Day 69

Lan Ha Bay

I woke up nice and early for some breakfast from my hostel then rode over to the tour office for 8.15am ready for the tour. Ha Long Bay is a super famous area of its 1000s of limestone towers in the ocean but is super touristic and busy. Having suffered from a not very fun boat tour in the Phi Phi Islands that was incredibly busy, I went for a tour of Lan Ha Bay instead as it was very similar, closer to Cat Ba, and a lot less busy. A family at my hostel heavily suggested this tour so I booked it last night and was ready for the day. Unfortunately when I was asked to pay I realised I had left my money belt at my hostel and couldn't pay. Luckily, he said I could pay later and I got ready to get on the boat.

It was a fairly busy boat but there was enough room for most of us on the top deck so we could watch the scenery as we went past - although the seats weren't very comfortable. We cruised at a very slow speed which was great as it let us take in the view and the boat was fairly quiet unlike some of the other boats we had been on. I'll let the pictures speak for the beauty of the place, nomatter which way you looked you had a great view. We cruised past some nice little floating fishing villages before we stopped for a swim. As it was low tide, some small beaches around the islands would appear. Once we stopped I heard a massive splash and I realised that people were jumping off the top of the boat into the water. Hell yeah I thought and it wasn't long before I was in my trunks on the edge of the boat ready to jump. It wasn't as warm as Thaialnd was but definitely not cold, so I swam over to the little island - where I ended up cutting my knees on the jagged rock. I swam back to the boat and jumped maybe 4 or 5 times, and I had a great time each jump.

Our next stop was for kayaking. We land at a little floating boat station with a few other boats and we queue up. I was riding solo so got paired up with a tall aussie bloke called Douggy. This was great as he powered us along the water and all I had to do was steer. We went through this cave into a larger opening and kept paddling till we got to another cave where the water was too low to get through. We parked up and carefully treaded through the muddy and sharp cave until we popped out into a fairly busy lake. Douggy also happened to have some beers with him, so beers in hand we treaded into the water and went for a swim to the other side and back. We had to be back at the main boat for 12.30 and it was now 12.15 so not wanting to miss our only way back we went back through the cave and hopped back in the boats ready to power our way onwards.

The first cave we had paddled through now happened to be a major issue as the tide had started to ride so there was a fairly strong current pushing everyone who wanted to escape back the way they came. Boats were going sideways, people were hitting eachother with paddles, and chaos was underway. Douggy and I prepared for our battle against the sea, found our gap and paddled as fast and hard as we could. Weiving through stragglers and pushing off the sides, we managed to make our way through to the other side. Fully pumped, the battle wasn't over as we still had to make it back to our boat. Mighty exhausted we eventually made it back just in time for lunch. This was perfect timing as we had worked up quite an appetite. A family dinner style feast was had and of course it was yummy, it never isn't.

It was then half of us were moved to another boat as some people had to be dropped off early. This was a great bit of news as it meant we had more space and we had lucked out with much comfier seats on the top deck. I chatted with a couple couples (literally everyone is travelling as a couple) on our way to Monkey Island. After spotting a majestic crow on our boat we arrive at the island and it was now that I realised that me cleaning my sunglasses for the whole journey with a purple towel had dyed my white sunglasses purple. Definitely not intended but I think it looks funky.

We hopped off the boat down a sketchy ramp and after accidently leaving someone on the boat as they were in the toilet, we made our way up to the viewpoint. Passing monkeys, I wasn't too phased as I had seen quite alot already but everyone else was pretty fascinated but these ones were definitely much more aggressive as one tried to fight me for olmy Fanta. Our hike turned into a scramble and then turned into a climb but ended with a pretty glorious view of the island and the bay. We made our way down and back onto the boat and this was where the true tragedy of the day had struck. My Hoka trail runners that I had been wearing religiously across Asia had slowly been wearing away but the scrambling was the final straw as the sole started falling off. Determined to save them as I needed atleast another month of use, I hatched a plan for the evening.

We got back and I rode back to my hostel and my first question was where I could buy super glue. Luckily, the restaurant closeby had exactly what I needed and for cheap too. My next question was if I could borrow a brush from my hostel. The dude at reception went out back and brought the perfect tool for the job with him. Needing to clean my shoes before I went for a repair (they hadn't been cleaned since I owned them) I hopped in the shower armed with my brush and my laundry detergent. After some intense dismantling and elbow grease, they started looking alot better. The water was still running brown so I left them under the shower whilst I showered myself and eventually there was no more evidence of dirt. After my shower, I gave the rubber soles a bit of a dry and went to town super glueing every bit of loose sole.

This post has already gone on far too long but I ended up meeting up with Douggy, a couple Canadians, and a Chinese dude for dinner and a drink in the evening before heading to a club/bar thing for a little while before I had decided I have had enough so decided to head home. Having not been in the town before, it being dark, and there not being a phone holder on my bike, I ended up getting lost repeatedly before finally getting my directions right and getting back.Read more