JAG Journeys: cave

Friday, December 5, 2014

Halong Bay

Vietnam Trip ~ Days 11-13

July 23-25, 2012

We got up early in the morning on Monday, had the free breakfast our hostel provided, and then used the computers in the lobby while we waited for our bus to arrive to take us to our tour of Halong Bay. It was supposed to arrive around 8 a.m., but was late. After waiting for about fifteen minutes, one of the men working at the hostel sat down at the computer beside me that Jonathan had just vacated. He looked up something on Google Translate and then told us, "I don't think you can go to Halong Bay today."' We were confused and asked why. He said the tour company had called and said there was a thunderstorm there. I looked at the computer he was using and he had looked up the word 'storm.' So then we had to figure out what to do instead of going on our tour. We looked up the weather for the Halong Bay area and it said it was supposed to be stormy all week until next Sunday. We didn't really want to just stay in Hanoi until our flight back down to Saigon, so we decided to just get a public bus to Halong City and at least see the bay from shore if we couldn't go out sailing on it. We got a refund for our trip and the lady at the front desk was sad we weren't able to go. She said that we could do a 2 day/1 night trip tomorrow if the weather was better, but we didn't really want to sit around for an extra day and then just have the weather not cooperate for us. So we got a taxi ride to the bus station. The taxi driver didn't actually know where the station was since it was quite a ways from the Old Quarter (I guess not too many tourists use the public buses since most get tours out to Halong Bay). He stopped twice to ask other taxi and motorcycle taxi drivers where the station was. Finally we arrived and then had an easy time buying tickets.

The bus trip was about 4.5 or 5 hours and some of it was in rain, especially the nearer we got to the bay. When we got close, the bus stopped and we had to get out and take motorcycle taxis the 5 remaining km to Halong City. We hurriedly dug our raincoats and pack covers out and put them on, then hopped on the bikes. Soon after we got to the hotel, the rain stopped! We got a hotel near the shore and then wandered around looking at the small city. After we ate supper, we walked down the main street in Halong City and came to a tour company. We went in and asked the lady about a tour of the bay and she told us about a couple options we could have if the weather got better. Since we couldn't go on a 3 day/2 night tour anymore we decided a 2 day/1 night would be nice. She said to come by the office by noon the next day to see if the weather would allow us to go.

When we got back to our hotel that evening we looked through the tour book that our hotel had at the front desk. It looked like a good tour, too, and it had a nice itinerary. We didn't know which one to take, so early Tuesday morning Jonathan walked back to the tour company to ask the lady there for the itinerary of that trip. It turned out that the weather wasn't good enough for going on a trip that day either, and we asked the man at our hotel, too, but he said his tour wasn't going either. So we spent the day just relaxing and didn't do too much. We did change hotels, though, to a hotel mentioned in our guidebook. We didn't really appreciate the man at the first hotel since he was quite pushy to try to get us to do what he thought we should do and also seemed a little too interested and snoopy in our plans. We didn't like that very much, so we switched to a hotel a few buildings down the street. It rained really hard in the afternoon and we spent most of it indoors watching some TV. In the evening we went back outdoors and walked around a bit, and then had supper before turning in for the night.

Wednesday morning we got up and ready to head out by 7:45. Jonathan tried calling the tour company on the phone in our room, but it didn't work so we went downstairs to call from the lobby. The lady told us that there was no tour in the morning, but we should come to her office just before noon and we could go on an afternoon tour that was coming from Hanoi. So we were happy we'd at least get to see some of the bay before we had to leave that area and go back to Hanoi. We walked along the shore in the late morning and took some pictures of the cloudy bay from the beach and dock. Then we headed to the tour company. They confirmed that we could, in fact, go on the tour and we were excited to finally explore a bit of the bay. We had a quick lunch at a restaurant across the street, where we could see the tour company from the restaurant windows. After two days of waiting we didn't want to accidentally miss the tour!

After lunch, we waited for a while at the tour company and finally one of the workers got a taxi and brought us out to the ferry dock. He showed us where to join our group and then we were with them for the rest of the afternoon. We just saw a small part of the bay, but it was quite amazing to see such huge limestone karsts jutting steeply out of the water all over the place! We visited a floating village and got rides in small boats around that area. Then we went farther around that group of islands and finally ended up at a cave that we walked through before heading back to the harbour. The trip took us about three and a half hours in total, not what we'd initially planned, but it was certainly better than not being able to go out in the bay at all. In the end, we decided that we'll have to come back here sometime and spend a good amount of time just in this northern area to see more of the bay and the other two bays that are nearby and less popular with tourists.

We were able to get the shuttle bus back to Hanoi with our group so it was much nicer and faster than taking a public bus like we had to get out to Halong City. It took us about three and a half hours with a half an hour stop for bathrooms, and looking at a souvenir shop.

So Mother Nature definitely had her own plans for the last few days of our trip. Hopefully we'll be able to come back and visit northern Vietnam again, though, to spend a little bit more time in this area.

Empty beach

The bay

Tour boats

We rounded a corner...

...and there sat a village!

On the way home from school

We took a ride in a small boat, going through the tunnel

Fruit seller

School building

Leaving

So close yet so far

Stairs

Skittles lights

Strange formation

Underground beauty

Our dunnage

Last look

Next up: Back in Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City

Friday, September 19, 2014

Phong Nha National Park Tour

Vietnam Trip ~ Day 8

July 20, 2012

When we left off in our last blog post from Thursday, July 19 we had gotten a minibus in Danang to take us to a village near the Phong Nha National Park. Since we hadn't been able to find the correct bus that would take us right to the village, we took another one whose driver said he was going in that direction and would get us there. We'll pick up the story there...

