Ha Long Bay & Cat Ba, Vietnam: Go Where the Wind Blows
In my normal life, I love routines and making plans. It’s the secret to my morning productivity and lovely house parties. When plans change, however, it grates on my soul and the gears in my head whir wildly to recalibrate the new information in accordance with a new plan.
At work, this makes me detail-oriented and generally successful. In my personal life, it makes me impatient and kind of controlling. Hopefully in a fun way.
I travel to practice being flexible and open-minded. Backpacking is particularly unfussy. I purposefully don’t make a lot of plans or form too many expectations. The only things I sometimes book ahead of time are my accommodation and my transportation.
Our trip to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island turned out to be a backpackers master class in going with the flow. We changed our travel timeline to take advantage of an incredible offer for a free boat tour and tried to make plans around that. But weather and the realities of island life laughed at my attempts and instead showed me a better time than I could have imagined.
That’s another wonderful thing about travel. Sometimes the world has other plans, and it’s best to let them surprise you.
Smize = Smiling With Your Eyes
“Do you have plans tomorrow?” called our hostel host as Louise and I walked past reception.
“We are going to explore more of Hanoi,” we responded, slowing down.
“Do you want to go to Ha Long Bay for free instead?”
“Can our friends come?”
There are dozens of daily tours from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay that offer some combination of transportation, boat cruise of the bay, kayaking excursion, cave tour, and food. They vary in cost and quality, and we weren’t sure how or if we wanted to book one. But a free tour for Louise, Avi, Zen, and me was too good to pass up. In exchange for the offer, we would be photographed all day for the company’s new promotional materials. I watched a lot of Top Model growing up, and I was ready to whip out Tyra Banks’ Smize if necessary.
The tour itself was ridiculous and gorgeous and, naturally, posed and planned. After the day ended, we asked the tour operators to drop us off in Ha Long City. We intended to spend a couple days independently in Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay. The ferry didn’t operate past 4pm, though, so our hostel reservation on Cat Ba Island went unfilled and we stayed in the garish and overpriced Ha Long City for a night. We went to sleep grateful for our good fortune, but anxious to get to Cat Ba.
Better When I’m Dancing
You can always recognize American tourists by their public displays of dancing, according to Avi. Louise and I are repeat culprits. We bop down the street singing songs and shoulder shake in restaurants when we recognize a beat. We’ll dance on hikes, in stores, and riding busses. Our best impromptu dance party broke out on the beach in Cat Ba as the sun set.
We woke up early in Ha Long City to catch the ferry to Cat Ba Island, hoping to make the most of our two days there. The journey took us across Ha Long Bay and through the beautiful National Park in Cat Ba. When we arrived in Cat Ba Town, we ate well at a vegetarian restaurant called Buddha Belly and motorbiked to the Cat Co beaches. As the sun set and we danced like maniacs, I felt supremely satisfied with our plans. It was going to be our last full day together as a group before we all parted ways, and we were set to have a seafood dinner to celebrate. The next day, we would kayak for hours and leave fulfilled. Louise and I booked an overnight bus to Sa Pa, and the boys were planning to go back to Hanoi. It seemed like the perfect conclusion.
Then we woke up to an impending monsoon.
Stuck on an Island
No boats in or out. That was the reality of the rain and wind coming for Cat Ba.
The gears in my head whirred; Now we can’t kayak. We’re going to miss our second hostel reservation, and I think that deposit is nonrefundable. Can we change our bus tickets? How long will we be stuck here? What is there to do on a tropical island when it’s raining? Wait a minute, how dangerous is this monsoon?
This was not a good look for me. Luckily, my travel companions are patient and know how to play Yaniv, an addicting Israeli card game. We biked to Buddha Belly to sip smoothies, compete at cards, and think about our next moves. When it stopped raining, we hopped on our bikes and explored the national park. The clouds and rolling sea created an eerie and tantalizing backdrop, and the extra time spent with our friends felt like a gift.
Trusting the Unknown
Sun followed the storm, waves cleared the water, and we were ready for our formerly postponed kayaking trip. My research indicated there was a highly-rated kayaking rental place past the Cat Co Beaches. When we arrived on motorbike, we didn’t see anything but an empty parking lot and docked boats. Immediately, a man approached us and said in broken English that the bay was too dangerous to kayak alone and he would take us in his boat to a kayak rental shop 30 minutes away.
This smelled fishy, and not only because we were in a harbor.
I ignored the guy and quickly moved our group across the street to find this kayak place. Soon, a woman approached us and delivered the same message in slightly better English. She seemed legit…but this wasn’t part of the plan.
I calculated the risk. Were they going to take us out to sea and sell us into human trafficking? Louise had her rape whistle but not her pepper spray. Avi could probably punch that guy if necessary, and I’ve driven a boat before. Ugh, I really do want to kayak.
Okay. Let’s do it.
Again, sometimes the world has better plans. Let yourself be thrilled.
By Mel Grau
