Ha Long City

Arrived 11/07/2011

Getting to Ha Long City (back to the mainland) involved another ferry from a different port on the other side of Cat Ba.  I asked at the tourist info centre the times of the ferry and how to get there.  Just take this road around (points on the map) and the times are up there.  Sweet that sounds pretty easy and told it was only 25km so shouldn’t have to rush in the morning.

Bit of a sleep in, a good breakfast and WOO! I need to get going asap to make the ferry!! Well I circled around a local street (a little lost) then went to the ship yards of Cat Ba (lost again) then finally found the right road to take me over to the other side then one of my panniers broke off, bloody hell disaster!  Everything comes off and I drip with sweat screwing the pannier clips back on.  Time ticking by.  All together, the right road and start making progress.  First milestone says 45km… uh oh that’s not 25.  More turn off’s, confusion and bit of stress if I will make the ferry.  All of a sudden the milestones say 9km. Un-stress.

40,000 dong for my return ferry ticket, they are honest over here!!! Stoked. So evened out to 120,000 dong per ferry, not bad.  What was funny at this ferry I was the only foreigner.  About 15 people came up and talked to me about my bike and all the usual questions:

“Where are you from?”

“How old are you?”

 “Are you married?” and

“Do you have girlfriend?”

Everyone wanted a go.  This guy took it for a
spin around the terminal

I love the married question.  I am, just ditched my wife and 3 kids to go travelling for 6 months.

My friend on the ferry. He would usually complete the cube in 40 -50 seconds.

Bye-bye Ha Long Bay

You arrive on an island and have about 15km to go to get to Ha Long City.  The island (a reasonable size) is being completely developed and transformed into a big exclusive resort area.  It was weird biking past all these flash new empty buildings, big empty roads and pristine gardens.

The road to the ferry terminal - pretty fancy!

Got myself a top story hotel room with a mint view.  Was $20 but without having to negotiate on the price I just asked to see the $15 room and he said, “Ok I give you this room for $15”.  Sweet that’s me then!

This isn't my room but finally I got an elevator to take me up 6 floors rather than lugging all my gear up stairs as the case usually is after riding for a full day!