Day 67 journey to Hạ Long, boat to Bai Tu Long bay.

Thursday March 8th
An early start, as we had to be at the office of our Ha Long bay tour company by 0745.
Breakfast in the hotel was a pretty bewildering array of choices, from fruit, cereal, Pho, congee and what looked like a pretty substantial salad bar to more traditional European pastries, bacon, sausage, baked beans and a chef to scramble eggs for you, or omlettize if you prefer.

We had planned to walk to our pickup point, but by the time we'd eaten and retrieved our bags from the room we weren't sure we'd make it, so we availed ourselves of a cab from reception.

A shortish ride in the cab through the scooter filled chaos of the streets of Hanoi cost Đ40,000 which looks like a lot written down but was just a bit over £1. Karen had chosen this company, Handspan, because they were committed to improving the environment, responsible tourism and sustainability  (https://www.handspan.com/en/-local-pioneers-.html) . There are hundreds of boats plying the waters around Ha Long bay and unfortunately this means that the water is becoming polluted. We wanted to make sure our visit helped to restore some of the balance lost rather than contribute to the problem.

In the tour company office we were introduced to our tour guide Đuy (pronounced Zwee), our bags were packed into our bus and we set off for our three and a half hour ride to Ha Long. Our guides explained some of the words used in Vietnam and we learnt that tonality was really important, an upward or down ward lilt to the voice could change the words meaning totally eg the word for hello, "xin chao" which was pronounced "sin chow" had a down ward tone, putting an upward tone on it meant expressing hunger.

Handspan Offices in Hanoi

On the bus

scenery from the bus

Outside Hanoi the country side is pretty much rice fields and the occasional town. People in traditional conical hats were planting the fields with rice as we passed. We got pulled over not long after we left Hanoi proper and our driver had his papers checked. Our guide explained that we'd be stopping after 2 hours, that this was mandatory for the driver as the bus was GPS tracked, and drivers needed the break due to the stress of driving in Vietnam. There were certainly lots of bouncy moments on the bus due to uneven bits of road. Amazingly we didn't see any accidents, or the aftermath of any either, although frankly I am amazed, the mix of HGV, buses and motor bikes feels like a lethal combo.
Our stop was at a workshop for handicapped people selling all sorts of crafts, plus some industrial sized statuary which could be shipped worldwide. There was everything from clothes, jewellery, statues and paintings to food and drink. We bought a postcard!

When we got to Ha Long we got to hang out in a café while our transport in the harbour was organised.

We then got our first experience of ticket farce, where you get handed a ticket, it gets punched , and then you hand the ticket back. This got us off the dock and onto a tender for our boat. We were encouraged to put on life jackets, and once we were all wearing one, the tender took us the 200m or so to our home for the next 2 nights, the Treasure Junk.

Simon and Edwina on the left who we got to know on our two day trip

We were greeted by the "lucky man" a member of the crew with a mask on and handed hot towels to wipe our faces and hands with.

The crew had put out luggage on board at the cabin deck level, we were all taken upstairs to the dining room and given a briefing about the boat layout, the safety features in our cabin (a rubber hammer and a torch), and our itinerary for the day.

bar end of boat

Released from the briefing we got our key and let ourselves into our room.

corridor leading to the rooms, all wood panelled

After a quick unpack we went upstairs for lunch.
Lunch was served while we were under way, Karen spotted sea hawks diving down and catching fish while we were eating. The food was delicious and beautifully presented

soup

salad

prawns. (we forgot to take pictures of the other courses that followed!)

After lunch we went up on the sun deck. Although the air temperature was warm, the wind and our headway were making it a bit chilly. We were joined by a British couple, Edwina and Simon, who were having a break after being volunteer English teachers in Laos.

At 15:00 we got a briefing about our 1st activity for the afternoon, kayaking. It was a pretty thorough briefing compared to most of the kayak trips we've taken with time taken to explain which way up the paddle should be and how to paddle.
1530 pretty much everyone went Kayaking, 13 out of 14. The Treasure Junk could take 28 people, but our group for the first day was only 14. One of the girls was ill and so she stayed on the boat.

We got a break on a beach, the guides explained how rubbish collection here worked,  they collect trash and put it on a designated beach above the tide line, then a boat comes once a week to collect it all. The beach was not pristine, the guides did pick up some rubbish but weren't really equipped to clean it all up, there was at least one nappy.

After we paddled back to the Treasure Junk, we took a quick dip, swimming round the tender. One of the younger couples did the same. It didn't feel particularly warm!
We went back to our cabin and had a hot shower to warm up.
At 1800 before dinner, we got the chance to try making some fried spring rolls wrapped in betel leaf rather than pastry or rice  paper.

Duy explaining about our cooking lesson

our turn to have a go

this tasted very good

As it got dark we sat down to dinner while the boat swung gently around our mooring in the breeze.

Link to panorama

After dinner it was time for bed for us although top gear Vietnam, happy hour and squid fishing were on offer too, it had been a long day with an early start and we were promised the engines would be on in the morning early.