Saturday, September 4, 2010

Day 66 Wed 01/09 - Halong Bay Heritage Cruise Day 1

Today Weather : 28 - 35C   Sunny and Hazzy all Day
Today Spend : 355000vnd     Total : 1226000 vnd

The tour bus arrived 8.20am at the hotel and off to Halong town which is about 180km from Hanoi, midway the bus stopped over in Ruby Emperor where many Vietnamese products and foods on sell . As usual, we are not the only one but all the tour buses and vans stop the same place,trying to squeeze as much $$ as possible from the tourists. The journey took 3 and a half hours to reach Halong jetty, immediately we were directed to the custom registration office to surrender our passport. A very strange regulation as Halong bay is still in Vietnam teritory. Have lunch on the boat and later a visit to the Heaven cave in one of the limestone hills. This cave was voted as one of the 7 wonders of the world by UNESCO. To me, it's just another cave of stellamines and stelledytes made beautiful by decorated colour bulbs.Our own Mulu cave looks many times better!! The boat continues to sail thru' some stunning limestone hills protruding out from the sea like many blocks of building with different sizes and shapes, but the hazzy sky somewhat spoiled the otherwise scenic view. We were tranfered to the Cat Ba town in the Cat Ba Island after 45 min of minibus ride thru' the mountains valley. Check in the Sunflower 2 Hotel where I shared a room with a Nederlander. Dinner in the hotel and follow by a free and easy walk around the Cat Ba town. A town full of hotels ,Karaoke and prostitutes sitting outside the shop waiting for customers.
Needles and colour threads painting
At the Halong pier where we surrender our passport
The Halong tourist junk
Sailing on many limestones hills
I left my Malaysian flag at the hotel
A view from the top deck
Another one
Tourist boats cashing on $$ everyday

At the entrance of the Heaven Cave


One of the 7 wonder of the world
Decorated by many colourful bulbs

A ray of sunlight into the cave
A view from the cave exit


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