Sailing

Today was very stressful for me as I had to play timekeeper for my Mom who has a history of tardiness and failing to keep her appointments. When I opened my eyes, Mom was wide awake making koot-koot (slang for fussing around aimlessly) and was ecstatic to see me awake. She had already been up for an hour and was anxious for me to get up so she could converse with someone. I asked her what time it was and she said it was 5am. Since it was still early, I encouraged her to close her eyes and catch some more sleep but even I was having a hard time getting back to la-la land because Mom kept on talking and talking. Wake up na daw kasi 6am naman ang breakfast call namin.

Imagine my surprise when she forgets that the clock on her cellphone was never adjusted and that in actuality, it was only 4am in Hanoi. Inis! But as I said, I couldn't fall back to sleep so Mom and I just kept on talking for the next 2 hours while waiting for breakfast to be served at 6am. Mom and I work in the same office six days a week and I even go to her house for Sunday lunch and yet we never run out of things to say to one another. She is my best friend BUT she is also my worst enemy. Especially when she wakes me up at 4:00 in the morning!!!! I didn't have time though to stay mad at her because I was determined to get Mom on that tourist van on time.

The irony is despite Mom waking up at 3am Hanoi time, we still ended up 10 minutes late for our Halong Bay pick-up. Double Inis!


Anyway, Halong Bay is 3 hours away from the City and most tour operators will tell you that an overnight stay is ideal to enjoy a trip here. Upon my official guidebook a.k.a. Michelle's advice, I convinced my companions that a day trip would be sufficient. The drive was leisurely and we hardly even felt the distance because we were all asleep in the van. By the time we got to the dock, there were hundreds of people all waiting to get on their respective boats and embark on their afternoon long adventure.



When we were negotiating with the Sinh Tour Operator the day before, she assured us that the boat we would be sailing on would be first-class. Hmmm, I think she was pulling our leg.
Nevertheless, I think the $28.00 per person we paid was sufficient for the van ride, sailing around for 4 hours, entrance to two caves, (inaudible) tour guide and lunch on the boat pa! My only complaint was that the deck didn't have enough lounging chairs to accommodate us so we ended up sitting on the floor. It was enjoyable nonetheless!





Despite the gloomy conditions, the water was surprisingly calm and the breeze was cool and relaxing. As I have mentioned in my past posts, I get very dizzy on anything that moves and shakes but lucky for me, I didn't find any need for my bonamine and poy-sian inhaler. It was so nice to sail around in such ideal conditions and with great company to boot! Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the bay features thousands of limestone cliffs in various sizes and shapes as shown in the pictures above. How beautiful! They were so massive and there were times that we were sailing so close to them. What a sight. Nena was right. Halong Bay is a must see!



Around the area, you will see clusters of floating houses that have fishpens and other seafoods for sale to the sailing public. You will also see boats that sell anything from fruits to junkfood to mineral water and even tissue paper! Heehee. We didn't purchase any food though because the lunch served on the boat was more than enough for us. We had spring rolls, pickled and stir-fried vegetables, fish, squid, clams, rice and fresh plate of dessert to compliment the feast prepared for us.



After lunch, we had the opportunity to visit two grottos but opted to just go to one. I wasn't aware though that we had to climb up a flight of stairs so I even convinced Mom to join us. Tita Jean opted to stay in the boat as her stomach was getting a bit queasy on her. Naku, when I saw how high we had to go, I tried to talk Mom out of going pero she got stubborn on me na. Thankfully, she was able to make it to the top with no hitches and she was so glad to have gone. It was a beautiful sight inside and she says she would never have the chance to see it again (no more stair climbing in the future!) so buti nalang daw she went.


Our sail ended at around 4:30 pm but with the wet road conditions and some traffic along the way, we made it back to the city close to 8pm already. Our main problem now was where to eat dinner since my itinerary didn't have a dinner venue that evening so our concierge directed us to Quan An Ngon. He says that this place is frequented by the locals and since it was within walking distance, we took his advice. The place reminds me so much of Streetlife, the high end food court that used to be in Glorietta. You get spring rolls in this kiosk then the pho noodles in another kiosk. We were so excited to eat! But as luck would have it, there was no more food left when we got there at 9pm.



Instead, we ended up here. Tan Tan Eel is a few steps away from Quan An Ngon and we were very skeptical of the place kasi walang tao! Reymond has this thing that if there are no people inside a resto, di daw masarap diyan. I guess after 8 years of marriage, his beliefs had rubbed off on me as well. But we would find out later on that the resto was about to close and that they merely accommodated us. Siguro talagang mukha na kaming gutom. The food was average but for the hungry bunch, it was heaven. The funny thing is, even if the specialty of the house was Eel (obvious ba?), we didn't bother ordering any dish with eel in it. Funny talaga kami. We got back to HE3 at 10pm, busog and super tired. Finally, it was time to go back to la-la land.