Halong Bay:Pirates and Monkeys and it smells of purple

12-1 - 12-3
Halong bay trip today.  Every possible source of review that I have read has been consistent in its high praise of this trek, such that it seemed unnatural, like when people are so nice that it seems strange.  Ashley and Helen were on the tour too, but they had just signed up for 1 night wheras I had chosen 2 (for about 100 bucks).  We had to take a 4 hour bus ride.   The ride was not the most relaxing--to put it in perspective, I was reading at a pace of about 1 page every 5 minutes due to the bounciness caused by either the crappy roads or the lack of a suspension system on the bus.  The tourist trap that we stopped at on the way was worth it, because they sold mangos for like 50 cents and peeled and cut them for you.  I've had a hard time describing the amazing flavor of the mangos in Asia, but I've finally found an apt way to do it: they are sweet and chemically in a good way.

So the harbor looked like something out of Pirates of The Carribean or Monkey Island.  If only our boat was called "The Threepwood", that woulda made it.  All the boats were of a similar construction, dark wood, very old feeling.  Nothing that looked even remotely out of the last two centuries.

We had a guide and his name was Bien.  Despite being what I would consider "one quarter fluent" in English, he had no problem talking a lot.  I mean, really a lot.  His introduction speech lasted for over an hour (on the bus).  It kinda became a joke among the other passengers, the verbosensss.  I know he meant well, but wow, that mouth was running on Uranium.
Overll the tour was amazing.  The scenery was beautiful and the weather was perfect.  There were a lot of other tourist boats around, but it didn't detract from the experience.  In fact, it was really serence to see a hundred boats an chored in the ocean, within reach from many small islands, rocking in the moonlight.  It could have been the set to Captain Blood.
On the first day we went inside some caves the origin of which I never figured out, but Bien lectured us for 30 minutes about as we stood at the entrance and watched 10 or so other tour groups march in past us.  I only had my sunglasses though, so I really got little out of the experience, as it was dark inside the cave, so it was either see clearly but only darkness or see blurry.  At least I got pics.

After the caves we got to do some sea kayaking.  I got paired up with the other solo traveler on our boat, Jess from South Africa.  We got gutsy and treked off kinda far and kinda pretended we didn't hear Bien say to go for only 45 minutes.   We went through this tunnel and found little secluded inlet.  It was like this giant rock was the head of a giant Neandertal floating in the water, mouth open, head hollow, with a little stream of drool marking the pathway in (and out).  Inside this "Neandertal Head" we saw a bunch of little monkeys climbing on the sheer cliff walls.  When I first noticed them out of the corner of my eye, I thought "spider" because that was how they were moving, but they were monkeys. Crazy.
Despite our tour being on the bottom end of cost I found it to be quite luxurious.  For example, our meals  included multiple courses and were usually served with artistic garnishes--this is not what I'd expect from a budget tour.  Honestly I would have been cool with sandwiches or instant noodles.  We slept on the boat the first night.  I was fearful that our global loquacious guide would attempt to lead us in song and possibly dance, but we were lucky to avoid it.

 Because dinner was at 8PM and I was still hungry at 9PM, and given the breakfast was to be served at 8 AM, I was the first one at the breakfast table, which was fancy, but only 1/4 the amount I would prefer.  Actually everyone was complaining not about the quality of the food, but the quantity.  We think they estimated based on what a normal Vietnamese person eats, which is far less than a Western person needs.  Let's face it, we are like twice their size.

The 1 Dayers left, which brought our group down to about 6.  We were taken to Cat Ba island where we did some biking to a small Village.  It really should be called Dog island, or Dog Zealand, because there are like 5 dogs for every person.  We cringed at the thought that they might have been the main food source.

After biking we did some more kayaking.  We treked to a small empty island and swam a bit.  It was fabulous.  There were lots of ladies rocking around in row boats selling stuff--ocean 7-11's.  Too bad they didn't sell cold beer.

 We spent the rest of our trip on a more populated portion of Cat Ba island.  We had the evening to ourselves.  The first thing Jess and I did with our freedom was visit a restaurant and get spring rolls, mango juice, and some random rice dishes.  Then 3 hours later, we ate the dinner that was provided with our tour, no problem.

On our last day we basically just road the boat back, met up with some more people on the way, and traveled back to Hanoi togethor.  I got back to the Rendevouz hostel with 30 minutes to spare before my train to Hue.  Ashley and Helen were there and were also on my train.  We got some quick eats and shared a cab to the train station.
The train was a sleeper and quite simply, a tropical bungalow on wheels.  It was as if they had hired an interior designer for it.  For some reason we got to board early.  Our hostel had booked our tickets for us, through a hotel that was next to the train station, and told us they would assist us in boarding.   My cabin had 4 beds, some complimentary snacks, tea, and sanitary wipes. We had to trek through all 11 train cars to get to the car that sold beer though. A couple from Paris were with me in my cabin, Antonin and Damia.  Antonin had been working in Hanoi for the last half year and gave a lot of education on Vietnam, like how they use a crap out of pesticides but all the farms were small and family owned.  Or how you could get fresh unpasteurized beer on the side of the road if you look for a sign that says, well, "fresh beer", but in Vietnamese.  The journey took about 12 hours.  In the morning we woke up and were in Hue, in Central Vietnam