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Other entries in Halong Bay

When Monkeys Attack

The standard way of driving in Vietnam is foot on the gas, with one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn. If someone in front of you is going even slightly slower than you, lay on the horn until they move. On motos, this isn't so bad. On a bus... it can be a little grating. Especially for close to 2 hours.

Despite the honking, our bus out to Haiphong, to catch the ferry to Cat Ba Island, was air-conditioned and very fast. Jumping off the bus and onto a pair of motos, we made the 12:30 ferry just fine. However, the ferry turned out to be the _very slow_ ferry - getting us to Cat Ba around 3pm.

After Evan fought off all the hotel touts, who kept handing us their business cards ("Everyone! We have a place to stay!" and then after recognizing a card identical to the card Laura gave us before we left... "Who's card is this? You - we're going with you."), we wound up at the My Ngoc hotel with Mr. Lo to (1) get a hotel room and (2) book our cruise! :)

Not much to say about the hotel - really, just a place to stay. We had fabulous seafood dinner during the evening black-out, at first outside, then indoors when the pouring rain drove us to seek shelter. And, confoundingly, the electricity came back on during the thunderstorm...

The next day, we sailed out of the harbor into Halong Bay on our little junk (i.e., Chinese-style boat), which we had chartered entirely for ourselves. Evan couldn't help singing, alternately, songs from H.M.S. Pinafore, and the Gilligan's Island theme.

Halong Bay's main attraction is the giant limestone formations sticking out of the bay. They look like they're floating, since the waves have undercut the rocks so much at ocean level. In reality, the "rocks" are actually mountains - the far eastern part of the Himalayas.

We spent the first day cruising around, stopping for swims in peaceful bays with incredibly warm water. One bay had a natural bridge that we tried to swim through, but were thwarted by a very fast moving current (luckily, moving towards our boat). We pulled up at one island to explore a huge cave, which we had to spend quite a while in when another thunderstorm rolled through the area (with lightning striking very close to us, which was a little unnerving). But the storm brought out basketball-sized, and larger, jellyfish, floating en masse in the currents.

[Evan writes: Kristen left out the diabolical tire! To climb back into our boat, in lieu of a ladder, our fearless crew had provided a tire dangling on the end of a rope down into the water; kick your feet into the tire, hoist yourself up on the rope, and step onto the gunwale. Except that this requires balance and arm strength that I possessed on only about one of every three tries, and Kristen... well, good thing the first mate was a mighty sailor man. :) ]

We spent the night on the boat, anchored in yet another peaceful bay. The night was muggy, and it took a while to get to sleep as we were constantly on guard for roving cockroaches - we'd seen one in the cabin earlier that evening. But we slept well after we finally fell asleep.

After another swim and breakfast, we cruised around the bay for a few more hours. Our last stop was (insert music of doom here; Dave, check this out) Monkey Island!

Monkey Island seemed like just another peaceful coral beach. But appearances can be deceiving. I stood on the patio next to the park rangers' hut, waiting for Evan to exit the loo. I noticed a monkey leap from one rooftop to the other, above my head. Thinking, "oh, monkeys are cute," I watched them play around for a few minutes. Then it turned ugly. One started making alarming faces at me. I looked around - monkeys everywhere, including one crawling on the small shed behind me. I looked back at the monkey on the roof for a split second, when it happened. The monkey on the shed leaped down to the patio, ran over to me, and PUNCHED me on the leg! I screamed, certain he would bite me next, and then stomped my feet at him to make him go away. A park ranger ran over, which caused the rest of the monkeys that had gathered to scatter.

Now I like monkeys. They are normally cute. But a roving gang of thug monkeys is another story... But now I've been punched by both a crack-head and a thug monkey, which not too many other people can say.

[Evan writes: Kristen, like Lois Lane, seems to only get herself into trouble when I am unavailable to help. Perhaps I keep her out of trouble by my mere presence... hmmm...]

After the monkey debacle, we swam for a bit (with Evan making fun of me - though, I note, he wouldn't be laughing if he were the one taking punches all the time). Unfortunately, the beach was full of garbage and other debris - both the tourist boats and the folks inhabiting the floating villages around the bay seem to dump their trash into the water, which is disappointing. So, we got back on the boat for lunch, and by then, it was time to come back to Cat Ba Town to catch the hydrofoil back to Haiphong (the _fast_ boat this time), to catch the bus back to Hanoi and the land of honking!

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