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For details of the places I visited in Vietnam along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, with GPS Coordinates, see my book Vietnam Caves.

For details on motorbiking in Vietnam and Cambodia, from buying and selling a motorbike, to border crossing, see my book Motorbiking Cambodia & Vietnam.

Full of energy I drag myself out of bed at 6 am this morning. I have booked 3 days of excursions, and although I know roughly what I will be doing, I am not sure on which day I will be doing what. Kinda exciting. The bus is picking me up somewhere between 7:30 and 8, depending on its routes. Having been in the tourism industry for 7 years, I decide to be ready downstairs for breakfast at 7. This way I should have enough time to eat and be ready before the bus, in case my pickup is the first. Great plan, but like the best plans of mice and men, it does not always work that way. I got up early so I can have a nice soak in the bath. Ha, turn the tap, no water. Mmmm. There goes my bath. I try the tap at the basin, and there is not only water, it is warm. So I shave, then do the basin shower wash. Anyone that has travelled enough will know. Right, pack my backpack with all the goodies, like iPad and external battery charger, sun cap and mozzi repellent. It is exactly 7am, and just as I am about to head out of the door. I hear a noise in the bathroom. Go back and try the bathtub’s tap, Jup there is water, gggrrrrrr. I contemplate if I can do a quick 10 min bath, but decide not to chance it. Run downstairs to get breakfast, and you guessed it. They are closed. Breakfast only opens at 7:15. Could have had the 10 min bath. Right, get an omelette with tea, and today’s fruit is, Jup, watermelon slices, with more seeds in than sand on the beach. You know how long it takes to pick those seeds out. I do a record 5 min breakfast, and is done by 7:30. Crap, now I need the loo. Seeing as my room is 5 or 6 flights up (I have not counted, reception said it is 5 but it feels like there is an added floor every time I go up, this must be a Harry Potter building with secret floors.) Now I feel like one of the many guest I have taken to the boat in the morning. And I wonder what the driver must think if he arrives and finds me having gone to the toilet. I remember the countless times I counted everyone of my guests, only to suddenly find out one is missing. And when you ask where the person is, the answer is almost always, toilet. Now at that point, when the other guests hear someone has gone to the toilet, half of them wants to go as well. Torture. Luckily, they have a toilet downstairs. Right behind the kitchen I may add. Hope no one drops a stink bomb while they prepare my food next time. I try to rush in, but an old (older than elderly Graham) lady is busy washing her hands. No offense, but it was like watching a slow motion movie. Kinda funny actually, and I imagine one day I would be standing there washing my hands, while someone else needs the toilet. Right, coast is clear, i storm in, slam the door, lock it, and half a nano second later someone else desperately tries to open the door. Sucker. But I have no time to waste, and is out of there in a jiffy. Then, like in typical army style, hurry up and wait, I wait for the bus. Now with first time pickups, you never know if you are first on the list, or last. You kinda hope you are first, so you have the pick of the seats available, but you also hope you are last, so you have more time. I ask the hotel clerk at reception what time the bus comes for the tour, and he goes off for 5 min, returns and says nothing, At 7:50 a small minibus pulls up, and is am like yeh. Go over and ask the driver if it is for the tour. He goes $:82)/&’wmanah!/$-?-(-)/$/&/$3$-92’anajakw. Now I am standing not sure what to do. I have no ticket for the tour, that I can give him as the tour operator said all will be booked and they will pick me up no worries. Not my bus, 🙁 Not my bus either. Then the one hotel clerk comes out saying no no no, bus come bus come. 8 to 8:15. Yes I can hear the bath calling me, like chocolate cookies calls one. I see a mobile food stand next to the hotel, and buy two bottles of tea from them, then go sit back down again in the lobby, and wait. I laugh as I remember when I just started at Divetech, and needed to pick up people. I had a party of 3 to pick up at one hotel, and 4 at the other hotel. I got the 4 people, but got lost on the way to the second hotel, so was a bit late. I was so glad to see 3 people waiting for me and they were so glad to see a van to