DAY ONE
The long awaited day has arrived! We would start the weekend gettaway to Halong bay today. The cruise would depart from Hon Gai (The cruise). Beforet hat we would need to sit in a bus for a whole 4 hours. That's quite ok, as the start of the day was already at 8 o'clock and Enni actually enjoys riding a bus. The thing is that Enni has taken more flights than bus rides! :)
We started the bus ride by driving to a close by hotel from where an Israelian family of 4 jumped into our small bus. The ride went over the Red river to North. We had a quick stop approximately at the half way mark at a souvenier shop to stretch our legs and to go to the toilet. Actually we had a quick stop just before the initial stop as there was a case of almost bursting bladder.
After the stop we still drove about 2 hours to the harbour in Hon Gai, crossed a huge bridge and drove a serpentine road to the coast line. The Indochina junk office was situated at the Bai Tu Long bay.
Our bus making a U-turn at the street infront of our house. An accepted way of blocking a busy traffic around here.
One of the crossed rivers with a goods transport in action
A team of mechanics on their way to work
The ride was long but still enjoyable
I've seen kids riding on the "first class" but this was the first grown-up person performing the same!
Started taking pics of the traffic signs as they are quite hillarious. For instance this levitating fellah with the stick. He was nowhere to be seen though...
The ride WAS long...
Believe or not, there is a scooter behind that hay stack!
The huge bridge at Hon Gai
Scenerey to the bay from the Indochina junk office
The entrance to the office
From the office after a wait of maybe a half of an hour we got a ride to the boat, Dragon's pearl itself with a smaller boat. We started the cruise with a welcome drink at the third deck, the place where we also would have all our meals at. After the introduction of the crew and speeches given by the cruise attendant Fuk (Not sure whether the family name was Mi or Yu ;) we were given the keys to the cabins. Fuk also aknowledged her name was a bit funny to the ones speaking English. One thing that was noticable was the way she draw the attention: "Ladies and tengslemen!". The junk itself had 4 decks and our cabin was on the second deck. 4th deck was the sun deck. There were 11 cabins in all and the maximum capacity of the junk was 22 persons. We had a full load on the trip.
The Dragons Pearl junk
Our cabin. Yes, almost the only thing that fits in to the cabin.
AT the luch table, Ms Fuk serving Enni. ;)
The Crew of the ship
The Menü set for the day 1
Loads of these little islands was seen during the weekend
More of these islands...
Ladies at the sundeck
Time to relax...
...and to pose. :)
Our first destination of the trip, Hon Co island
The anchor place for the visit to the Hon Co island
After settling down we had some time to stay on the sun deck before the Lunch. For lunch we had 8 courses + dessert. There were such things on the list that I had never before eaten, mostly due to the prejudice. Must say that I might be eating the clams again in some point, that's how good it was! After the lunch we had a bit less than an hour time to stay on the sundeck and change our swimming gear on before we came to the first destination of the trip: Thien Canh Son cave on Hon Co island. We were taken from the junk to the island where we climbed the stairs to the 20 m height. From there we got to into the cave which allegedly had been found by a local fisherman family. They had lived in the cave for years until the Indochina company had bought the rights to use the island and the cave. In favor they had paid for a house for the family on the mainland.
After visiting the fabulous cave we were taken to the other side of the island on a beautiful small beach (with amazing creaking, white sand!) to enjoy the rest of the day. Actually it was just about an hour and a half. A bit too short time as there were some other activities available than just the sun bathing and swimming. I went cayacing for the first time in my life just to see the close by islands from a bit closer distance. It took me about 45 minutes to paddle around the Hon Co island and visit the 2 smaller ones. After cayacing I went to swim with Enni, letting Laura to concentrate on the sun bathing fully. The weather was just perfect for the short stay. At the time of the departure we all felt like we could had stayed there for many more hours. This was also something that was criticised on the forums about the cruises: there seemed to be this hurry all the time and all the activities were a bit too short. Well, I'm still happy even for this few hours stay, as it was splendid!
A view from the opening of the cave
Girls waiting to get into the cave
Awesome views...
Inside the cave of the fisherman family
The "closets" of the cave
Entering the second cave
Spacy rooms...
More views
The lighting of the cave were hidden nicely
Steep hills down...
...to THE beach!
The white creaking sands of Hon Co island
Of to cayacing!
Not too easy to pull out the camera from the water tight backpack for a shot...
These are the views from the cayac
Some traffic on the shallow waters
The novice on the cayac
One of the smaller island's edges
The beach from a far
Getting ready for the cartwheel...
...getting hands dirty...
...and feet up high...
