Monday, August 6, 2012

Halong Bay, Vietnam: Day 2

First of all, a clarification here.. I just stayed 3 days in Hanoi before flying to Bangkok hahahaha so no Day 4/5/6 in Hanoi anymore :P haha thanks for your immense support XP

Back to the topic, after loitering in the old quarter on the first day, we signed up for one-day tour package to Halong Bay which included transport (van transfer), cruise service, kayaking, and lunch. The tour package costs around USD35 as recommended by the receptionist in our hotel. Anyway there're cheaper package out there but we rather chose somebody that we trusted due to the undue scam that occurred commonly in Hanoi.

On the second morning, around 8 a. m., the tour guide came to our hotel to pick us up to Halong Bay. He's a young man that could speak English and Mandarin very well. We were informed that the journey to Halong Bay took around 4 hours, such a long way zz. He also explained briefly about Halong Bay, which means "descending dragon bay", and we went to Halong Bay from Hanoi (Thang Long- Rising Dragon), that will bring luck :)

Along the journey, there're many paddy fields. The farmers worked very hard on it by using traditional methods. We even seen them ploughed the field plot by plot with the help of buffaloes.

A funny incident occurred in the van along the way to Halong Bay. The Vietnamese girls were eating fruits in front of us. My friends were curious because the fruits looked like our langsat but it's very very small.. tiny and cute. So we started to chat in Mandarin.. like "hey let's ask her what's that.." "don't want la, later she paiseh because thought we wanna eat ..." After a while, when my friend was courageous enough to ask her what's that, she turned around and replied us in mandarin, "you want some?" LOL AWKWARD MOMENT. anyway she's so nice, she gave us a large portion of it.. and it's really our langsat =.= in mini size.

Arrived at Halong Bay. Waiting for the tour guide to get us the ticket.
The ticket. Look at the kissing stone. So adorable!
 The cruise ship for the tour.
Interior of the cruise ship.
Halong Bay! We're coming! Halong Bay features countless limestone karsts which gone through millions years of formation. Therefore, it is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site.
 Our first stop for lunch. The floating fishing village.
Several dishes that we had in the cruise.. exactly like Chinese cuisine.
The next station is the site for kayaking which was included in our tour package. However, some of my friends were not interested to join, so we left 5 ppl for kayaking. 5 is not a good number though since we wanted to kayak in pair. In the end, I chose to join another friend to ride sampan into the caves which required me to pay extra USD4 >.< but it's an awesome experience haha

The sampan that I gonna ride on.. 
Rowing into the cave.
Our rower :D
Other sampans o.o at leisurely pace.
With my friend :)
The first kayak team that succeeded to tail us through the cave lols
Back to the village
 The school for the kids.
The last stop was Thien Cung Grotto.
Magnificent view of the stalactites :)
Our tour guide told us this is Heaven Gate lols you wanna go heaven?
Spot the lion :)
Found the elephants?
Vietnamese has good imagination :) They even have guy, girl, dragons and numerous animals in the cave haha 

The tour ended in the evening and we headed back to Hanoi. The traffic was horrible as usual. Can't believe that the motorcyclists even dare to ride on the highway (one way) oppositely heading to our van and nearly knocked down by our van! The traffic in Vietnam made me miss Malaysia :/

The beautiful sunset tinted the sky orange. Great ending to our Halong Bay trip :)

Stay tuned for the last day in Hanoi! 

4 comments:

Hilda Milda™ said...

Gosh, such pretty and breathtaking scenery~ I would love to see them by myself one day *in awe* What camera are you using btw? Real nice photos!

SuFang (Careen) said...

@Hilda: Thanks! I'm using olympus epl1 :D

Koh Kian Fai said...

looks fun! I wish to be there and snap more photos :P

Carolyn Tay said...

Hanoi is such a nice place to travel :) I went there 2 years ago, but I didnt visit the church, looks so nice in pictures :)