Day 85: Sleeper train - Hanoi - Halong Bay - Pirate Ships!

Back in Hanoi ...

Awake, bright lights of my cabin blazing in my eyes. Finicky sleep all night long, beds were surprisingly firm yet still comfortable. It's 4am, trains to arrive at 5, is it possible we're early? Look out window, this isn't the train station, car starts to move again, light remains on. The Vietnamese couple start to gather their belongings, that's a good sign, follow suit.

20 minutes later we pull into the station, exit, hail a taxi, arrive at Hanoi Backpackers by 4:45am. The night guard lets us into the luggage storage closet, grab our big bags, he checks the tags, and the clothes sorting/swapping begins. Hope it's warm, have not a lick of clean warm clothing left. Bag up my muddy, abused wears of the previous 4 days, will have it laundered while I'm gone to Halong Bay, place my still muddy wet shoes in a separate bag, that will have to stay.

By 5:15am everything is sorted, but we cannot check our big bags back in until 6am, so we stack all of our stuff in a corner and head to the HSBC ATM around the corner, still have to pay for the night train and the coming boat adventure.

By 7:30, I've paid for the trip, paid for my laundry, stored my big bag, placed nasty shoes on top of bag to dry, sure to smell up the room, guy from the Minsk rental place just showed up. Confusion about the bill, show charges of $100usd for the train, but we had discussed previously that the extra day rental we paid for in advance is to be knocked off the bill, leaving a total of 836,000 dong each, not 940,000. Will pays it, however, there is a little matter of 500,000 dong that needs to be addressed with my bill.

If you recall, yesterday morning I spent 3 1/2 hours and 660,000 dong at the mechanics, 160,000 to fix parts from my accident, thats on me, 500,000 for the cylindrical electric part, something that does not break in an accident, should not break save the age of the part or bike, thus on them. The guy picking up the cash was obviously not a decision maker, was unaware of all these conversations with Thu at the home office. Pulled out my receipt, said I'm not paying the full amount, it's supposed to be discounted. He looked at the receipt, makes a call with his phone, in a loud agitated voice goes on about it to the other end. By this point I have a hostel worker with a good grasp of English to explain. Mr. Huong, the manager comes over, "we gave you spare parts, why you pay for this part?" It was not in the bag, and you spoke with him yesterday, said it was ok. "I never spoke with anyone, did you use my cell? I said for emergencies." Yiu said if we had a major accident, needed a hospital, to call it, but only for emergencies. Regardless, this is where the part is that he replaced. He said he spoke with you, we called the office, he said you are friends, figure it out. "I know him, I will call him, but might take a bit to straighten out." I'm leaving for Halong Bay in 5 minutes so figure it out, be back on Sunday. And with that, we shook hands, will finish the story on Sunday.

It was raining when we left Lao Cai last night, it was overcast when we arrived in Hanoi this morning, and now, sky opens up, blurgh. Yo Henry (he's our tour guy), is it going to be rainy and chilly in Halong Bay? "Nope, there are two different patterns of weather, here and there. It'll be sunny, you can count on that." We arrive, stinging sideways downpour, me thinks someone was speaking out of his arse.

Halong Bay Junk Boat

Get shuttled to the boat, very nice one at that, old wood pirate-style sailing boat, clearly powered by diesel motors, blek, come to think of it, are there any sails? Halong Bay is glassy smooth, the limestone karsts launching up out of the ocean, as if to say hello. In the distance, what looks like a mountain range, in reality, just layers of these small islands. The rain has stopped, it's overcast, fog is seen over the tops of the distant peaks, there is something eerie and beautiful about this place ... Pirate's of the Carribean anyone?

"Alright then, whose first?" How cold is the water Henry? "It's warm, jump in." We are on the third level, a good 25 to 30 feet up, here goes nothing, Woooo Hoooo ... Splash, woah woah woah. It's cold, almost freezing, no sun, what the... race for the ladder, up and out as others start to make the plunge. My brits think it's fine ... they would.

Kayaking

20 minutes later, the Kayaks show up, I partner with Will and off we go. If you're still for a moment, just staring at the sea/landscape all around, smoothly coasting at water level, feels other worldly. Like a dream sequence. The last few days of Vietnam have been very much that to me, other worldly. I can see why people fall in love with it. After the rest catch up, we head a good mile or two around a few outcroppings and stumble upon a large cave. We take to exploring, cave gets darker, one flashlight among the group, my hand wounds completely uncovered, slip, slice, BLEEP! Glad we are not on the amazon.

Floating Village

Next stop, a fishing village on the water tucked into a cove, moored to the rocks, floating shacks. It's beautiful in it's simplicity, little kids jumping from shack barge to shack barge, vicious teeth bearing dogs barking on their edges.  Makes you wonder who these people are, how they got here, will their children ever leave ...

Sunlight is escaping, race back to the boat, if you can find it. The bay is littered with classic sailing boats, schoolers, and yachts, resting peacefully, all with a similar style to ours, uh, which one is ours? Anyone? I think I see it way off in the distance, could it be, but that's so far, it is. Time to get our paddle on.

Reach the boat after much consternation, forearms burning, bones chilled completely through, hop on board, shower up, dinner time. Family style, majority being freshly caught fish products ... ideal for my seafood allergies ... veggies it is. Drinking games ensue, full bar with drink deals, begin in our own clusters, having a blast. Henry decides to clear out the tables and make one big drinking game ... one that no one understands ... we wait for it to get fun ... fail. Tired, need my rest, retire to my cabin, put in my tunes, work on this blog ...

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