...and landing it somehow. ;)
The family portrait. Good times. Good family times! ;)
Enni, the little mermaid
The worhipping of the sun takes place here
Building some sand cakes
The fun must end in some point
And the time of return to the mother ship came too early...
After getting back to the boat we got about an hour to admire the sunset views from the sundeck of the boat after which we had the dinner. The dinner was again a nice set of seafood served really well. After the dinner we went to the sun deck for one more round of drinks (coffee) and then back to the cabin to put Enni to bed. Luckily we had taken one bottle of bubbling with us to the cabin. ;) From our window we could still watch some people trying the squid fishing as there was a possibility for that one as well.
The sunset view from the window of our cabin
Some sunset photos...
Enni entertaining the people onboard with her dance acts
The anchor place for the night: Capla island
Girls with drinks onboard
In one point they had to share Enni's drink as well. ;)
Picture taken by Enni
Checking the daily pictures, weather and location information
10 boats in all were staying in the same anchor area with us
DAY TWO
Started at 6:30 with the motors of the boat starting and the anchor lifting sounds. Went up on the deck to have a light breakfast and as we started cruising to the next destination, Vong Vieng floating fishing village. The village was about a few hours cruise away. We were taken to the village by the smaller boat again. From the smaller boat we went into even smaller one with local fishers rowing it. They rowed for about an hour around the area of the Vong Vieng and we stopped by at the school, museum and rowed in a cave and through their fish/clam/scallop farms and ended up to a floating pearl shop where they demonstrated how the pearls were made. We bought one painting as a souvenir just to support the locals, although nothing really says that the painting was done in the willage... we also came to thinking that was the village living out of the fishing or were they already more relying on the tourism? It started to seem more like the latter one being the true source of income, which is sort of pity as for ruining the original fishing village idyle. Good in sence of getting them more income (hopefully!).
The floating fishing village of Vong Vieng
The vessel to carry us around the village
Rowers. Not Land Rovers.
On the rowing boat
Something cooking here
The signs of erosion
The second part of the village
Not sure which one is being the anchor, the rock or the village...
The floating kiosk rowing around the village
The fish tank at the museum/school/souvenir shop
A scale model of an older fishing boat with sail
Enni visiting the school
The next thing to see was the cave
A huge cave to be exact
The unny thing was that the boats also had lisence plates
The insides of the cave
A view from the cave
The rowers did a god job rowing for an hour around!
A picture shot by Enni
There are the scallops growing. At least that's what I think, as the rower's only word in English was "Hello!"
These were huge ones, size of two palms!
Pearl, the making of
After the visit to the village we were taken back to the junk to wait for one more lunch on the way back to the harbour in Hon Gai. Before the lunch there was a short break to lay on the sundeck beds for some nice tan. That was what we did. I actually fell asleep in just few minutes in the nice warm weather and small breeze of wind.
After the luch we arrived to the harbour and got a ride back to Hanoi but on the way we stopped for a half an hour lunch break for the bus driver (yeah, right!) and while we were at it we stopped by at the water theater in Yen Duc village in Dong Trieu province. Must say that I didn't quite get the plot and neither did Enni. She was also ready after the first 10 minutes. :) The locals eemed to enjoy it though.
The junk figurehead
Last moments of relaxation
Someone pictured the sleeping beauty
Enni posing
Floor tile at the Indochina junk office
The water theater crew
Don't mind us... we're just passing over to the other side of this road...
Warning! You might drive under another car here...!
The locals build their houses quite thin, but then again long and high. We came into conclusion that this is due to the taxation of the lots or houses that is based on the width of the facade on the first floor. Some people build the second floor a bit wider to go around this taxation rule.
One more traffic sign: The warning for the small floating business man. :D
Rest of the ride to Hanoi seemed like forever. I think it took still something like 3 hours to get back to the apartment. We went out to have a late dinner in the near by Japanese restaurant, Kimono. No kimonos were required. A fancy place with fancy prices. The late night coffee took place at the Intercontinental htoel's bar by the West lake. And that was the wrap-up of the two days of the weekend! :)
The long awaited day has arrived! We would start the weekend gettaway to Halong bay today. The cruise would depart from Hon Gai (The cruise). Beforet hat we would need to sit in a bus for a whole 4 hours. That's quite ok, as the start of the day was already at 8 o'clock and Enni actually enjoys riding a bus. The thing is that Enni has taken more flights than bus rides! :)
We started the bus ride by driving to a close by hotel from where an Israelian family of 4 jumped into our small bus. The ride went over the Red river to North. We had a quick stop approximately at the half way mark at a souvenier shop to stretch our legs and to go to the toilet. Actually we had a quick stop just before the initial stop as there was a case of almost bursting bladder.
