Budget: 1200k Dong/$60; Spent: 885k Dong/$42
Patty here.
Felt well rested this morning after sleeping for most of the day before and getting to bed early. I managed to eat some breakfast from the hostel but gave some of it to Jeff to finish. Overall I was feeling much better. Our bus arrived promptly after eating and once we paid our bill at the hotel we set off on a verrrrry long journey to Cat Ba Island. We really didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. As far as we knew we had paid for simple transportation from Hanoi to Cat Ba Island. Well we were in for a few surprises.
We grabbed what looked like the last two seats that were side by side at the very back of the mini bus. But there were other seats we just couldn's see them at the time. Long story short after picking everyone up there were a total about 20 people packed into a minibus like a bunch sardines and we all roughed it for the next 4 1/2 hours. I felt especially bad for the tall people who had no leg room. That's a long time to keep your knees bent in the same position. Naturally half way through the trip we took a 30 minute "bathroom" break at a large shop selling paintings, clothing, and other textiles. Upon entering there were several of the artists seated and working away. The artists seated were disabled, and according to one of the sales people at the last shop we stopped at prior to arriving in Ninh Binh, many of them were born disabled and/or with birth defects as a result of their parents' exposure to Agent Orange. Agent Orange was a chemical weapon used by the Americans in the Vietnam war. It was used to defoliate forests and rural land to take away cover for Guerillas. This shop apparently employs these individuals and also uses them as a sales tool. It is not made transparent anywhere in the shop itself exactly how your contributions benefit the workers, therefore we've been a bit turned off.
We browsed around but without much interest. We hopped back on the bus and were unimpressed to find that our spots had been taken and that we would be sitting a part the remainder of the trip. Another 2 hours went by and we arrived at Halong City Harbour. We got herded out of the bus and into a parking lot like a bunch of cattle by our less than enthusiastic tour guide who then rattled some instructions off like a drill sergeant He was difficult to understand so someone asked him to repeat himself and he did again with absolutely no expression on his face except maybe a hint of irritation. There was definitely no smiling happening. Turned out there were papers that needed to be filled out by all the tourists. Something that could have been easily done on the bus but for some reason was left til we were off the bus. Forgive me if I sound bitter and negative but I'm recollecting one nuisance out of what would become many during our trip to Cat Ba. All we wanted was transportation to Cat Ba!!!
We got a circus instead.
After waiting for one binder to be passed around to 20 tourists to fill out some basic info, another one was passed around. Then, the guide explained that the tourists who hadn't paid for the overnight cruise would have to walk over to a booth to buy entrance tickets to something... I think they were for the area of Halong Bay as well as some caves but I'm not totally sure and we never really found out. It turned out there were many people who had bought the same ticket we bought from their hostels which were simply to get to Cat Ba Island. But we all were also lumped together with those tourists continuing on with an overnight cruise. This was a bad idea.
Many people stood listening to the guide, confused about why they needed an entrance ticket. You would assume the $20 cost of the transportation would include that sort of thing, but no. So I approached a booth the guide had pointed at, assuming it was where we could buy the entrance tickets but the lady looked at me totally confused and annoyed. I thought okay, maybe this is the wrong booth. The lady didn't speak any English so it was difficult to communicate with her. So I went to a little building beside where her booth was and explained what we were looking for. And luckily a lady who spoke English redirected me to the same booth. But it was as if they had never encountered people approaching them for two entrance tickets before. The lady again looked at me annoyed and unsure of what I would be asking for. And again I asked for two entrance tickets to god knows where. She then told me the price but not until another lady explained to her in Vietnamese what we needed. There was so much confusion between us it was a miracle anything got done. None of us had any idea what kind of entrance ticket we were buying and who knows what was going on from this lady's perspective. She's probably been through the same confusion day in and day out and maybe there's many different entrance tickets so she didn't know which one... I don't know, but this all could have been easily avoided if the price of the transportation included this entrance ticket.
So after this debacle which took an entire hour, we were finally on a boat to Cat Ba Island. Or so we thought. We breathed a sigh of relief once we got on and took our seats in the dining room of the boat. The boat itself was kind of cute:
The guide organized the tourists into 2 sections of the dining room. One side was for those staying for the overnight cruise and the other side was for those continuing on to Cat Ba. They might as well have put chains on us and dressed us up in little striped jumpers because we were treated like criminals. We spent the next hour watching the "overnight cruisers" eat a delicious lunch before our very eyes. One girl was appalled rightfully so, and asked if we had the option of buying lunch. He ignored her. I guess that meant no.
Next thing you know we arrive somewhere on Halong Bay and are directed to some caves. The English speaking guide on the boat didn't bother to join us, I guess he figured we were all geological experts on caves and he had nothing to add. So this was our 2nd surprise. A stop to see some big, high-ceiling, neon lit caves. Here is a picture:
By the end all we could do was ask the question, why? Why was this happening? Why didn't we ask for me information on the trip? Why wouldn't they feed us?
