Ha Long Bay adventures

Ha Long Bay !

What an extraordinary, beautiful place. Without a doubt the place well earns its World Heritage Destination title.

After returning from my trip to Thailand, I headed to Ha Long and Hai Phong to say good byes to my friends and to pick up my motorbike again. I met up with a friend from home and we drove to Cat Ba together. The plan was to rent kayaks for three days and head onto some hidden beaches in the bay. We stayed in Cat Ba one night and started hunting for kayaks and a tent early next morning. Turns out that there are absolutely no camping shops on Cat Ba and no one rents tents, contrary to what we had been told. For future adventurists, I would recommend booking early. A few places rent kayaks over night; Blue Swimmers and Woodstock Beach Camp. The Asia Outdoors at the Good Bar is a very helpful place as well.

Eventually, we managed to get kayaks and two hammocks so off we went. We got a boat ride deeper into the bay where our kayaks were waiting. From there we navigated towards the open sea where we had heard of a secret beach. The tide was very high and the sea quite wild so we ended up getting soaked before we were able to find any beaches. Luckily, found one before it got dark and hung up our hammocks and made a fire. It was fantastic to be in the middle of nowhere grilling food on an open fire while fishermen boats were lighting the horizon. Sleeping in itself didn't go so well; we were ambushed by millions of mosquitoes. I ended up having more than a hundred stings in my back alone.

We woke up to a beautiful, quiet morning. The boats had already left their nightly parking and the eagles were flying near by. The tide was very low so we could see many more beaches near by. Sadly, the locals don't really take care of the cleanness of the bay and the waves carry loads of trash on the sands. Our happiness lasted about an hour when the biggest thunderstorm I have been in hit us. So we sat shaking in our hammocks, soaked in the water. Luckily, the storms travel fast so it was over soon. We had to wait some time for the tide to raise in order for us to carry on. We had hoped to stay for another night on another beach but it didn't seem sensible any more at that point, it wouldn't have been possible to light another bonfire, our main warm clothes were wet and we had lost most of our camping spirit.

The rain begun again on our way back to the pier so we got soaked again. Back into the city and straight into the nearest hotel to get a warm shower and food. Most of the day was spent napping, evening strolling around the Cat Ba town. Cat Ba town is nice, plenty of local seafood restaurants by the Bay and some nice hidden beaches with ice cream stalls. Cat Ba town isn't big, most of the island is covered by a green bush that has hidden trails and caves, and funky animals. The only practical way to get around is with a motorbike, luckily, the roads are wide and easy to drive even for a beginner.

We decided to move out of town to the Woodstock Beach Camp for our final two nights. We booked a tent on the beached and stayed there. Once again we were a little unluckily with the rain but overall the camp was very chilled and cozy. We spent our days driving around the island, visiting the caves and the national park, eating plenty of ice cream and relaxing by the beach. The caves are quite different to others in Vietnam; Cat Ba was used a lot during the war - there is a hospital cave and some storing caves as well as a cannon hill. All well worth visiting.

On our final day we took the kayaks out again to go visit the Monkey Island. I have to say that the monkeys are quite aggressive, probably been subjected to bad treatment, and will definitely steal anything they can get their hands on. This time it was a coke, fruits and a pair of sunglasses. The island itself is gorgeous as well as the surrounding area. It is an easy, short kayak journey away from the pier. We managed to find another island with a high observation deck that we climbed on. It was fantastic- eagles flying right by our side, clouds reflecting from the calm turquoise water.

Regardless of the weather being against us, the trip was amazing. Only in the forests in Finland have I ever seen that kind of untouched, undiscovered, drop dead gorgeous nature. The scenery is just different shades of blue and green.  It was great to go explore by ourselves and get some good exercise going.

Pictures coming up next to fill in the gaps that words only cannot.


Love,

Mira