Day 42 - 04th August
So I was up doubly early to wake my French contingents up. Whacking up the volume on my phone, I blasted out Aviici - Levels and started hollering. "Rise and shine, it's butt whipping time!" They weren't best impressed but the constant clapping and music made them get up.
My iPad seemed to have given up and wouldn't charge. I'd it doesn't work anymore, I'm screwed - watch this story develop!
I abandoned my old, damp and stinky shoes in the bin, settled into my new ones and headed up to the SkyView bar for breakfast. We were due to leave at 8am but with all things in Asia, I've learned you need to wait about half an hour longer for the arrival of your tour guides. In the meantime, I picked up some doughnuts and pastries for the bus.
Around 8:35am, our tour guide rocks up. We grab our stuff and followed him to our bus, already filled with others. We settled in and we jerked slowly down the street. I asked Sèbastien when we were transferring to the bigger bus, which was met with laughter. This bus, with its cramped seats and shite air conditioning was our bus to Halong Bay. Of course it was!
Our tour guide, Ken stepped up and then began the derogatory remarks about women looking more beautiful after alcohol, men looking more handsome after alcohol and how rice wine kept his pecker in fertile fitness. He was trying but the group of westerners were not impressed. He was harmless enough.
After a couple of hours journey and a typical stop at a 'necessary pitstop', which is just like the Clackett Lane services on the M25 - extortionate food prices, tacky souvenirs and crazy people are in abundance, we re-boarded our bus for a further hour and reached Halong Bay. We met an old companion, Lauren from Sapa who'd seen a Spanish guy go apeshit at their bus tour guide back from Sapa. Sadly she wasn't on our boat.
We headed out on a small transfer boat, with some oversized orange life jackets that reminded me of when I go shopping for shirts, buying the wrong size and never returning it or wearing it again- fashion was never my strong point anyway.
The main boat was cool. We were starving so headed up in deck for lunch - squid, vegetables, rice, skewers and many other dishes. The watermelon came out in full force too! Shortly after, me and Sèbastien checked into our cabin. It was fairly decent, overlooking the fact that there was a hole in the floor.
Shortly after lunch, we moved further along Halong Bay, admiring the rock formation which were just incredible, before Ken let us all try the local wine. Taste abysmal back home, tastes abysmal here. The Pringles Sèbastien picked up were pretty good though.
It was time to go swimming. The water was cool but you couldn't see beneath the murky, green surface to gauge how deep it was. After trying to swim like Chuck Nolan did towards Wilson in Castaway, I turned around and headed back to dry off. Jordy and Sèbastien swam to another boat and met Dayana, our Bulgarian acquaintance from Sapa.
I enjoyed a cool beer with Bill, an Australian on a month long trip with his daughter, Renee. It was nice to hear stories about Oz and I opened up my long standing debate about water based predators, namely, what would you prefer to be stuck in the water with: a crocodile or a Great White shark. I stand by my decision to be with a Great White. A don't fancy a death roll myself!
At dinner, we met Kym, from Texas and Mariah from The Netherlands. The fish was pretty good with the usual rice and vegetables. The other predator, Ken told us that we could then either chill out on the boat or learn how to squid fish. I chose to perform some magic tricks and play card games whilst enjoying the two free beers they gave us.
The night was long, trying to explain a game of Mafia to two Irish girls, a young Australian and a hammered Dutch girl was like trying to get a playgroup class under control. Also, a few unfriendly games of New Market forced us to think of another plan to keep us entertained.
We thought about a night swim, and a few managed to jump in before being hauled out by the crew. As they went off to bed, I stayed up and just watched a thunderstorm erupting behind the Halong rocks.
Whilst Sèbastien kept Mariah occupied, I played the life story game with 20 year old, Renee. Of course I'm not going to post details on here, that would be unfair but this talk went on for a few hours until 4am rolled around. It's amazing what you learn from this game and you get to see the real person beneath the surface. Definitely a game worth playing!
At some point I realised my back was being massaged. As I felt inside my shirt, I found a little critter inside, crawling up my back. The picture says it all.
Renee headed off to bed and I wanted to stick around until 5am to watch the sun come up. It was chilly on deck so I waited in my cabin . . .
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