stomach, but thankfully a cart pulled over. The driver initially was going to charge us a comparable arm and a leg for a lift to our hotel, in which case we were contemplating walking at dusk through the jungle, until he learned we were staying at Lan Ha Homestay – so it was FREE! And thank god! It ended up being a long dark ride on narrow paths through a scary cave. I would have been so lost.
We arrived at a quaint little jungle village resort and were given a bungalow with everything you wouldn’t expect a rural jungle village to have – fast internet, unlimited hot water, air conditioning, virtually no indoor bugs, and very very clean! This truly is paradise. We were offered everything we could possibly need, including a special dinner – No dinner for me thanks! What I needed was a shower to wash off all of the salt and sweat and other gross stuff, and sleep off the day. We started watching King Kong Skull Island because of the scenes shot in Halong Bay, but didn’t make it through five minutes. And we slept.
June 23 (Today). Today is Noe’s birthday! Well technically it is tomorrow if you’re referring to Mexican time. We started the morning with a stroll through the village with just one road and mountains on either side. There were majestic cows, chickens dying in the street awaiting their final demise – chickens really have it bad here…come to think of it, they have it bad most places – friendly and not so friendly dogs, and locals that would sometimes smile and wave, or just keep to themselves. Butterflies would flit and floot right in front of us as we walked. Noe thinks that they do that on purpose to show off that they are beautiful butterflies (I would totally do that if I was a butterfly).
We had a lovely breakfast of banana and honey crepes, sweet garlicy fruit and delicious coffee. Following breakfast, the day was rather uneventful. We needed a day to recharge after a stressful week leading up to travelling, and start writing about our experiences so far. So here I am, writing to you from my junglow (jungle bungalow). Sometimes I’m outside in the hot and humid air writing from a hammock, or inside the cool air-conditioned suite. I took breaks only for lunch and catching glimpses of birds and butterflies.
The rural jungle village is far from silent or peaceful. Throughout the day, there were tiny table saw sounds of millions of what must be insects of the cicada family. In the morning, there was a weird hooting bird that sounded like a monkey. At night, the sounds were replaced with a chorus of toads and crickets, and yowling cats. Thankfully, there are not too many cases of annoying buzzings of mosquitos. So far, I have only been bitten twice. Not bad for several days in a tropical region.
We had an unexpected communal dinner of rice, curry chicken, prawns, and spring rolls with a French backpacking couple. They gave us tips for where to go in France and Europe in general for our future trip (stay tuned for next year’s ‘Laramie goes to Europe’ blog). Then we had a chat with another nice couple that might be interested in doing a hike with us tomorrow. I need to investigate a little more about the hike to the viewpoint of Cat Ba National Park tonight.
I am now all caught up with my Southeast Asia trip so far. I will try to blog at least a little bit every day, or every other day. Thanks for reading, and come again soon for more about my travels.
June 24 (Today) – You never would have guessed it was the rainy season, until now. It was raining outside…
It was raining inside…
It was raining EVERYWHERE!
From my hammock, I heard strong and long-winded thunder that signalled the coming downpour. I could see the waves of rain undulating across the sky in front of the misty mountains. I saw butterflies trying to fly between flowers like drunks as they were pummelled by huge rain drops. Instead of the tiny saw-like sounds of the cicadas, I heard an actual table saw, as well as rowdy toads, crickets, and the weird hooting bird again that goes whop whop whop (No, it wasn’t an owl – I would know). At one point, there was a herptile (amphibian/reptile) screaming from the awning of our junglow. We spotted an Asian house lizard, but I think the sound came from something else – a toad maybe took a wrong turn somewhere into the roof and discovered a fear of heights. Locals started chanting in the background for some kind of celebration – maybe a rain dance? I don’t know. And nothing like water gets the bugs so excited…I might have spoken too soon when I said I only had two bites. We were on the menu today.
Complimentary breakfast was not too exciting – Eggs in a bun, but coffee with condensed milk always makes my morning. I learned how to ask for more coffee – “xin lỗi” (pronounced “seen loy”) meaning excuse me, “một ly cà phê” (pronounced “moat lee cafe”) meaning “one coffee please.” If you want a cold coffee, it’s “cafe da.”
