On Friday night my friend and I went to the local market to buy the ingredients for dinner, which was interesting as we spoke no Vietnamese! It was so difficult trying to explain that we wanted enough pork for five people, and we wanted the part with no fat on… no we didn’t want the ears, head or trotters thank you very much! Also, my friend had a shopping list and as English is not her first language (although she is fluent) the boys had fun writing inappropriate words on it, which she then read out in the middle of the shop and I had to explain to her what they were! Why are all boys the same?
My friends then cooked us a delicious meal (from Thailand) of spicy chilli pork (with next to no chilli in it for me!) in lettuce leaves, with Thai pancakes and rice. It was delicious.
We then headed for Beer Hoi, just a few drinks before an early night, as we were heading for Halong Bay at 5.45am the next day, so would be up at 5.00am. I realised I had forgotten my travel sickness tablets and so Connor and I went to the pharmacy. I demonstrated rocking, and a boat and feeling sick, and she looked a bit confused, before coming back with two pregnancy tests! Hahaha. It was very embarrassing, but I think she was more embarrassed than we were. In the end I had to ring Quy* (the contact for my Teach Abroad Program) to translate, and was a little dubious when I was handed four pills to take…. Just for travel sickness?!
One beer turned to three, which turned to seven… and rolling into bed at 2.30am when we were up at 5…worst idea ever!
I woke up feeling ok considering I had only had 2.5 hours sleep! We headed for the minibus and I was soon asleep again, however the two hours in the bus reminded my body of the sleep I’d deprived myself of, and when I woke up I felt awful, to the point where I didn’t really speak to anyone over lunch- which is very unlike me!
When we arrived we got straight on the boat, which was a luxury one and extremely nice, with a wooden deck and chairs with potted plants all around. I was pleasantly surprised by how quiet it was… hardly any other boats or people in sight. Perfect!
However, typical Vietnam we then had to pay for the entrance for the cave and for lunch, and for the extra miles we did in the mini bus after reaching Halong Bay, all of which was meant to be included.
For lunch, a little boat pulled up next to us that was selling clams, crabs and a huge cat fish… Still feeling hungover and not being a fish eater I politely declined the offer, and was not going to pay the extortionate prices they wanted! They had us backed into a hole though, because there was no food available for 6 hours. In the end we made a deal with the crew and got a buffet meal of vegetables, rice, fish and pork for 60,000vnd. Not bad! I also managed to get some lychees from a fruit boat that insisted on following us but the woman clearly lived on the boat, and had no change. I was pleased to see she was giving me extra lychees for the 30,000 dong we agreed, until I didn’t get any change from 50,000 and realised this was why she was giving me more lychees. This is Vietnam.
The cave we visited was awesome. Really big, and beautiful, full of stalactites and stalagmites from floor to ceiling, with small pools running through it. We got some good pictures. Also, apparently the cave is called “Big surprise” because there is a rock inside which looks like part of a male sexual organ. Hahaha.
After the cave we headed for the “island”, however this was a small strip of sand covered in tourists with an area marked out where you could swim, full of screaming Vietnamese people. The water was also dirty. It would have been my mum’s idea of Hell. I just lay on the beach and read my book which was nice, and was later glad I didn’t go in the water because Connor was badly attacked by a jelly fish. He had tentacle lashes all up his arm which were swollen and red and it stung a lot. He decided not to wee on it, as we suggested, as the cubicles were all open view, but the lady who owned the boat kindly rubbed lime juice all over it, which helped a lot, but his face was priceless. It looked so painful and he had that typical expression of a man pretending he’s not in pain when he is.
After the jelly fish incident we had a beautiful journey back, not another person or boat in sight, clear water, blue sky, cliffs rising out the water and a silence that you could hear. It was one of those idyllic moments. It was a really good trip.
That evening we managed to get dinner for 40,000 vnd (dirt cheap) and then had a few drinks by the beach. The beach was nice, but there were no clubs open and no bars either and we were all shattered, so headed for bed pretty soon, around 11.30pm. A lovely day! I will definitely come back to Halong Bay and do a camp out on the beach and visit a “non-touristy” island.
We had a lie in and left at 12.00pm, after lunch, I slept most of the way, still exhausted, and had a Mexican take away and relaxing evening in. We then stayed up chatting about life, and about the way we behave and tools for self development, as Connor is studying it at the moment. It was extremely insightful… Everyone says when you travel you learn so much about yourself and you find yourself (bla bla) but I took it all with a pinch of salt, especially as I am a relatively outgoing and confident person anyway, but I swear I have learnt more about myself in the past four months than I have in my whole 22 years previous. It’s crazy, and the rate at which I am learning is insane. I am learning things about myself that I never even knew I didn’t know….
While I was off having a great time in Halong Bay Facebook decided to block Harry as a friend (I have no idea why!) and so he thought I had blocked him on Facebook and wasn’t answering his messages (because I was in Halong Bay) so he was having a heart attack (having just quit his job to come out here). He thought maybe it was all a joke that had gone too far, so I’d panicked and deleted him as a friend?! I found this hilarious. I arrived home to messages of panic from him. Bless.
