October 9, Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
We spent most of the day on a boat in Ha Long Bay, where we walked through Surprise Cave, went to a beach, and stayed overnight on the boat.
The timing worked out so that we didn’t need to leave quite as early from the hotel, but we did need to check out and repack things so we could leave most of our luggage at the hotel. We then boarded the bus to ride to Ha Long. On the way, we saw a lot of damage from the latest typhoon, with many trees down, and even a light pole or two.
Once we were in Ha Long, we boarded the Annam Junk, which would be our transport and where we would spend the night. While we were waiting to set sail, we saw a lot of activity of other boats being boarded, and boats moving around in the water. There was also a lot of activity with kites flying around and occasionally diving into the water looking for food.
Soon after we launched, lunch was served, and we watched all shapes of islets go by as we ate. The cliffs were very steep, and that must continue underwater since our boat went very close to some of them.
Surprise Cave
Our first stop was to Surprise Cave. After getting off the boat, we climbed a lot of stairs to get to the cave opening. The first room was quite small, the second room was bigger, and the third room was enormous. There weren’t a huge number of formations as we saw in the other caves, but it was still interesting, especially for the fact that we were on a small islet.
Beach and overlook
Our next stop was an islet with a small beach on one side. We had gone past the islet on the way to the cave and had noticed a building at the top of the islet. Bao mentioned that you could climb up there.
Once we landed, most of the group decided to go straight to the beach, while Melody and I headed for a group of stairs going to the overlook. The stairs were pretty steep, but we eventually made it to the top. There were a lot of people hanging out and taking selfies. The trip down was about as slow since it was so steep.
Having gotten a workout, we headed to the water to cool off a bit. There was a small area designated for people to be in since the water got deeper quickly past the buoys. You could tell it got deep since several boats were going by not too far from the buoys.
We made one more stop for kayaking. Melody and I opted to stay on the boat, but it was fun to see our group’s kayaks going into the cave. They said there were several monkeys, including baby ones.
Overnight on the bay
The sun was quickly setting after the kayaking stop, and there was enough pollution that the sun turned a brilliant orange-red as it got near the horizon. The sun set quickly, but there was plenty of time to try several different times to get a good sunset picture. The member of our group who does headstands even did one with the red sky as a backdrop.
Once we got to the designated area, our boat dropped anchor. There were several other boats there with us, but it was by no means crowded. Bao said that even at its busiest, there aren’t all that many more boats staying overnight at its busiest.
We all gathered on the top deck to admire the surroundings and enjoy an early evening chat. We then went downstairs for dinner. After that, several group members got drinks, and we never really left the table until it was time to turn in for the evening.