After breakfast, we lounged and finished our writing. During a break in the rain, a group of retired military or police officers in their decorated suits walked through the resort. I respectfully said hello “xin chào” (seen chow), and then one older gentlemen starting talking to me and asking me questions in Vietnamese! I looked blankly at him, and put my hand to my heart and said “sorry, I don’t speak Vietnamese,” did a little bow nod, and embarrassed, went back to the junglow. He was probably asking if I stayed in that junglow and how I like it here. I really need to learn some more Vietnamese.
Towards the later afternoon (like 4:30pm), the rain stayed away and the cicadas started seeing again. We took that as our signal to go for a hike. With so much water on the air, the smells were amazing. It smells sweeter after a rain (like anywhere), but also more wild! The agricultural areas flooded, and all of the hidden waterbirds and amphibians were going nuts. We walked to the edge of the village and tried to go up to the Cat Ba National Park viewpoint. It was only 2 kilometres there, but we decided it was too risky to try climbing it today. It was so mucky, there were dangerous electric cables strewn across the path, and it seemed steep. Coming down would be a problem, and we would definitely not be back in time for dinner. So we just enjoyed to scenery and nature at the bottom:
After exploring around the lookout trail head, we decided to continue walking down another trail to the ancient Vietnamese houses in the jungle. Below is the gateway and the well to the ancient village.
Passing through this gate felt like we entered another time. Families were playing soccer in the ancient patios, and hanging their laundry and leaning their bikes and belongings around the old architecture. It felt like the old embraced the new generations with open arms. There were numerous old buildings on the outskirts of a field with a main house that was converted to a restaurant for visitors. Below are some of the scenes I captured (filtered for effect):
After exploring, we realized it was dinner time! We ran all the way back in the hot and humid air to our junglow. On the way, we passed the locals having a volleyball tournament (the net seemed a little short). I would have loved to play with them but they had full teams, and to be honest, the ball seemed a little hard. Buckets of sweat were pouring off us by the time we reached the resort. But we dove right into our meal anyways without a shower. The table was set for six of us (three couples). We had very grown up chats about work and travel and Masters degrees and politics and cancer research.
After a long day in the rain/post rain, I was impressed with what the humidity does for my thick (typically straight if only slightly wavy) hair. Fabulous curls on either side of my face and BIG hair.
Noe is also pleased with what it does for his hair.
And here we are now, settling in for bed, listening to Monday night local karaoke and the crickets. Good night! There will be more adventures for you tomorrow!
Haha, I lied…I’ve totally not blogged for 9 days, and holy hell I have LOTS to catch up on! Ok, here it goes…
June 25, 2019 – Still in Viet Hai
Another leisurely morning in the hammock, visited by your friendly neighbourhood lizards and mice.
I took the morning to catch up with my family back home. Then we took some bikes to the harbour for a swim. The route to the harbour was a lot less ominous during the day time than it was when we first arrived at night.
We found a perfect swimming spot. It was SO quiet. There was not a soul around. Our voices echoed off of the mountains surrounding us in the little secluded bay. I practiced some improvised Tai Chi / Yoga / Super slowmo dance moves in the water, while Noe meditated while swimming on his back. Some crows came to visit, and were chatting me up as I responded to them with my best crow-speak. Sometimes I feel I communicate better with Vietnamese crows than with Vietnamese people.
Feeling refreshed, we headed back to Viet Hai for a quick lunch before our second attempt at climbing to the viewpoint. For lunch, we chose a different restaurant and ordered some clam sour soup, veggies, and seafood spring rolls – YUM!
On completely full stomachs, we rode our bikes back to the trail head and started the assent. No more jungle crabs on this particularly dry day. Though, it was still incredibly slippery. The climb was steep, mucky, and nerve-wracking, all the while traversing next to thick power cables that went all the way up the mountain. I was behind Noe, and he must have been disturbing the bugs, because they all came out right in front of me – EW. Noe claims that they only show up for me because I’m the biologist… Can I be honest? Sometimes I don’t like being a biologist :S. There were nearly invisible big spindly spiders crawling over the ground with a body the size of a pea, and legs that are hair-thin and super long, as well as a HUGE venomous centipede and jumping worms that still give me shivers writing about 9 days later. Although, I did see my first Asian stick bug in the wild! Pretty cooooool. Let’s not forget about our friends the Golden Orbweavers. They were still all over the place, and sometimes we didn’t spot them until they were hanging right in front of our faces.
