Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Ha Long Bay - Castaways tour
The heavens opened as we left the hostel to find the bus. The 10 of us on the tour wore coloured ponchos as we followed one enough through the streets to the main road. The rain was even worse on our next change over where we then had to get on a boat. Luckily it wasn’t long and then we were on another bus. It took us winding round the cliff face of an island, parts of the route were over half built roads. Lush green trees covered the landscape and little civilisation to be seen. The final boat ride took us past similar looking islands all covered in trees. The weather was improving and we admired the views and we passed by many fish farms that were set on the water. We later learnt that the people living on the water were some of the poorest in Vietnam as they couldn’t even afford land.
The beach we were heading towards was quite a statement. It was a small section of sand amongst all the forest. There were wooden huts lined up along the beach and the largest wooden structure was pointed out as the bar/social area. We got given a lovely lunch with tofu dishes and noodles included. We then took it in turns to go tubing. It was hard to hold onto the inflatable and we fell off hard onto the water. I came out with burn marks on my elbows but it was a great thrill.
As we sat in the restaurant afterwards, a party boat headed towards us. It was filled with about 30 people dancing on the top deck and singing to music that was blaring out the boat speakers. It made quite an impression on our rather small group. They looked like they were having a great time. When they arrived on the beach we went over and mingled. I met two brothers travelling together who were the first set of siblings we had met so far. They had already been travelling 6 weeks and had another month or so to go. Later on we partied with them and they were quite different characters but a good laugh. That night we met and danced with loads of different people. The set up of a remote island with no WiFi and the same group made for a really social scene. What was also unique was that we used wristbands with money loaded on to buy drinks. As we were a small group we got to know the others very well. We became close to a group of three girls which we nicknamed the ‘girl band’ and we got up on the tables dancing with them. One of the girls pulled me over to the gong and started banging on it enthusiastically. I was shocked because I knew that that signifies she was about to buy everyone on the island a drink. It quickly became evident that she had no idea about this rule. Later that night a few of us went swimming with some Dutch guys. When you looked out to sea, lush green islands made up the horizon. Then in the opposite direction, the beach bar was blaring out music. This all made for a very unique atmosphere. We took in every moment of the evening.
The next day we were woken up early and taken on a boat cruise. We were initially worried that our group was too small to have quite as much fun as the group before us appeared to. But as the day went on we realised we had a great set up. We all got to know eachother well. We were able to dictate the day and have flexibility with the reps on what we were doing and when we wanted to drink. A highlight was a chilled kayak around the bay. I also really enjoyed jumping off the boat into the warm water and enjoying the views surrounding the water. We anticipated another big night so it was nice to take it easy on the boat and were lucky to have some extended sunny periods.
When we returned more islanders had arrived, this time a group of 40. Again we got chatting to lots of different people, some included:
- A group of Loughborough students. I bonded with them playing beer pong the group was made up of 3 guys and a girl. They had an interesting dynamic where she almost became one of the lads. But I got on with them well and danced with them a lot of the night.
- Later on we were outside and met some Irish guys. One I spoke to was part of a movement called ‘subset’ in Dublin to get street art on the grey walls around the city. It was initially being stopped by the government but recently they seemed to be winning the battle as they got more and more followers. It was really interesting listening to a full time artist.
That night we took the opportunity to swim again, this time with our tour group as a final night activity. We saw plankton this time, it looked like sparkles in the water.
- comments