ha long bay, 5 dec

ahak ahak ahak!! that is the sound of dry cough which i am having now. caught 'dry throat' when i came back from hanoi and it all started from the trip to ha long way.

the night before, i did not get my dinner at proper time and so wind got into the tummy. in the morning when i had my breakfast, i already had an uncomfortable bloated feeling. what  a start to a bumpy ride to ha long bay.

we departed from the hotel at 8a.m. the mini-bus was a 20-seater. thank goodness the driver came to pick my group of 6 first. because the group of 14 that got on five minutes after us were all backpackers. it was a rowdy bunch of young american undergraduates. gosh....they were noisy nonstop!!

the journey to ha long took us about 3 hours and the yacking in the bus especially from the back was so disturbing. there was hardly any minute of silence for any rest. we stopped mid-way for a toilet break. the second part of the journey.....i vomitted ....hehehe.....

five minutes after getting on the bus, i could feel the air in the bloated tummy wanting to get a release. i started asking for a plastic bag. gosh, i did not know what i would do without that plastic bag. i would have shouted for the driver to stop i think.

the minute i got the plastic bag from one of my travel mates, i just puked. eeeewwwww but it was oooh so comfortable after that. i no longer had that queasy feeling in me and i could breathe properly for the rest of the ride. the only thing was holding that bag of vomit in my hand for one hour.....which made my fingers numb by the time we got to the marina club to board our boat to the bay.

aaaahhhhh!!! the throat was affected because of the vomitting action and from then on i dared not speak too much. the air was really dry in hanoi and the haze was not helping either. so that was the thing that affected everyone. everyone in my group fell sick in one way or another. my cousin vomitted twice that morning to ha long bay at the hotel before we checked out because of some food she had from the street the night before. the others had flu, high fever and cough. actually my cousin and i were the least affected. we only vomitted....that was it. we did not have anything that lingered with us and disturbed and affected us throughout the trip. thank god for that.

ok so after about 3 hours in the mini bus, we arrived at our jetty. tuan chau marina if i am not wrong. there is another jetty in ha long city if i am not wrong because that was where the americans got off later after us. i guess it depended on which company you are registered with and what travel group you booked.

there were some big ships there .....but i am sure those are luxury 5-star boat. yes, they grade the ships according to star too and some can even go to more than a thousand ringgit a night.

ours is this boat.....poseidon. there were 20 guests on the boat and some crew.
we had to take a smaller boat out from the jetty to go this boat here.

this is the cabin.....we requested for twin beds....the single bed is really narrow. you couldn't really make a big turn and toss around on the bed. falling onto the floor was not an option.

the bathroom.

the corridor outside the bedrooms. ours were on the lower deck. there were two other bigger rooms on the upper deck.

the dining room where all meals were served. the meal time was rigid. you had to eat according to the time set so every guest had to be orderly here.
one piece of advice to those who are going on similar stay on ha long bay- bring lots of your own food and drinks. there is no kettle on the boat in your own cabin due to limited water supply ya. but do not let the crew see all your food and drinks of course. they will charge a service fee according to the rules and regulations stated in the boat.

the minibar in the dining room. gosh....they didn't even serve you plain water for meals ok. you had to order. so don't forget....bring water on board to save money.

the sundeck.....which got quite cold at night.

vietnamese flag.

the first afternoon  there, we were taken out to a bigger island to explore a cave. my cousin did not go as she wanted to rest.

there were so many sides of ha long that one could look at....but everywhere you turn, the jutting limestone hills were all that you see of course. there are 1969 of these islands in the bay making it the biggest bay in the world. the vietnamese legend believed that these islands were pearls which descended from a dragon which blessed this bay. 'long' means dragon. 'ha' means descend. you can read it in chinese and you will know what it means.

this is the island. there were 150 steps to climb to reach the entrance to the cave. urrgh...my knees.

that is the cave entrance. there are 3 chambers which are quite big.....but they were not as nice as those you find in guilin.

