Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
After almost 24 hours of traveling on minibus, bus, bus, taxi, plane, taxi, boat, and bus, we arrived on Cat Ba Island in northeastern Vietnam. Our goal was to go for a cruise around Ha Long Bay, to satiate Alex’s obsession with this place from a particular episode of Top Gear. In fact, he may or may not have inquired at no less than three places where “the floating bar from Top Gear” might be situated. People mostly stared at him blankly while I rolled my eyes behind him.
Alex would also like to interject that on our bus trip from Cambodia into Ho Chi Minh City, he had the sense to look up where in HCMC we might’ve been, and asked the driver where we should get off for the airport just at the right time – so we were promptly dropped off on the side of the road, literally less than 1km away from the airport. He is so proud of his intuition that I needed to give some credit here.
Anyway, back to Cat Ba Island. It is a sleepy little town with few tourists, the type of town where everyone knew each other. It is also a vacation spot for locals, so on weekends it tended to get busy with tourists from around Hanoi. With so few tourists, the tour we went on for Ha Long Bay ended up being a small group of seven, on a mainly deserted route, which was super nice. We explored a couple of caves, one of which was amazingly large and well organized. We also went for a swim after lunch on the boat, in a calm corner of the bay, before going kayaking later in the afternoon. The weather on Cat Ba was overcast most of the time we were there, so the temperature was just perfect, especially after being practically baked in the sun in Cambodia.
Inside the huge cave in Ha Long Bay. Name unknown, since tour operators don’t bother with such detail.
The two-man crew on our boat cooked up a feast with fish, calamari, veggies, rice, and clams for lunch!
We rented a little scooter and explored the island by ourselves one day, and I got tricked into hiking in Cat Ba National Park where the hike up to the top was super steep, slippery from rain and mud, and featured broken and rusted ladders in difficult places. I was wearing my Birkenstocks, and Alex flipflops. I wanted to kill Alex on multiple occasions the whole way up, and coming down was even more difficult. The view from the top was pretty, but considering I grew up around mountains, I was less than impressed with the risky climb for such a view. The important thing, though, was that Alex got to drive a scooter all day, something he had been dying to do since we got to Asia, so we can officially check that off the list.
The super poisonous-looking crab we came across on our climb up
Alex is pointing to the top of the mountain that we climbed up. View from the top on the right.
We spent a day in Hanoi before flying out of Vietnam into Laos. Hanoi is a large metropolis that had traces of French influence lingering in parts of the city, and we had a delicious afternoon tea and coffee in a very French cafe there. However, in general, Vietnam was probably the least welcoming country we’ve visited in Southeast Asia, at least to me. I received just as many stares there as I did in India, making me feel uncomfortable and even more of an outsider as I already was. I think the reason for all the stares is that Vietnam is a pretty conservative country whose people don’t always approve of interracial relationships, and in Southeast Asia we have seen quite a few gold-digging couples that I don’t really blame them. This worked against me in Vietnam, though, since some of the stares could be interpreted with anything from curiosity to downright hostility. I was very self-conscious there, and couldn’t wait to get out into a more chill place – like Laos.
We managed to find a really fun BBQ place on the side of the road for dinner in Hanoi
I would like to revisit Vietnam another time though, and take my time with the different cities. We heard great things from travelers who seemed to be just focusing on Vietnam, and wished we had more time. Perhaps the next time I will come with my mom or sister, so everyone can be a little bit more comfortable!
