The Freckles are Intensifying

Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island

Within 5 min of Conrad, an Aussie from Sydney, sitting next to me on the bus to Ha Long Bay, we had discovered a common friend, it certainly is a small world! I often wonder how many other connections I have with the people I meet, but just never discover them. We boarded our boat after the three hours bus ride from Hanoi and were told that we would enjoy our lunch on the boat. I found it interesting to be told I had to enjoy something - "you will enjoy lunch"! While we 'enjoyed' lunch the boat took us into Ha Long Bay. First stop was a massive cave. It was impressive and our guide very enthusiastic, a little too eager to tell us everything about the cave considering the temperature. After the cave we went to a very small, very crowded beach for a swim in luke-warm water. Not overly refreshing, but there was Karaoke! We 'enjoyed' dinner on the boat, accompanied by a bottle of local red and a 96 Bordeaux, both very expensive and terrible. Beth and I booked twin share but when we were shown to our room we found only the one bed which wasnt even a double, more like a 1.5.... I thought I would sleep on the top deck, but that didnt work as it was a little noisy and the prospect of the sun burning down on me at 5 am wasnt overly inviting.

The following day was incredibly hot, so we started with a swim, those of us staying 3 days/2 nights were transferred to another boat. There were 6 of us and poor Beth was stuck with 5 Aussies... Ha Long Bay was really stunning, the water so green and the Islands were spectacular. We Kayaked around the Bay, going to some cool places, then ended up on another beach for a swim, however an older man and a young Vietnamese boy were also deposited on our beach, disturbing the relaxing vibe. There were 100s or 1000s of beaches in the Bay (it consists of nearly 2000 Islands) so I can only imagine that there are a limited number of beaches you can swim on in the Bay (to protect the area??) as another boat load of tourists soon arrived on the beach. We decided this signaled it was time for us to kayak back to the boat. We were meant to stay at the beach longer (according to the schedule) so we swam around the boat for a while. The water was amazingly green and very deep, but there was no point snorkeling as there was nothing to see. When it was finally time to leave Conrad asked if we could travel to Cat Ba Island on Kayaks pulled behind the boat (just after the crew had pulled all the kayaks out of the water onto the top deck), we were sure the captain wouldnt agree but too our surprise he did. Beers were thrown down to us and we set out, Jamie copping a mouth full of fumes from the boat.... unfortunately when we asked for more beer we realised they werent expecting so many Australians and only had another 5 for the 6 of us! It was a great ride to Cat Ba, although we did get some strange looks from the locals. We checked into the hotel (a real hotel - in bikini and sarong! - first time for everything), 'enjoyed' lunch and then headed out on a trek, the first half of the trek was paved (!), but the second had was on a little dirt path threw the 'bush'. We walked down into a valley and through a lychee farm. Tasty! The bus collected us at the bottom so we didnt have to walk uphill! More drinks after dinner.....

We were all feeling a little tired the next day, so we slept as the small boat took us to the big boat. Once on the big boat, more swimming was in order. As I was getting out of the water the captain decided to take a photo of me (before I realised what was happening). He happily showed me the picture with his phone - a close up of me in just a bikini.... Im trying not to think about what happens to the photo or who else sees it... Tourists are always taking pictures of locals, but I generally dont take close ups of strangers and especially not when they arent wearing much... It also leads me to wonder how many photos Im in all over the world that I dont know exist. I dont mean in a bikini, but just in the background or whatever..... Most of us slept the whole way back to the port. We 'enjoyed' lunch at the Port before boarding the bus back to Hanoi. We had a break half-way through the drive at a place advertising Italy flavoured ice-cream. I had no idea what Italy tasted like, but found it very similar to chocolate and vanilla soft serve.

Thats enough for today, have to check out as Im taking a train down to Hue tonight,

- mose