One of my favorite parts about blogging is that writing about something after you've finished it forces you to remember all the fun details you might shrug off otherwise. Halong bay has been one of my favorite places to remember thus far.
If you ever find yourself in northern Vietnam, do not miss Halong Bay! Off the northern side of Vietnam you'll find around 2000 islands that fill the bay and look like a dragon weaving in and out of the sea. Halong actually translates to something along the lines of a dragon entering the sea.. and it is aptly named. This place was definitely a huge highlight of our time in Vietnam. Absolutely picture perfect.
Halong was our first stop on our grand motorbike adventure. Feeling intimidated by the Hanoi traffic we woke up at 4am to hit the empty road. At approximately 4:05 the rain started, but at least we had the road to ourselves!
We got to the pier at Halong about six hours later and caught some late breakfast before our ferry to our island of choice, Cat Ba. Here we had one of my favorite breakfasts from our entire trip. A giant seafood omelet. Nate gave me a hard time about eating the entire what must have been ten eggs (kidding) but I didn't even care. We'd ridden so far already! And it was too good. I think maybe he was a little bit jealous he didn't get it. Hehe. In hindsight, I probably should have offered to share.
When we arrived on Cat Ba it was drizzling and the town fairly vacant. A few nights prior in our party-central hostel in Hanoi our severely hungover roommates forewarned us of the wild time we'd have when we went to Halong. Drinking all day (he told us how they had beer with breakfast - ick!), lots of people, LOTS of sun, crazy, crazy, crazy. So when we arrived on a quiet island in the bay it was a bit of a surprise. What we'd find though is that it was an enormous blessing in disguise. Before we'd parked our bikes an enthusiastic man Tom ran out from a hotel to offer us a room. By this point we were used to the salesman who meets you immediately upon arrival. Intuitively our answer is always no here, we typically can find another better deal. But Tom was different. Because it was the 'low season' (mind you, three days before it wasn't low season at all) we could stay in his hotel for cheap cheap. Cheap cheap was an understatement! Tom offered us the top floor, a room which could have easily accommodated six people. The penthouse in a waterfront hotel that lent an epic view of the bay. With hot water. All for ten dollars. Sold! Can we stay forever? Tom and the hotel manager Victor became fast friends over the next few days. They even let Nate join in on a family dinner, his chance to try out a vietnamese delicacy.. It went something like this:
Victor: "A dog got hit by a car outside and he didn't survive, so we cooked him up. (Sounds legit) Want to try?"
Nate: "It's really dog?"
Tom: "No no, haha. Its actually just goat, here-try some."
Nate puts a bite into his mouth.
Tom: "I'm just kidding it's really dog!!!"
Kate: "Bahahahahahaaaa"
Lan Ha bay near Cat Ba island is THE place to kayak! A taxi boat takes you around the island to a floating town where you grab a kayak from a fisherman and get set free to paddle through the karsts. If I could have only done one thing while in Halong, this was definitely the top of my list. What better way to explore the islands than atop the water choosing your own direction? On the top of Nates list was deep water soloing, also a popular thing to do in the bay. Unfortunately the dreary weather made the latter impossible due to imperfect tides. Curse you, Poseidon. However, the misty weather meant that we'd have the entire bay to ourselves for kayaking. Fantastic. We bundled up and boarded the boat. In our kayak we could feel the heat radiating upward off the warmer-than-air sea water. I'll let the pictures do the rest of my talking here. Completely breathtaking. The most gorgeous thing we saw in Vietnam, I think.
So our trip to Halong bay wasn't a typical one but that makes it all the more significant, right? We spent a few days in our penthouse and carried on on our country tour. Our amazing few days on the island were the perfect start to our trip down the Vietnam coast.
(We'd come to find later that the atypical start was really just the beginning to what we had coming..)
If you ever find yourself in northern Vietnam, do not miss Halong Bay! Off the northern side of Vietnam you'll find around 2000 islands that fill the bay and look like a dragon weaving in and out of the sea. Halong actually translates to something along the lines of a dragon entering the sea.. and it is aptly named. This place was definitely a huge highlight of our time in Vietnam. Absolutely picture perfect.
Halong was our first stop on our grand motorbike adventure. Feeling intimidated by the Hanoi traffic we woke up at 4am to hit the empty road. At approximately 4:05 the rain started, but at least we had the road to ourselves!
We got to the pier at Halong about six hours later and caught some late breakfast before our ferry to our island of choice, Cat Ba. Here we had one of my favorite breakfasts from our entire trip. A giant seafood omelet. Nate gave me a hard time about eating the entire what must have been ten eggs (kidding) but I didn't even care. We'd ridden so far already! And it was too good. I think maybe he was a little bit jealous he didn't get it. Hehe. In hindsight, I probably should have offered to share.
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| Riding across Cat Ba! |
When we arrived on Cat Ba it was drizzling and the town fairly vacant. A few nights prior in our party-central hostel in Hanoi our severely hungover roommates forewarned us of the wild time we'd have when we went to Halong. Drinking all day (he told us how they had beer with breakfast - ick!), lots of people, LOTS of sun, crazy, crazy, crazy. So when we arrived on a quiet island in the bay it was a bit of a surprise. What we'd find though is that it was an enormous blessing in disguise. Before we'd parked our bikes an enthusiastic man Tom ran out from a hotel to offer us a room. By this point we were used to the salesman who meets you immediately upon arrival. Intuitively our answer is always no here, we typically can find another better deal. But Tom was different. Because it was the 'low season' (mind you, three days before it wasn't low season at all) we could stay in his hotel for cheap cheap. Cheap cheap was an understatement! Tom offered us the top floor, a room which could have easily accommodated six people. The penthouse in a waterfront hotel that lent an epic view of the bay. With hot water. All for ten dollars. Sold! Can we stay forever? Tom and the hotel manager Victor became fast friends over the next few days. They even let Nate join in on a family dinner, his chance to try out a vietnamese delicacy.. It went something like this:
Victor: "A dog got hit by a car outside and he didn't survive, so we cooked him up. (Sounds legit) Want to try?"
Nate: "It's really dog?"
Tom: "No no, haha. Its actually just goat, here-try some."
Nate puts a bite into his mouth.
Tom: "I'm just kidding it's really dog!!!"
Kate: "Bahahahahahaaaa"
Lan Ha bay near Cat Ba island is THE place to kayak! A taxi boat takes you around the island to a floating town where you grab a kayak from a fisherman and get set free to paddle through the karsts. If I could have only done one thing while in Halong, this was definitely the top of my list. What better way to explore the islands than atop the water choosing your own direction? On the top of Nates list was deep water soloing, also a popular thing to do in the bay. Unfortunately the dreary weather made the latter impossible due to imperfect tides. Curse you, Poseidon. However, the misty weather meant that we'd have the entire bay to ourselves for kayaking. Fantastic. We bundled up and boarded the boat. In our kayak we could feel the heat radiating upward off the warmer-than-air sea water. I'll let the pictures do the rest of my talking here. Completely breathtaking. The most gorgeous thing we saw in Vietnam, I think.
So our trip to Halong bay wasn't a typical one but that makes it all the more significant, right? We spent a few days in our penthouse and carried on on our country tour. Our amazing few days on the island were the perfect start to our trip down the Vietnam coast.
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| Our 'taxi' on Cat Ba |
(We'd come to find later that the atypical start was really just the beginning to what we had coming..)
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