Hanoi Day 3 : Halong Bay on a "dragon Boat"

The Tour started at 8am in the morning. However, the bus was late. Did not arrived till 8.30am.

Tours in Vietnam operates usually using mini-bus. Unless there is a large group. As usually, the bus was pack with people, making it really uncomfortable for Mr H who was seating in a seat just above the wheel, it can get bumpy.

The Trip to the Harbour took us around 4hrs (8.30am - 12+). Nothing much to see along the way except lot of vegetations.

We have to cross a bridge to get to the other side toward the South China Sea Direction...

We stop by a stop-over rest area along the highway. Vietnam's Highway seem very under-developed and narrow. There is only about 2 lane per direction. No wonder we need 4hrs to reach the Harbour.

Toilet Break included, this stop-over place is very similar to those we have in Malaysia, except that they have a really large Souvenir shop inside, selling all sort of stuff. But there is no price tag on the items...wonder bargaining is allowed here.They have bags..(hand-make I suppose)

Hand-make dolls?

This is very common in Hanoi, basically selling everywhere, is this the factory?

There are even Art-pieces on sale...(no price tag)

Another Section of Bags on Display. This place is really huge...

The eatery Corner, selling food, drinks and ice-cream is located centrally in the shop.

Live-factory worker working really hard on the art-pieces selling in the shop

Sadly, I didn't bother to get anything here, mainly for the fact that I don wish to carry too much stuff with me going to Halong Bay...the no price tag on the items make this even more so...

That our small mini-bus....lol, it's fully pack to the brine....u can't understand how difficult it can be for Mr H. Even me, seating also on the seat above the wheels also feel uncomfortable by all the bumps along the way. So Word of advise, never take those seats above the wheels, If you really need comfortable and large seats, go for the back seat near the window

We arrived at the ticketing office at Halong City's Harbour at around 1230pm. Sun is super hot, meaning we can expect good weather ahead for the next 2 days and hopefully good photos(finger x). There is quite a number of people here from different groups.

We waited for a while, while our agent go into the building to collect our tickets. The area around the Harbour(Wharf) is relatively crowded. We found a Tourist Information center just opposite the Ticketing building.

We were wondering to ourself if it is cheaper to come here by ourself? Check this out, can't read in Vietnamese, hopefully these are not the prices of the boat tickets.

But our ticket stud for the boat, show cost of 60,000 VND, (S$6), we paid USD$68 for the whole package. I believe, factoring in the meals on board, cost of Accommodation, the Agent probably earn quite a good margin...considering how cheap the ticket for the boat is.

This is the section of the Wharf, where we board our "Dragon Boat"...

As the Junk is "park" someway in the outer sea, we have to broad this small boat which will bring us over to the junk

The Wharf area is quite a busy place to be with Tourist waiting to broad boats as well as a number of other junk from other companies operating here. (Photo above is how the boarding area look like)

Took us less than 10mins to arrive at our destination boat...Room are located both on the Top and bottom Tier.

The name of our boat....Cristina Cruise? Doesn't sound local at all...

Upon boarding the junk, Lunch is provided, and is quite a sumptuous one....but we are seated in a shared table, thought we are bit "pansei" to eat, seated together with us includes people from Germany and France...The European seems to like travelling to Vietnam, some of them have been travelling in the country for more than 10days. Really envy them having so much leave to spend...

We are handled our key to our Room...Assigned to us...ROOM 1.

The Room are reasonable sized, but one bad thing is that the Air-conditioning system doesn't turn on until 8pm due to Government regulation to control the amount of fuel the boat can carry during their trip to Halong Bay. Thus the Rooms are super stuffy.

Another Rule on the boat is that everything that u bring onboard that is water is chargeable.

As most of the photos are taken from the boat, here are some to share...Cropped and edited...else ....(A wide lens does have it's advantages and disadvantage so I know...now..lol)

smoking heaven...here for him

Afternoon activities includes Kayaking and a trip to the caves to watch limestone formation and of course a view of Halong Bay from a scenic spot

While we approach our docking point for the climb up to the limestone caves. We took a smaller boat to reach the dock.

We "landed" at the Beach for our climb up to the limestone cave...nightmare for Mr H, as he tell me ...he hated climbing.....some compliment to Mr H that this photo turn out quite ok....(he has been complaining about it in his Blog which should be call..."My Troublesome travel kaki"....lol)

Half way up the climb, a View of the bay

Nothing particular interesting in the cave, cos I have seen far better cave than these back in Sydney. But it's good to know that the cave is at a cooler temperature than outside (At least 5C cooler)...amazing power of mother-nature... Here are some photos taken in the caves..