As it turned out, that bus went through Dong Hoi, a city about five hours drive up the coast and about 50 km or so from the inland national park. In Dong Hoi, the driver stopped a few times to let passengers off. At one stop, a man opened the door and popped his head inside asking, "Phong Nha?" The driver urged us out, and we obeyed, a little bewildered, while the driver told us that his bus was continuing on up the coast and this man and his friend would take us on motorbikes the rest of the way to Son Trach village, near the park. We had no choice but to hop on the backs of the motorbikes behind the drivers and hope for the best. My driver handed me a helmet, which I promptly stuck on my head. I only realized once we were already driving that the strap was way too big for me, though, so I spent the whole trip with one hand fiercely gripping the handle on the back of the bike to hang on, and the other firmly clasped on top of my helmet to keep it on my head.

Other than the helmet problem, the trip was amazing! It was the most beautiful ride I've ever taken on a motorbike, or for that matter, probably on any other type of vehicle either. We started out just as the sun was sinking into the clouds hovering over the mountains. The rays were shooting golden light across the valleys and the mountains were dark green in the distance. It was so beautiful that I was kicking myself for having my small camera in my backpack instead of in my hands (although I didn't really have any extra hands to wield it anyway...). That, along with the gorgeous drive in the minibus through the coastal mountains, will be a scene I'll just have to try to remember without any pictures to remind me. As we drove, the light faded behind the mountains and they became purple. The temperature was a perfect warmth, but not too hot since there was no sun. Eventually it got dark and then it was harder to see ahead and know when the bumps were coming, but the drivers were experts at missing them, so we managed alright. Finally, after about 40 minutes (we're just guessing) on the bikes, we drove into a village that we assumed was Son Trach village. After a few minutes of trying to figure out the right place to go and haggling with the drivers about the price, we finally ended up at the correct hotel that was booked for us.

(As a side note, we had previously read in our guidebook about a farmstay which operated tours of the national park. We had really wanted to stay there, but by the time we'd learned about it, it was all booked. Instead, we stayed in the nearby Son Trach village and booked a park tour for the next day.)

View of Son Trach village from our hotel lobby

The next morning (Friday, July 20), we were out in the lobby of the hotel by 9 a.m. and a few minutes later the two tour minivans pulled up, and we jumped in. The man who ran the farmstay was Ben, an Australian who had moved to Vietnam about five years earlier and married a Vietnamese lady named Bich (pronounced Bick). Ben and another man working at the farmstay, Pavol from Poland, switched between the two minivans throughout the day. Pavol had only been in Vietnam for 3 months (3 weeks at the farmstay helping with tours and other things there). Ben knew SO much history about the "American war" and so much about that area we were touring in. It was such an interesting tour and I'm really glad we were able to go on it!

After entering Phong Nha National Park, we stopped a few times along the road and all got out of the vans while Ben told us about that area, especially history pertaining to the war. It was apparently a very important place during the war (this national park is in central Vietnam, in the south part of what used to be Northern Vietnam during the war - it's the skinniest part of Vietnam) and was very heavily bombed. There were still unexploded bombs all over the area, but all the pathways had been cleared of bombs, so if you stuck to the pathways you were safe. After stopping a few times along the road and learning interesting stories, we went to a small temple with a sad history; 13 people had died there during one bombing.

Our main tour guide, Ben, tells us stories about the area

Incense burning at the temple

Temple shrine

Guard at the temple

After that we went to a large cave called Paradise Cave, which happened to be about 10 km away from the recently-discovered largest and longest cave in the world. We took golf carts to get closer to the entrance of the cave, but then had to walk up switchback ramps to get to the opening a ways up the mountain. From there we explored just a portion of the 31 km cave on wooden boardwalks. It was nice and cool inside which was refreshing since the day was very warm. After seeing the cave, we went back to the entrance area for lunch at the open-air restaurant. It was the BEST food we'd eaten in Vietnam so far! It was some kind of Vietnamese noodles with egg pieces and fried vegetables, and it was just delicious. When we were finished eating, we changed into swimsuits and drove down to a river to swim.

Entrance to Paradise Cave

Us in front of the much-photographed "Bell" formation

Cave cauliflower

At the river, we hiked in and enjoyed the nice cool water. We had fun taking pictures of the jungle scenery and jumping from a large rock into the water.

Hiking to the river

As we got out of the river, this butterfly landed on a towel

After swimming, we walked back up the trail to the vans and drove down the river a little farther. There, we were all told not to bring anything along that we didn't want to get wet. We were given headlamps and lifejackets, got into groups of two or three, and carried paddles and inflatable kayaks down to the river. We got in the kayaks and rowed down the river a little ways, admiring the beautiful scenery. At a curve in the river, Ben told us to turn and a cave opened up in front of us! We left our kayaks on the sand, and walked along a boardwalk into the cave and down to some small pools of water. Then Ben led us into deeper water and we swam into the dark! Eventually we felt the bottom again and began clambering over some sharp basalt rocks. We stopped for a time while Ben told us about Dark Cave. It is 10 km long and only one person has traveled the whole length. It's a very difficult trek underground to get to the other end because of how sharp the rocks are -- apparently they quickly shred one's shoes. After learning more about the cave, we swam back to the kayaks and headed up the river to the minivans.

(Ali had a hard time focusing the camera in the dark cave...)

Sharp basalt rocks in the cave

Everybody posed for a picture :)

On our way back to the farmstay, we made one more stop on a bridge near a village to take some scenic pictures. Back at the farmstay, Jonathan and I had supper and then had the owners book us some train tickets to Hanoi. Afterward, we watched as the sun dropped behind the rice paddies and mountains in the distance. It was a beautiful way to start the Sabbath! After sunset we were taken back to our hotel on a couple motorbikes.