We didn't get fed at all during the trip to Cat Ba Island. But we did have the option of purchasing snacks and drinks like Pringles and Oreos which no doubt were probably grossly overpriced. Anyways by the end we were starving but we refused to give them another penny.
Our next surprise was a stop amidst Karst mountains in the ocean for the "overnight cruisers" to do some kayaking. We the criminals had the option of paying an additional $2.50 per person for 40 minutes of kayaking. It was a beautiful spot, but we were starving and hadn't planned any of this. We were told the trip to Cat Ba would take about 5 hours. And there we were at 3:30pm watching our fellow travellers hop on some kayaks for another 1 hour stop over. We took some nice pictures from the deck and it's too bad we didn't enjoy the moment more. Considering the circumstances, it was tough to appreciate it all.
We departed the area at around 4:45pm. Two new passengers came aboard. A very outgoing and friendly Polish guy who was ready to start the party with some Vodka, and a Latvian girl who we spent the next hour or so talking to about kite-boarding. There was also a nice couple from France that were in the same predicament we were that we met during lunch time. Their names were Sophie and Eric. A sweet couple. Both were tech artists. Eric had actually helped with the graphics for Dispicable Me and was working on a "secret" project that he couldn't share with us. Jeff asked if we bought him some beers would he tell us more about it, and he said maybe. But in the end we were given no more info about his project. Sophie was working on her PhD in Art. She specializes in Video Game Art. As you would expect Jeff and her had plenty to talk about. She was more passionate about video games than he was! It was quite cute. We must have been so boring to talk to though, and so grumpy.
Eric and Sophie made friends with another French couple who were spending the night on the boat. When they learned we hadn't eaten anything, they were very concerned and quickly brought us a bag of fruit and cookies. The 4 of us and a Chinese girl, whose name I can't remember unfortunately, sat around the bag of food. I wasn't going to eat any, but the French girl sharing her food insisted we have some. It didn't take much convincing and soon we were all scarfing down baby cookies like they were some extraordinary dessert. Baby cookies never tasted so good. Seriously they were delicious. The French girl brought out a little puppet she had brought on her trip. She had made it at home and it had flags stitched on it. It also had a Canadian flag pin on it that some travelers from Quebec had given her. When the mouth opened it showed the site to their blog. It was an interesting idea.
We thanked them several times and finally we arrived on Cat Ba Island. We read in our book that often times they will drop you off on the Island but will leave you with no option but to take a taxi for $50 to the town itself where all the hotels are located. We had talked to Mary at our hostel to ensure the price of the transportation included the trip to the town and we were told it was. But with the number of surprises we had seen that day, we were prepared for anything. We hopped off the ship into darkness. There were no lamp posts at all. Eric had a flashlight so that was helpful. We were relieved when we saw that there was a bus waiting for all the tourists to take them to the town. Again in the bus there was confusion. There was some kind of roll call taking place. I don't know if they were trying to figure out where to drop everyone off or what, but the bus didn't start moving for awhile.
After about a 20 mins ride the bus stopped in town. Some guy at the front asked who was staying at the Sun Flower hotel. Two girls stood up and got off the bus. There were probably 30 people on the bus so we were thinking are they going to do this for everybody?! It was 7:00pm at this point. There were a bunch of locals trying to organize everything at the front of the bus. They began talking to each other for awhile and before we knew it they were telling all of us to get out there. The entire bus had no idea where we were being dropped off and what was happening and why. This led to one guy demanding that he get dropped off at his hotel. A group of people stood by watching him. The guy he was talking to said that was the last stop. Meanwhile 5 minutes later as were walking down the road we see the bus with about 10 other tourists still on it. Not to mention the bus had no choice but to continue down thesame road.... go figure.
We were exhausted and slightly concerned because we hadn't booked our accommodations yet in Cat Ba Island. This decision was based on a recommendation from a traveler we met who said we could get a great deal on somewhere nice if we booked upon arrival. We were worried we would regret this. But, it turned out to be much easier than we thought. It was low season and the hotels were looking pretty desperate to fill the rooms. The first place we went to said they were almost full with only one double with a private ensuite left. He said he would give it us for $10. We asked to see it. It was very basic and had no window so we told him we would think about it. As we were leaving he came down to $8. But we continued on.
We approached the main strip and saw a hotel that was recommended by our book. We walked in went through the same convo with the owner. Someone showed us the room. It was spacious and had a pretty view of the bay all for $12. We went downstairs and offered $10 per night and he accepted.
What a long day. If you're still reading this... which would be very surprising, we had to find somewhere to eat. The owner directed us to a seafood place recommended by the book. It was expensive and not overly tasty. But we were hungry so it was satisfying.
Once we got back to our hotel, our heads pretty much hit the pillows and we were both out like lights.
A loooooong day it was.
Patty
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