3rd
April 2013
An early
start this morning, our last day on the Paradise Peak. We are scheduled to
visit Surprise Cave (Hang Sung Sot), one of the largest limestone caves in Halong Bay. Once again we forgo the 6.30am
Tai Chi lessons on the Upper Deck, so we will be ready for departure to the
cave at 7.40am.
Expectations
are not high that the cave will be a memorable visit, given the one we visited
yesterday on our jungle trek. We are a bit overcome by the crowds at the
entrance to the cave when our boat drops us off. Everyone is waiting to enter
the cave, but we must wait for the Tourism Dept to turn on the lights first,
and we must have arrived early.
As we leave our boat to go ashore we see they have finally raised the sails
Mike & Tanya in the tender going ashore
A local trying to sells her wares at the arrival jetty
Soon we are
given the go ahead , and a huge group of people start to climb their way up the
stairs to the cave entrance, and it is a fair climb. I thought the woman in
front of me was going to have a heart attack, but somehow she managed to
finally get there.
View from the platform at the cave entrance
Once inside
the cave, we were surprised at the sheer size of the complex and the
formations, it was certainly well above our expectations, and took quite a
while to walk through and take in all of the formations. Despite the big crowd,
the size of the caves allowed plenty of room for everyone to move through at
their own pace.
At the cave
exit, you get a terrific view of the surrounding bay, as it is located high
above the water. As usual, there are tourist shops etc to go through to return
back down the hill, but there was little pressure to buy things. We were back
on the boat by 9am, ready for breakfast.
The
Paradise Peak is already underway to head back to base as we are boarding. We
are to disembark at 10.30am, and the new guests board at 12.15pm, so the
turnaround time is incredibly short.
About 30
mins out from Tuan Chau Island, where Paradise Cruises base is located, the
heavens open, and we have very heavy rain for our arrival into port. This
provides an interesting challenge for the crew to get all passengers and
baggage up to the terminal without getting saturated. Ponchos are handed out to
everyone, sized for Vietnamese, so not entirely successful, and black garbage
bags are pulled over luggage to try and keep it dry. It was a bit chaotic
getting everyone off the boat with luggage in the pouring rain, and we didn’t
get a chance to say goodbye to our new found Brisbane friends.
Our bus was
waiting for us at the end of the jetty, so we didn’t get too wet.
The trip
back to Hanoi was similar to the trip out, we were informed at about 12 noon
that the driver had to stop for lunch for 40 min. We said we were happy to make
it a short stop, but he wan’t, so we were stuck in yet another handicraft
outlet whilst he had his lunch and we had coffee. Much to our surprise , as we
wandered into the centre we ran into Craig & Tanya, our Brisbane friends,
whose driver also needed to have lunch. So we got to say our farewells after
all.
We were
back at the Metropole Hotel by 2.45pm, and only one of our rooms was ready so
we retreated to the Bamboo Bar for a snack as we hadn’t had lunch. It was just
before 4pm before we had access to our rooms.
Once
settled we hit the streets in search of an Apple shop so Mike could get an
accessory for his i Pad, which he managed to get after visiting 2 stores.
For dinner
tonight we decided to venture out into the Old Quarter, at a restaurant called
the Rising Dragon, which we found on the net. On arrival by taxi we were greeted
and sent up to the 8th floor, of the building , which was a small
hotel. The restaurant was open air and there was a fair breeze blowing, but the
view was good. All seats were taken and the staff were in chaos as the food was
being prepared on the 1st floor. Service was not their great
strength and the mandatory demanding American patron was not helping.
We
eventually got our meal, and it was very good, if not very slow coming.
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