Emerald Dragons—Halong Bay

The Emerald Dragon beckoned me from the East. I responded with a night train trip back to Hanoi with plans of going into its mouth. Hours of research yet with disjointed findings, I ended up booking a tour on a “party boat”--not because of the party. I actually wanted to avoid such a boat. But because Hanoi was flooded with such numerous “reputable” tour offices that actually had services across the gammet, and innumerable clones of clones of “reliable companies”. This time, I went with the easiest, and what I thought would be one of the safest boat...which happened to be the tour leaving from my hostel, and coincidentally the “party tour”. Whatever. Having heard so many stories, both positive and negative, of peoples' experiences here, I decided to relieve my shoulders and third eye of the strenuous weight of expectations, and move with the masses...opting to go with the flow.

And its a good thing I did. Our bus arrived Halong City port, only to find the dragon continuing to tease us. The weather had taken a turn...we stayed couped up in the port office for at least an hour awaiting the swaths of a downpour to subside. Finally, we were able to board...again, only to be teased further. Navy? officials of this world heritage site boarded all of us tour boats waiting oh-so-patiently to cruise, to state we must await the weather. Another hour later, the rain lightened, the fog lifted, rays of sunshine broke the grey, and our boat began to move.

Food and celebration ensued as our boat passed the bay, and into the jaws of Halong. Legend states a great dragon resides in these waters, who's sharp tail slashed the limestone land into some 3000 kharsts before settling on the ocean's floor. I believe it.

We were on the super highway of tour boats, escorting their guests past one karst, and then another, kayaking here, swimming there. A VERY short ride later, we anchored offshore of Cat Ba Island (our route having been thwarted with the loss of time and the luncheon rainstorm. Did I mention party boat? Oh yeah...

In the disgustingly ironic end, our boat was anchored in the middle of the others. With poor techno music pumping loudly from our dining (more like drinking) hall, I relinquished to the fact that a least I was in the action, rather than hearing it loudly on one of the quiet boats parked not 200 meters from us.

I somehow managed to fall asleep to the confused djs and my bunk's bulging ceiling from the dance steps of the drunken upstairs, which continued into the wee hours of the morning. Thanks be to that, because I had an uninterrupted yoga class for myself on the deck just after sunrise while the partyers slept their silliness away :)