EC-Rider Travels

Thick mist again this morning, which we all prayed might lift and the sun come out before we reached Halong Bay, the highlight of our trip. Carol wore her glamorous Chanel glasses all the way to encourage it. We had a four hour journey, north, in our little bus which gave us a chance to see the countryside. As we left Ninh Binh the children were all running into school, immaculate as always, ladies were sitting on their haunches by small portable stands selling anything from goose eggs to plastic boxes – to who, I am not sure. Shops were open, all selling the same things with owners sitting on chairs in the open doorway hoping theirs might be chosen. Others were in their workshops mending bikes, carving limestone, stitching clothes, cutting hair or just sitting on their haunches, chatting.

All the shops open straight on to the main road (no pavement) on which we were travelling at quite some speed – there is no slowing down in the built up areas! We had several very, very near misses as heavily ladened motorbikes and bicycles came from all directions – our excellent driver appeared totally unfazed. What you can fit on a motorbike or bicycle never ceases to amaze me, including one we passed piled up with cages of poor unfortunate Jemima Puddleducks😔. Looking at the shops as we went through the villages and towns, I don’t think I saw a single person in any of them, you do wonder how it all works.

The countryside flattened out again, (well as far as we could see!), with lots of water and lush green fields of rice and strips of corn, banana, reeds and peanut all neatly laid out, with the occasional conical hat tending the land or clearing the waterways. The ladies tend to wear the conical hats and the men now choose rather fetching green pith helmets. Buffalo wander freely and also dot the landscape. There is a lot of building work in the towns, mainly being done by women, with all styles of architecture, the more ornate the better! Much is unfinished and abandoned. The towns on our route were not pretty but contained a surprising number of rather lovely catholic churches.

We soon hit a very smart highway of smooth tarmac, which was a a happy change, and no motorbikes as they are not allowed on these smart new roads! The landscape became increasingly industrial as we approached the coast, with massive factories and warehouses and ports full of shipping containers. There is an unbelievable level of investment with whole new towns being built and many new roads under construction to join everything up, but still interspersed with scruffy, traditional villages, rice paddies and cemeteries. We passed what must have been 500m of brand new dumper trucks and diggers, about four deep, set back from the road. I wonder who is funding it all?

This then gave way to large areas of water, lined with mangroves and full of poles, on which Ha told us, are tyres, growing oysters. We entered, what is now the city of Halong Bay with skyscrapers and many, many new hotels being built. Over 40,000 tourists visit Halong Bay every day – it is Vietnam’s biggest tourist attraction, with every possible method of exploring the waters. They are obviously anticipating this to grow even further, as lining the bay is mile upon mile of part built accommodation/hotels, several rows deep – sadly, not very pretty.

We joined a throng of others about to head out into the bay, including six new friends who were sharing our boat. They were also travelling with Intrepid and a happy group of young Australians, Brazilians and if you can believe it, another Irish! I don’t think there can be anyone left in Ireland! We boarded a tender to drive out to our boat. There were hundreds in the bay, all different shapes, sizes and levels of comfort. We headed towards, what looked like one of the nicest in the bay, and our hopes soared, but just as we drew up to it, we made a sharp left turn to its rather older and smaller friend behind… Bien Ngoc, I think it might be one of the ‘original’ charter boats! But fine, with sweet staff who all slept on one long bed behind the Captains wheel! Josephine and I shared our little cabin.

When all aboard, we headed out into Halong Bay, which lies in the Gulf of Tonkin. It is a spectacular seascape of monolithic limestone islands, arches and caves which have been created by the repetitive movement of the sea over thousands of years. Although, many would have once been submerged under the sea, there are now over 1,600 islands, most of which are uninhabited but home to many species of flora and fauna including monkeys, antelopes, bantams and lizards. Covering an area of 600 square miles, many of the islands are covered with thick jungle, some enclosing lakes of their own and several are hollow with enormous caves of stalagmites and stalactites. Two of the larger islands are inhabited and there is a community of approximately 1,600 who, until recently, lived in four floating fishing villages. The bay has over 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks.

After a good lunch we were back on the tender and taken to Bo Hon Island to visit the biggest cave in the bay, Sung Sot.

It was found by the French in 1901 and consists of three chambers, each one larger than the last with the most incredible stalactites and stalagmites, many meeting one another. It is well lit, covering an area of 10,000 square metres with the entrance about 25m above sea level. It is well organised with hundreds of people following a carefully laid out path going in one entrance and out another. It was very impressive.

We were then taken to the nearby Titop (Titov) island where some of us climbed the 450 steps to reach its 110m peak. Quite hot in the heat and humidity, but worth it as there is a stunning view from the summit – if only it had been sunny too. Again huge numbers of people joined us on our climb, rather a relief as it slowed the pace! Ho Chi Minh named the island in honour of Russian cosmonaut, Gherman Titov, when he first visited Halong Bay in 1962.

When we reached the bottom, we happily joined the masses for a very welcome swim in the sea. It was then back to the boat and a quick change before a large gin and tonic and the most amazing dinner of freshly caught crab, prawns and of course oysters! All prepared on the floor of the galley. Ha then taught us a very silly card game and after a bit more karaoke we went to bed.