We started wondering if this insane ascent was actually a legit hike for travellers, or just a scam to get North Americans to pay for an uncomfortable and potentially fatal experience. Though, as we were nearing the top, we ran into another silly soul – an English guy coming down super steep jagged boulders in flip flops, his long sleeve shirt completely drenched in what could only be his own sweat. FLIP FLOPS?! This guy had a death wish, and he admitted it. Though we were all mutually thankful that we were not the only crazy people on this “hike”. Going over and under more power cables, we finally reached the summit that revealed the purpose of all these power cables – a massive cell tower. So we were right in assuming that this “hike” was not originally intended as a “hike”, but was just a route to lead cables up to a cell tower…that tourists paid to climb. There was a platform on one side, and a little lookout nook on the other. Even though the whole climb was uncomfortable, the view was totally worth it…see for yourself:
If I thought the ascent was crazy, the descent put me out of my mind. I had at least three points of contact for every step I took, because one mis-step could mean injury. It was too steep and too slippery, with awkwardly shaped rocks and cables to watch out for. At this point, I didn’t even care about the creepy crawlies (ok, actually I did…AGAIN they came out just for me, the same centipede and jumping worms – EWWWWWW!). I just wanted to get down alive. I even did the infamous butt-slide several times. Trees and branches were my friends. The stupid whop whop bird was laughing at us all the way down “Whoooopwhopwhopwhop.” I kept asking Noe, my legs shaking, “Are we almost down yet?” and he kept answering “We’re probably only just a 3rd of the way down.” Until finally we were down! YES! I was alive!
It was almost dusk by the time we got down the mountain, and we decided to go to straight to the bat cave. We rode our bikes along the jungle trail to get there faster. By the time we found it (and it was NOT well marked at all), it was getting really dark under the jungle canopy. I was getting freaked out, and totally did not want to go into the dark scary cave. Instead, I watched Noe and little phone flash light go deeper and deeper into the gaping hole in the mountain side, as little bats fluttered around my head. I picture myself as Shaggy from Scooby Doo, trembling outside while the brave Fred, Daphne and Velma dealt with the scary thing in the haunted castle. When I couldn’t see Noe anymore, and was left alone in the dark outside with the bats, I called and called for Noe to get going. He didn’t come, and no Scooby Snack could have kept me there, so I high-tailed it back to the bikes – Yes, I left my fiance alone in a dark scary cave…but he also shouldn’t expect me to be left alone outside a dark scary cave in a dark scary jungle and should come when called! There was still a long bike ride through the dark jungle to survive, and I wanted to get out of there. Unfortunately, I sliced my leg open on some thorns as I scurried away from the cave. I made it to the bikes, and waited their nervously, my leg burning…my calls getting angrier and more frantic, until finally I heard Noe trampling through the bush towards me. We rode out of there, hoping we wouldn’t crash into anything as we were partially blind in the twilight dark.
Thankfully, we got to the road and rode as fast as we could back to the homestay, as we were late AGAIN for dinner. The homestay manager was riding on his motorbike looking for us in the dark and seemed a little miffed. We didn’t expect anyone to be waiting up for us to be fair. Maybe he was just concerned for our safety. I might have forgotten to mention, but his name was Mr. Chilly Chill. Mr. Chill liked to chill with his guitar and play some chill tunes. Interesting. And so, again, we ate dinner while drenched in mud and sweat and adrenaline from the day.
And we slept well that night – our last night in Viet Hai. The next early morning, we were given a ride to the public boat from Viet Hai to Ben Bao Port, and from there took a taxi to Cat Ba town to eat a typical breakfast of Beef Pho (or Pho Ba), and catch a bus to Ninh Binh (pronounced Ning Bing) – the focus of my next blog post :). We rocked that Cat Ba Island! So long Halong!
Laramie Travels the World 