April 27, 2022 – Halong Bay

Hi friends!

Last we talked, Sean and I had just boarded a bus from Sapa back to Hanoi. We had to do a bunch of finagling to even get onto this bus, but we made it in the end. It’s strange how interconnected the tourist business is. Everyone seems to be in cahoots with everyone else. Luckily, this generally worked to our advantage, since everybody wanted to make sure we were taken care of.

I was surprised there were none of the same people on this bus as had been on our first trip, but there were no familiar faces. We were both on the “bottom shelf” this time, to my dismay. I only took one picture on this ride, of Sean passed-out with the help of a creative blindfold, but I’ve been asked not to post it. Bahahaha.

If you read the first Sapa post, you’ll remember that our first night bus took extra long stops so that we wouldn’t arrive in Sapa until 6am. By the time we got to Sapa, the city was alive (even though we were not), cafes were open, the sun was up, and people were bustling around.

Well, on this bus, there was no such stopping. We paused one time for a bathroom break, and then we were suddenly booted from the bus at four in the morning, in pitch darkness, far from the city center. It was very disorienting. We had to transfer onto a smaller van-bus, and then we were plopped in the middle of Old Town around 4:30, still in pitch blackness, and with nobody around. We were TIRED. All we wanted to do was sleep, but literally nothing was open.

We wandered for a long time, were bitten by several mosquitos, and followed several misleading Google reports of hotels with 24-hour reception. We were starting to become cranky and hostile. It was less than pleasant.

On our way to a supposed 24-hour café around 5:30, we stumbled upon a motel with several tired staff members in the entryway. They all jumped up as we approached and quickly found a room for us. We chose the 2-hour rental option. Bahahaha. Sketchy.

I fell asleep pretty much instantly, but Sean spent a bit more time trying to get cleaned up. When his alarm went off after two hours, we had quite the dispute on whether we should stay longer (my vote) or not (his). We finally decided to stay and sleep a little longer, and I kid you not, five minutes after we reached this decision, the loudest thumping began right over our heads.

My top theories were 1) a giant was walking around in high-heels, or 2) there was something hard like shoes rolling around in a washing machine upstairs. Sean thought someone was trying to unclog a toilet. IDK what it really was, but it lasted solidly for the next hour, making sleep entirely impossible, though the whole situation was very comical.

When we’d had enough of the silly noise, we packed up and headed out for some delicious chocolate buns by the lake.

And then it was off to a real hotel to check in for the day and night. We had landed on a hotel which had super kindly held our belongings for our day trip to Ninh Binh, even though we weren’t guests there. We decided actually staying there was a decent way to repay them.

We hadn’t originally planned on spending this day back in Hanoi, so we didn’t really have much else we wanted to accomplish here. I fell back asleep pretty much right away, and Sean followed soon after.

When we awoke from our slumber and stumbled to a very late early-afternoon breakfast, we were delighted with the cocktails (good morning!) and brunch entrees.

After a lovely meal, we prepared ourselves to wander in the heat again. We walked the shops a bit and then walked around the lake in search of a famous water puppet theater, but it turned out they are only performing on the weekends right now due to decreased tourism. Bummer!

We had a little tiff over manicures (a long story) and then went back to the hotel for another nap. I tell ya, those short night buses are just not conducive to productive sleep patterns.

Our only other plans for the night were to go back to our brunch spot for live music. Sean set off earlier than me, and I joined just before the second artist. I believe she was either a Brit or a Kiwi, and she was living in Vietnam as an English teacher. Very cool!

Her set used a lot of cool effects on both her voice and her guitar. We rounded off the night with a bowl of goulash. Yum.

When we got back to the hotel, we had our laundry waiting for us, all folded and packed up! So cute!

The receptionist also asked us a series of questions that he likes to ask all tourists: first book you can think of, first song you can think of, and first movie you can think of. We had just been talking about Air Bud, that movie where the dog learns football, so that was all I could think of at the moment. Lol. Sean did most of the answering.

In the morning, we were up bright and early again for another day trip. We stopped for some breakfast pho around the corner, and Google Translate did a lovely job of helping us out with the menu. There were about ten different kinds of pho, and Google provided us with ten lines of “Noodle Soup.” Ha.

When we boarded the bus, our tour guide introduced himself, but I missed his name because he immediately followed this up with, “Or, you can call me my nickname – Tiger.” I thought this was supposed to be some kind of funny macho-man joke, but he continued: “Some people say that when I have a hat, I look like the famous golfer.” Again, I thought this was just a joke, until Sean said, “Woah, he kind of does!” I looked again, and I kid you not – this guy was a Vietnamese Tiger Woods. Bahahahaha. I wish I’d gotten a picture.

We had a two hour bus ride before arriving at the port to the famous Halong Bay. Traffic was minimal on the drive, so we had time to mill about the port lobby before our boat left. I walked across the street to the restroom as our departure time approached, and when I was making my way back inside the port hall, I heard a surprised, “Elizabeth?” from behind me.

I turned around and saw none other than Handsome! Our tour guide to Ninh Binh several days before! Ha!

“What are you doing here?” he asked, a huge smile on his face. I told him we were off to see Halong Bay, and he told me he had just finished a 7am tour of the same. He really wanted to shake my hand, but it was wet from having just washed it. “It’s okay,” he said, and squeezed tight. “Bye, bye!” he yelled, waving happily as he boarded his van to head back to Hanoi.

When I met back up with Sean to board the boat, I said, “You’ll never guess who I just saw.” He was confused. “Handsome!”

It’s not every day you hear your name called with excited recognition in the middle of a foreign country. It’s happened to me a few times, and it sends me smiling every time!

On the boat, we were served a slightly underwhelming seafood lunch, and then we had plenty of time to marvel at the gorgeous views around us.

Our first stop was Ti Top Island. I was really hoping to swim, but the water wasn’t the loveliest, and Sean wanted to do the hike, so hike we did! No regrets. The view from the top was spectacular!

This is Sean’s preferred picture participation style:

Lol. While we waited for our departure time, Sean successfully haggled for me for an adorable long-sleeve swimsuit. I even donned the top before our next outing.

We continued further into the bay before our next stop, where we had the choice between riding around on a boat or chartering our own little kayaks. We chose the kayak, and we paddled around a little alcove in the rocks. The water was soooo serene.

Unfortunately, I should have also donned the swim bottoms, because the kayaks were holding a lot of water. Here’s me modeling my wet butt:

Bahahaha. One of the guides assured us that this was “normal.”

As we puttered to our last stop, Sean exclaimed that there was a “little house” on top of one of the rock formations.

“Honey,” I said, “That’s the island we climbed like an hour ago.” Tehehehe.

Now, our last stop was by far my favorite part of the day. We were told we were seeing a cave, and I didn’t think much of it. We had been in and under several little caves, and I assumed this would be about the same.

But this was called Surprise Cave, and boy was it a surprise!