pick them up, that they just jumped in. I was about 2 miles down the road when we discover that they are actually supposed to go with another dive operator. I just picked up the competition’s guests, ha ha ha. Drive back, and there is the bus for the other tour operator, with my guests. Hey, the numbers matched. The minibus turns out to be a taxi service for another guest, oops, I almost went to the airport. Then, another bus pulls up and picks up some guest at the hotel. My name is not in the list. 5 more busses stop and pick up people or just drive by. So I just wait. 8:20 and a guy strolls in, speaks to the hotel clerk, then address me and asks if I am going to Ha Long bay. Uuhhh, I don’t know where I am going today mate, but yes yes yes I am going where ever it is you wanna go. 🙂 hotel clerk goes to his dad next door, and confirms I am booked for Ha Long bay today. So off I go. Ha Long Bay, or the Bay of descending dragons, is considered the eight natural wonder of the world. It is 1600 square kilometers of coastline with 2000 limestone islands in various shapes. From the air it looks like the body of a dragon, hence the name, descending dragon. Ha Long Bay is not just famous for the rock formations. Close by at the Đằng River, the Battle of Bạch Đằng River was fought in 938 where the Vietnamese forces, led by Ngô Quyền, defeated the invading forces of the Southern Han state of China and put an end to centuries of Chinese imperial domination in Vietnam. The tactic would be repeated by Trần Hưng Đạo in a battle at the same river against the Mongols in 1288. Up to that time, Vietnam had no king, and was ruled by China. Vietnam had no regular army, and all the people came together to fight. General Ngô Quyền led the army, and devised a brilliant plan. He waited until it was low tide, then planted hundreds of stakes in the ground. When the water level rose, the stakes where just below the water line. He then attacked the Chinese fleet with small vessels, luring them to the trap, where he held them there with fierce fighting, until the tide went down. The Chinese ships got punctured and sank. Thus the Vietnamese won their independence. The trip is 4 hours by bus to there from the hotel, then tour the islands by private boat while having lunch on the boat, followed by visits to two famous caves, Thien Cung Cave (haven grotto) and Dau Go Cave (Hidden Wooden stake cave). Followed by a 30 min canoe ride, then a 4 hour bus ride back to the hotel. All in all a cool day. Half way we stop for a 30 min break, at a tourist trap. Where else? I get a roll with beef and onion on, and stare at the goods for sale. As I sit on the bus, I realize how different and funny it is that things can changes so drastically in minutes, for almost 5 months I have been without time. I get up and leave when I want and I go where I want. Being delayed by a day, okay what can we see around here. Now for the next 5 days (3 days touring and then a train ride), I am on a fixed schedule and the bus being 15 min late matters, ha ha ha. (Having been a tour guide myself for 7 years, I know from experience that sometimes bookings are not made, and pickups get screwed up.) Our tour guide’s name is Hai, that means ocean. Fung is the driver. The tour guide tells us that driving in Hanoi is very difficult and if anyone does not believe him, they can rent a motorbike from him and try riding in the city. Nervous laughter comes from some of the guests. I am surrounded by people that flew in and took taxis from the airport to the hotel. Suddenly I feel like a roughneck having done 2000km on a bike to get here. Ha ha ha. The driver then calls out people’s names as we wrote it on a list, and amazingly, he gets my name right, wicked I like this guy. Last night a friend send me a link to a guy that motorbiked like 36 countries in over 600 days. I check out the guys website and YouTube videos, and it looks awesome. As I sit on the bus going to another awesome place, I realize, that once you start backpacking and touring the world, it is hard to stop. For once it gets into your blood, you are not happy unless you are moving. I realize that it has been there all along, it has just been fully awoken now. Being a South African I have trekking blood, but the way you are brought up determines also strongly if you have the need to travel. As a kid we did a lot of holidays to far places, driving 22 hours or so to get there. Many in remote places. That sense of adventure fills you if you are that young. And when fully awoken, it is like a fire burning in you that can never be put out. A travel writer is what