Rock Formation lighted up in yellow

Drip of water over million of years created these formation

Some of these structure resemble some objects or animals.

Green and yellow lighting mixed.

Wow....the light does make a difference on how the photos appears...

We are approaching the exit point...climbing..climbing

It's a relative short walk in the cave, and I kinda enjoy the cool air inside the cave, some photos of myself and Mr H after his tiring climb.

The highest point have yet to be reached

something nice?

Ha Long Bay (literally: Descending Dragon bay; Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long) is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. Administratively, the bay belongs to Ha Long City, Cam Pha Town and part of Van Don District. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. Ha Long Bay is a center of a larger zone which includes Bái Tử Long bay to the northeast, and Cát Bà islands to the southwest.

More photos of Halong Bay from Canon IXUS.

A lot of Junks were actually park along the bay.....not seen in the photos

A Small lake on a hill

We next proceed for our Kayaking activities....I basically have never Kayak in my entire life and since Mr H have some experience, I thought he can be the guide to bring us closer to the rocks.....turn out to be quite a disaster....we basically (probably me since I was in the front seat) cannot navigate ourselves...It's quite dangerous as there are a number of oncoming boats in the region. We Decided to call it quit within 10min into it....(loser right....bet some of those watching us are laughing...lol)

Since our kayaking activities was short-lived, we spend the next hour or so...walking around the floating platform....taking photos

The Region around the floating Platform...The bay is actually a good place to explore nature...too bad...our skills CMI....

Fish they "harvest", big reaction when u place something in the water, I bet you wouldn't want to put your hands or legs into it

One of the junk park along the float plaform. Spoken to some Taiwanese folks from the junk, we found out that they paid a cheaper fare to get here...USD$55

Photos of myself with the rock formation of Halong bay as my backdrop

Mr H's version - Super tired trying to get us to safety

The Taiwanese guy help take this photo for us....nice to know them as well..as we saw them a couple of time after this. They are actually here on a business trip, how nice...

Just before Dinner, some photo taking while the sun is still shinning

Hang on to your life....lol

Dinner was something to look forward to, with nice soup

And sweet French Fries.

Night activities are few to come by, the "captain" organised a KTV session where Mr H demonstrated his strong vocal ability to the amazement of the Europeans. I did 1 song...."softly" lol.

Some postcard quality photos from Canon EOS

We are so near the rocks....Too bad the water here aren't as clear as those in Redang..

Entering the Bay

The Calm water...

Sunset.

The Colors of The setting sun

As the Sky get darker, the rock become dimmer..

Boat lights up the skies

The Yellowish Sunset

Reflections

2nd Day - Return back to Halong City

Woke up relative late for our Breakfast, Actually awaken by the loud knocking sound outside. We found out that the "boat ladies" came onboard to get their $$

The Itinerary for this morning is split between 2 groups, At about 9am, we need to check out of our rooms to allow the staff to clean up the rooms in time for their afternoon Tourist...checking in later in the afternoon.

Majority of the people on the Boat is actually taking the Cat Ba Island extension, so they will leave the boat and proceed to the hotel on Cat Ba Island.

The Rest of the morning is rather "lazy", nothing much to do, but to seat around and wait for the junk to slowly sail itself back to the Wharf...take another 3hrs or so..

Photos session before everything end in 3hrs. Island get nearer and nearer at times when the junk sail in between them

This Island or rock look like a junk itself....

Mr H intend to train himself as the Captain of the junk....which I serious doubt I will board it...worry that there might be Fire??lol (get what I meant??)

Me and Mr H near the waters....

The Junk lucky number....with an "8"

Mr H doesn't like boats or Junk describing them as bumpy and affect sleep

If u Deprive Mr H from smoking...this is the kind of Reaction u will get from him....nasty right

This is the section of the boat where u can jump out for a swim. The Docking tool is right next to me

See how high the water is...from here...(There is a distance to jump down...)

We Finally arrved at the Wharf at around 12pm. In time for Lunch which we wonder where it is

The Wharf Area is still relative quiet as most of the Tourist has yet to arrive

Mr H posing with mine side of the photo..."destroyed"

Lunch was located just opposite the Wharf @ Thang Long Restaurant.

The Restaurant is rather stuffy, lucky we are inside the Air-conditioned room. Outside look like a Sauna.

It's like our typical "Zi Chai" in Singapore....nice and filling....Prefer this fish and how they did it here..they eliminated the "Fishy" smell and taste..