On Saturday evening, Rich and I decided we would spend the first part of the week on an excursion to Ha Long Bay. On Monday morning we left early and after a 3.5 hour van trip, arrived at the city of Ha Long. Once there, we boarded a boat which took us to our floating hotel. My word, it was opulent. Upon arrival we were served tea and then taken to our room, a lovely one with a large bath, full shower, king sized bed, and large windows overlooking the scenery and providing access to the floating hawkers of food, drinks, batteries, etc. One did have to remember to close the curtains when changing clothes, as the bay was quite busy.
We ate a lovely lunch, and entered a smaller travel boat to our first excursion. We were taken to the “surprise cave”. He hiked with our fellow travellers among stalactites and stalagmites, remnants of pools, and flowing limestone draperies. The surprise, well, I’ll let those of you who want to travel see for yourselves.
After hiking, we got back on the smaller boat and travelled to a spot to go kayaking for about 40 minutes throughout the small islets which are the salient feature of Ha Long Bay. Rich and I saw small caves, got up close and personal with the rock, and then returned, wet, cold, and happy.
We returned to our cruise hotel for hot showers, and then to dinner with our lovely group of 10 passengers. We went to bed for a restful evening, eschewing the Karaoke offered in the lounge, as did the other passengers, making it an early restful night, moored with a plethora of similar vessels nearby, and dotting the seascape with twinkling lights.
The next day, I awoke to my birthday, and a memorable one it was! We once again took off on an execution to go cycling on Cat Ba Island for a few miles through the fields and jungle like terrain, until, once again, we climbed back onto the smaller touring boat to find a lunch spot. Here we went to a beachfront property and had another sumptuous repast, and spent several minutes walking the beach and challenging a female dog sized ape, who growled at us, and was willing to sit still in exchange for sliced bread.
After lunch we sailed around Cat Ba Island and arrived at the town of Cat Ba where we were ushered into a grand hotel and had the afternoon off to sightsee, nap, etc. Later we reconvened for dinner, and then Rich and I chose not to go out drinking and went to the hotel for an evening of downloading pictures and rest. What a wonderful birthday it was!.
The next morning we awoke to a beautiful breakfast buffet, got back on the boat by 7:30 and were off to return to Ha Long. After 4 hours on the bus, we returned to our hotel for a brief respite, and on to making plans for moving south to Hue and then over to Laos.
Keep it up. I know your taking one for the team and I appreciate it. Happy belated B-day.
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