The morning started out with our now familiar and ever so gentle wake up call by Mrs. Propoganda. No longer as jarring as she once was, we managed to sleep through most of her screeching, but still awoke in time to arrange our day tour of Ha Long bay. We pile onto our "junk" boat and after a stop for fuel at the floating fuel station, we were underway. It was about the 45 minute mark, freezing cold getting wind blown when I wondered to myself what the heck we were doing and how long it would be to get to Ha Long! But, for $17 for the entire day including lunch we soldiered on.
The weather warmed up and so did our junk mates and the prospects of having a great day started looking up. We kayaked again and took in more of the limestone karste formations. The scenery of course, didn't disapoint and before we knew it, lunch was being served. It is absolutely incredible what kind of spread can be turned out of a tiny postage stamp sized boat galley. And here we are whining on HGTV about double vanities, granite counter tops and stainless steel restaurant quality deep freezes when they're not available during a home search. I digress. This meal, of squid and pineapple, fried fish, spring rolls, stir fried cabbage and rice was terrific. It went on to prove our theory that we were only destined for great food if we were apart of a tour. We got to know our junk mates and fellow travelers. The French, Vietnamese, Swiss, American, Mexican, German and Brits were represented. Some kept to themselves, others socialized. We soon began to swap travel stories and got more comfortable with our new friends.
After lunch we continued into Ha Long bay and were joined by larger junk boats that set sail earlier that morning from Ha Long City. Part of the reason why we spent our time in Cat Ba, was to avoid the major tourist crush and in retrospect, we made the right move. Our experience was more personalized, unique and only slightly touristy. We made the obligatory visit to the "Surprise Cave" and I was indeed surprised. Not by the "surprise" that was waiting for the visitor, but by how it was actually kind of neat and not nearly as cheesy as I first anticipated. Shame of me to prejudge.
The cruise back included a stop on Monkey Island, where we had lunch the day before. This time, we disembarked and enjoyed the view. Some thought it would be fun to taunt the monkeys by engaging them and dangling things to get them to scamper towards them. After my brush with a monkeys fangs in India, I'm not exactly a huge fan. I did however, get some great pictures and found a little enjoyment in watching the others get too close.
The final leg of the journey seemed to take forever and the temperatures started to drop. As the sun started to set on La Han bay, so did a fantastic day that had a questionable beginning. A predictably bad meal was had, once again, but at least the company was good, which included some new friends from our junk cruise we dubbed the Carnies. The next day would find us on an all day journey to central Vietnam.
-
No comments:
Post a Comment