Ha Long till the sun shines?

To bide time for weather improvement we went to Ha Long bay from Hanoi. To little surprise we basically just ended up at the Oregon coast with palm trees and tourist ghost towns

But this is where we met Truong – a local guy who helped us in from the rain and made us dinner. He set in motion the next week of shenanigans and friendships and meals and art projects and taught us a great deal about Vietnam

The energy of Ha Long was … seasonally depressed. The hostel people were sleepy and fighting with each other. The locals had little customers and mainly just sheltered from the clouds and downpour. We ate the worst pho of our life from an abandoned theme park. The grey meat was no match for our guts.

But this is where we met Matt. In the puddle of bummed out tourists there was one hippie looking red haired game of thrones like man discussing the price of a bacon cheddar omelet with the hostel host (who was also hacking up a lung). We get to talking and his stories of the last 6 months trekking through India, Nepal, Vietnam, etc were refreshing to say the least. He helped us learn the card games “Asshole” and “Spades” with a kind French boy and an obnoxiously aged traveler. We drank soju till late and parted our ways enjoying what the night gave in relief of the winter tourism.

The next day we get a motorbike for 100,000vnd (~$4) with a broken speedometer and fuel gauge. We eye the gas tank and it looks alright for the days journey, at least till we can find a petrol station.

Alas, it was not.

We got stranded on a small island just a bridge away from Ha Long. It was either trek for 40 minutes both ways for one small water bottle full of gas or ask Truong or Matt to rescue us. Not wanting to bother the host from our first night we give our new friend that is hungover on soju a call to action.

Matt and his trusty bike “Trouble Maker” roll up heroically with a Desani bottle filled with gasoline. It was a rough start but it got us to the gas station. From here we decided to stay together and see what we could at the top of this island. It wasn’t until many days later I found out he had several moments of doubt in our intentions for this journey, as we dragged him to the top of a mountain, sinister thoughts maybe on the mind.

Turns out we both saved eachother that day. We kept going into the night, catching the cold sunset at the beach with a ridiculously expensive coffee, helping some oyster farmers on the beach, and roaming around Ha Long city area for a dinner that ripped us off. Lessons learned for how to properly order a meal as a whitey here.

We drove around after the sunset to see the night lights and end up coming across a ‘bumpin’ night club in the sea of nothing (again, the strangeness of winter tourism) . Matt proposes we go in, and with some hesitation we park our bikes, enter the sea of some 40 odd people and experience the first taste of the tourist celebrity. The people were incredibly drunk and immediately nice. They all wanted selfies, hugs, cigarette sharing, dance circles, and handshakes. Our first taste of Vietnamese friends outside of gloomy cities overrun by tourists.

On our last day in Ha Long we were ready to give up seeing one of the 7 natural wonders of the world as the otherworldly islets were covered in a thick fog and the rain was nauseating. We booked a bus to Ha Giang to try our luck on the infamous motorcycle loop, clouds and rain and all. As we take Matt to see Truong for one final thank you and goodbye, we hop in a taxi that we believe is headed towards our bus station. Really, it was headed to meet Truongs dear friend Katie.

This is where we meet our South African friends and begin the journey to Cat Ba. Both literally and emotionally, the sun began to shine.