Part 9. By air, by sea, by land.
Day six, original, December 10.2016
I love the road. The road is an adventure. This is the quintessence of travel. It is on the road that I live life to the fullest, this is what I was born for.
Almost the entire day was spent on the road. Our destination was Halong Bay.
But, since we had a plane at 13.10, in the morning we still went to the beach. Yes, in the beautiful city of Hoi An there is also a beach! ) It's just that December is winter, and in winter in central Vietnam there is no beach season, so there was no desire to drop everything and run to the sea.
But in the morning, on the day of departure, we still went there.
The beach looks gloomy and inhospitable. Winter is winter. But the sea is warm and generally warm, despite the wind and clouds. Sunbeds on the beach are free, though the restaurant will come to you with an offer to buy something. Most likely the sunbeds belong to the restaurant. We took the juice and enjoyed lying with it on these sunbeds)
The most interesting thing on Hoi Ana beach is round small boats, similar to wicker fruit baskets)
On these boats, fishermen go out into the turbulent sea for their catch. I heard a version that they are of such an unusual shape in order not to pay taxes for the boat, because THIS does not look like a boat. But after watching the fisherman transport the boat to the parking lot, I understood why they are so round. With the help of a bamboo stick, by scrolling the boat on the sand, the fishermen independently move the boat to any place.
It's scary to even look at how these round people jump in the waves)
There are few people on the beach, in fact, I photographed them all) This couple had a photo session. The red skirt really enlivened the landscape.
The taxi driver has been waiting for us all this time. In Vietnam, taxi drivers will be happy to wait for you, because for sure you will go back, and you still need to look for a new client.
We pick up the luggage at the hotel and move to the airport on the hotel transfer.
To get from Hoi An to Halong Bay, where we are heading, you need to get to Hanoi by plane, train or bus, and from there take a ready-made tour the next morning, which includes a trip to the bay back and a boat trip. But we are not looking for easy ways, we are normal heroes independent travelers and take a detour take a different route. We will fly to the nearest major city to the bay - Hai Phong, and from there we will sail to Cat Ba Island by boat. Right on the island we will take a boat tour. This way will supposedly be cheaper and definitely faster.
Will we be on time for the last boat, which leaves at 16.00? Or will we spend the night in Haiphong? We didn't know that yet.
We fly with our favorite Vietjet. Probably nowhere in the world there are tickets cheaper than theirs. For 30 dollars, we will fly 800 kilometers, in fact, half the country, from central Vietnam to the north. But they are notorious for delays, flight rescheduling and other low-cost airline pleasures.
We were lucky this time. We depart on time and arrive in Haiphong on schedule, at 14.25, we get the luggage very quickly.
Time is limited, we don’t know where the port is located and we don’t know how long it will take to get there. We sit in a taxi, explain to the driver that we need to go to the port, from where the boats depart for Cat Ba. He nods and brings us. . . to this place.
Here we buy complex tickets: bus + boat + bus for 150 thousand VND. In principle, there is nothing surprising in this, in Vietnam such combo tickets are accepted, it is surprisingly different - for the entire journey we did not meet a single tourist. Well, the price is very good, it’s also surprising, for comparison, on the way from the island to the mainland, a ferry ticket alone costs 180.000 dong. Sunday 220.
That is, we accidentally discovered some way for the locals. Our fellow travelers are Vietnamese who are returning home from the city to their island.
The bus stops right here, we are waiting for it to leave and a long trip around the city begins.
The pleasant city of Hai Phong, which we saw only from the bus window.
Port) Here it is - real Vietnam. Non-tourist places, non-tourist vehicles.
A small, old boat is packed with people, apparently they are port workers. Small plastic stools are placed in the aisle and we sit down, barricading the rest of the space with our suitcases.
The road is quite boring - water, water. The mountains are not visible yet. We go no more than 20 minutes.
Probably it was the only place where it was hard for me with a suitcase - on the ladder, from the ladder, inside the boat on the stairs... In addition, the suitcase was slowly filling up in every city and already weighed significantly. That is, you understand, it is one thing to take a taxi and quite another to take public transport.
Arriving on the island.
Another bus is waiting for us and, along a stunningly beautiful road, among the gorgeous mountains, we are going to the city of Cat Ba.
As soon as the bus stopped, we were attacked by hotel representatives. The prices are ridiculous - $10 a night for a double room with an awesome view of the bay.
It doesn't matter to me where we will sleep for the next two nights, so Igor chooses and we go to one of the hotels. The room is average scall, but the view is really very pleasing. Sunset happens, as always in Southeast Asia, abruptly and intensely.
We take a shower, which, according to a strange Vietnamese tradition, pours directly onto the toilet bowl and onto the washbasin, and go to dinner. On the way, we go to a travel agency and buy a tour of Halong Bay for tomorrow.
Have you ever cooked your own food in restaurants? )
This dish is called "hot pot" and they give out tiles, saucepan, herbs, cooked noodles and raw seafood. We cook and eat. There is nothing easier)
It was chilly and I didn't have enough blankets, besides, we couldn't interrogate the tongs for the armor. But overall it was fun. And very, very unusual.
Whole cycle:
1. Preface to the story of how I went to Vietnam
2. Morning in the middle of the night or Hello Comrade Beijing!
3. Ho Chi Minh City is delicious.
4. Part 4. Ho Chi Minh City-Dalat.
5. Part 5. What would a day be like if it started in a madhouse?
6. Part 6. Da Nang. Marble mountains.
7. Part 7. The soulful city of Hoi An.
8. Part 8. Why did they destroy Michonne?
9. Part 9. By air, by sea, by land.
10. Part 10. Must see. Halong bay.