view from the cave entrance.

a rock shaped like a turtle.....and some pieces of money on it, asking the rock for blessing.

what do you see here?? haha.....dangling feet. cool right???

after 30 mins walking in the caves on the marked trail, it was time to go to the fishing village and go kayaking.

the fishing village. we did not go explore the fishing village on our kayaks. we were busy chasing the sunset instead.

sunset....started at 5p.m.
then it was back to the boat.
dinner was served at 7.30p.m.

all the boats follow the same itinerary i think......it was like a floating city at night as all the boats were anchored here.

the next morning.....breakfast was at 8 or 8.30. then it was another trip out to another island and another climb all the way to the top of the island to get another view of the bay from the top.

bao ti top.....gosh......the climb was much longer and much steeper. those who had bad legs....should not go on this one. i kind of regretted doing this. there were huffing and panting along the way....and stopping to rest too. no wonder the guide did not follow us on this one.

this is the view from the top.

there is a pagoda for you to enjoy your view. that was me taking photo for a group of tourists.

one can swim here....but the water wasn't really clear.....not tempting at all.

see the pagoda at the peak?? that was how high we climbed. that really worked my knees man. so think twice before going ya.

we checked out of our rooms on the boat at 9.30a.m. it was early ya....but that was because they needed to start cleaning and changing all the sheets for the next group of guests coming at noon.
we lingered in the dining room and the sundeck before being called for a light lunch at 11.30a.m.

let me show you the pictures of meals we had on board. it wasn't that appetising to be frank but their rice was really nice haha. the food was just all right....not very rich in taste.  click on the picture to see clearer.

the common vege here seemed to be big onion which is used to stir fry with squid and meat.

first picture on the top left.....rice paper vietnamese spring roll which we had to roll ourselves...and which they called 'cooking class'. hmmmmh....that was a bit lame.
the bottom row, middle picture....that was quite an interesting dish. rocks were heated in the pot, live prawns were thrown in, and vodka was added to loud sizzle and the pot was covered for a while while the cook tossed and turned the prawns inside. then they were cooked. there was no vodka or any alcohol smell in the prawn though. how sad. i miss my vodka.

the lighter meal served before we got off the boat.

breakfast. i dared not eat too much....just in case i vomit again due to the bumpy ride although i knew it was not caused by the road condition. so no fried egg for me. just black coffee and toasts with butter.

at 12 sharp, we reached the jetty and off we went into a van this time which filled 11 passengers this time around. 5 others were picked up after us. the journey back was much longer. it took 4 hours to reach hanoi city. gosh......all bums were flat by the time we got to the city.

the driver was fast this time....i mean he went all the way to 70km/h. hey, speed limit here is only 50km/h on average ok. urrghhh.....
the driver also swerved in and out and overtook and honked as he liked. we were holding on to dear lives because there were many motorcycles on the road too.

play this video and you will see what i meant.

later at the break mid-way, the other passengers complained to the guide and i think he told the driver too because his driving on the second part was much slower and smoother. phew! but of course that meant reaching hanoi later. anyway, it was so smooth that i could read in the van without getting dizzy.

we reached hanoi as the sun was setting.
some people choose to do day trip to ha long and some choose to do few more nights. it depends on your own time. we only had time to do one night. i think if you do more than one night, they will transfer you to another island for the rest of the nights and not on the boat. but those doing day trips...gosh, i didn't know how they survive the journey there man.

these two rocks are the symbol of ha long and used in most of the advertisements. they say the rocks look like two chickens fighting. well, i think there are other more attractive limestone hills here in the whole bay and i guess they just chose these two pieces as they are smaller. haha.

ahak ahak!!! the dry cough is here to stay for a few days. can durian cure it? hmm....i have to rely on durian for my meals these few days......let me finish them till the supply run out. mom won't be here to cook for 21 days. sob sob. time to get on a diet. hehhe......