After the stop we still drove about 2 hours to the harbour in Hon Gai, crossed a huge bridge and drove a serpentine road to the coast line. The Indochina junk office was situated at the Bai Tu Long bay.
From the office after a wait of maybe a half of an hour we got a ride to the boat, Dragon's pearl itself with a smaller boat. We started the cruise with a welcome drink at the third deck, the place where we also would have all our meals at. After the introduction of the crew and speeches given by the cruise attendant Fuk (Not sure whether the family name was Mi or Yu ;) we were given the keys to the cabins. Fuk also aknowledged her name was a bit funny to the ones speaking English. One thing that was noticable was the way she draw the attention: "Ladies and tengslemen!". The junk itself had 4 decks and our cabin was on the second deck. 4th deck was the sun deck. There were 11 cabins in all and the maximum capacity of the junk was 22 persons. We had a full load on the trip.
After settling down we had some time to stay on the sun deck before the Lunch. For lunch we had 8 courses + dessert. There were such things on the list that I had never before eaten, mostly due to the prejudice. Must say that I might be eating the clams again in some point, that's how good it was! After the lunch we had a bit less than an hour time to stay on the sundeck and change our swimming gear on before we came to the first destination of the trip: Thien Canh Son cave on Hon Co island. We were taken from the junk to the island where we climbed the stairs to the 20 m height. From there we got to into the cave which allegedly had been found by a local fisherman family. They had lived in the cave for years until the Indochina company had bought the rights to use the island and the cave. In favor they had paid for a house for the family on the mainland.
After visiting the fabulous cave we were taken to the other side of the island on a beautiful small beach (with amazing creaking, white sand!) to enjoy the rest of the day. Actually it was just about an hour and a half. A bit too short time as there were some other activities available than just the sun bathing and swimming. I went cayacing for the first time in my life just to see the close by islands from a bit closer distance. It took me about 45 minutes to paddle around the Hon Co island and visit the 2 smaller ones. After cayacing I went to swim with Enni, letting Laura to concentrate on the sun bathing fully. The weather was just perfect for the short stay. At the time of the departure we all felt like we could had stayed there for many more hours. This was also something that was criticised on the forums about the cruises: there seemed to be this hurry all the time and all the activities were a bit too short. Well, I'm still happy even for this few hours stay, as it was splendid!
After getting back to the boat we got about an hour to admire the sunset views from the sundeck of the boat after which we had the dinner. The dinner was again a nice set of seafood served really well. After the dinner we went to the sun deck for one more round of drinks (coffee) and then back to the cabin to put Enni to bed. Luckily we had taken one bottle of bubbling with us to the cabin. ;) From our window we could still watch some people trying the squid fishing as there was a possibility for that one as well.
DAY TWO
Started at 6:30 with the motors of the boat starting and the anchor lifting sounds. Went up on the deck to have a light breakfast and as we started cruising to the next destination, Vong Vieng floating fishing village. The village was about a few hours cruise away. We were taken to the village by the smaller boat again. From the smaller boat we went into even smaller one with local fishers rowing it. They rowed for about an hour around the area of the Vong Vieng and we stopped by at the school, museum and rowed in a cave and through their fish/clam/scallop farms and ended up to a floating pearl shop where they demonstrated how the pearls were made. We bought one painting as a souvenir just to support the locals, although nothing really says that the painting was done in the willage... we also came to thinking that was the village living out of the fishing or were they already more relying on the tourism? It started to seem more like the latter one being the true source of income, which is sort of pity as for ruining the original fishing village idyle. Good in sence of getting them more income (hopefully!).
After the visit to the village we were taken back to the junk to wait for one more lunch on the way back to the harbour in Hon Gai. Before the lunch there was a short break to lay on the sundeck beds for some nice tan. That was what we did. I actually fell asleep in just few minutes in the nice warm weather and small breeze of wind.
After the luch we arrived to the harbour and got a ride back to Hanoi but on the way we stopped for a half an hour lunch break for the bus driver (yeah, right!) and while we were at it we stopped by at the water theater in Yen Duc village in Dong Trieu province. Must say that I didn't quite get the plot and neither did Enni. She was also ready after the first 10 minutes. :) The locals eemed to enjoy it though.
Rest of the ride to Hanoi seemed like forever. I think it took still something like 3 hours to get back to the apartment. We went out to have a late dinner in the near by Japanese restaurant, Kimono. No kimonos were required. A fancy place with fancy prices. The late night coffee took place at the Intercontinental htoel's bar by the West lake. And that was the wrap-up of the two days of the weekend! :)
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