I am, and yes if I have to stop and get a fixed job to top up the funds, I will do it again, but I will long for the road every day. Today, I made peace with myself, who I am, and who and what I am not. Today, I found a goal that is unobtainable, yet worth doing. Seeing the world. So, it does not matter where I go next, what matters is that I travel, see places, meet people, and be happy. Wow, that’s sounds like a Padi add. Okay, enough day dreaming. We finally make it to our drop off point. Hai goes to buy tickets for the boat that we will be using, then it is off to get onto our boat. Captain of the boat. first the mandatory try to sell you stuff. We get lunch, and it is basically platters of food they put on the table, and you help yourself. Snails, squid, some fish I do not know, some other stuff I do not know. I am surrounded by Asians on my table and they dig in. A guy asks me if I am not eating, and I just wave my hand as he slurps up a squid tentacle. My stomach turns. Then they bring a plate with chicken on, and o boy, am I happy. Next is a plate with rice, and I am in heaven. The others on the table basically avoid the chicken and rice, only taking a little bit. I am not sure if it is because they have better delicacies like snails and squid, or they feel sorry for me and leave the chicken and rice for me. Either way, I dig in. Then, we go up on the deck to take some pictures as we make our way through the rock formations towards a floating village. The village has been there for over 150 years, and have just over 400 people living there. Apparently at first they lived by means of fishing, but with the tourist that started coming from the late 1950s apparently, they have now changed to cater for tourists. We pass by a few boats that are the houses of the local floating village, and moor up on a platform. There we have the opportunity to canoe around. As in Cambodia, tour companies have taken much of the trade, and some people booked a canoe that belongs to the tour company in advance. However, the rest of us can rent a small boat with guide, that belongs to the village. The boat can take four passengers, and cost 130K each. Very expensive if you take that it is a small tub, with one person rowing for about 45 min, and he gets 520k. When I was at the other caves, I rented a large diesel boat, that can take 16 passengers, runs for four hours with two crew, and it cost 240K. Anyway, off we go, ain’t gonna be standing on the dock. Docking. Tubs for rent. Life jackets are mandatory, just in case the boat sinks or tips over. I am like, drowning is the least of my worries, my iPad and iPod mate, they are going to be toast. The Captain of the tub is smoking as I get in, and I ask him to put the cigarette out. He looks a bit annoyed, but decide that it is in his best tipping interest to put it out. I smile, no, for the price of the boat, you ain’t getting a tip in any case. Then we are off and make our way between some of the rock formations, go through two openings to get to secluded spots on the others side, and work our way back to our big boat. step in the middle and get in slowly please. Two ladies basically jump into the boat, and with its nutshell like bottom, the boat dangerously dips, but luckily does not flip over. A boat goes around with crew with nets, and picks up any floating trash in the water. Even if you booked a canoe, you still have to share, money money money, makes the world go around. the boats are held up by polystyrene blocks, that actually make a mess when they get old. Here is a very short video of some of the other guest being rowed past us. Cool, now it is back on our big boat, to make our way over to a cave not to far away. This cave is also called Paradise cave, but should not be confused with the real Paradise cave. So this is where some of the dive boat captains learned to skip. After making our way from the boat to the ticket office, we stare at the stairs we have to climb as Hai buys our tickets. Then it is off to the cave. pity the iPad have no flash as it struggles with contrasting illumination. We come out on the other side of the cave, and make our way down steps to a different dock, where we get back onto our boat for the ride back to our bus. When we get back to the main terminal dock, out bus is not there. Hai calls, but get no answer. So we hop over the roa to where a restaurant is, and find the driver happily listing to music, his cell phone in the bus, ha ha ha. The sun slowly sets as we make out way back, and I can only feel privileged to be able to have experienced what I have today, and the past weeks.