cruise
Every time I think back to my trip to Vietnam, I not only remember the delicious street food (omg Phở along the streets!) but also the 2D1N cruise on Ha Long Bay - one of the most incredible natural wonders i've seen. Those individual mountain like structures were made from the erosion of limestone caves and on the 2nd day of the cruise, we were allowed to visit one of these individual Mountain Cave Islands. The cave that we went to was the Hang Sửng Sốt (Sung Sot Cave).
p/s: I'm pretty sure it's not called a cave island, but the dock had an entrance to the cave and that was pretty much there is. You had to get tickets at the dock before you could even proceed towards the entrance of the cave - which seemed to be the only thing there! Hence why I'm calling it, cave island.
The queue to the cave was pretty long, because there was only one entrance and a whole cruise ship of people. We had to climb up step by step while being mosquito baits until we got to the entrance. But lucky for Jerald and I, we were walking beside our cruise ship guide and so he gave us some background information about how these caves were formed, and how the erosions over the years gave them their current structure.
Even though it took a while to get into the cave, when we arrived at its entrance we soon realised, THE WAIT WAS WORTH IT.
The cave is huge and you literally gasps at the way the light hits the water and the limestone walls on the inside. The different shapes and textures of the cave, the way the rock bends and morphs from one type of arch to another is pretty incredible.
When our cruise guide told us about how these caves were made, I immediately thought of my secondary (15 year old) days, when I was learning about the formations of certain natural structures due to varying erosion rates of granite vs. limestone back in Geography lessons.
Oh how I LOVED geography.
The thing is, studying about it in books and on paper, it all seems pretty logical. Y'know, Normal. You could understand it. The way caves are formed, how a waterfall became a waterfall, the formation or rivers, gorges, and even how volcanoes erupt.
But when you see it with your own two eyes... oh my everything logical dissipates into thin air, and you're left thinking, "How did this happen? MOTHER NATURE YOU ARE WONDROUS."
This happens, every single time without fail. Be it exploring the Plitvice Lakes in Croatia, Cruising down the Fjords of Norway, Visiting the underground Salt mine in Poland, and now visiting a cave in Vietnam. The way these caves and natural structures can exist on their own is beyond my imagination.
Beauty at it's best.
These pictures were taken by Jerald and edited by me.
I couldn't for the life of me find the pictures I took with my DSLR, which was really sad, and because I couldn't find those images, I have yet to talk about visiting hang sung sot on my blog, but because the cave was that beautiful, I couldn't help but keep thinking about it and reminding myself to share pictures and my experience.
I couldn't for the life of me find the pictures I took with my DSLR, which was really sad, and because I couldn't find those images, I have yet to talk about visiting hang sung sot on my blog, but because the cave was that beautiful, I couldn't help but keep thinking about it and reminding myself to share pictures and my experience.
Taking 2D1N cruise out to Ha Long Bay is something i'd definitely HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend when visiting Vietnam/Hanoi. And when you do visit the sung sot cave, remember to stop for a lovely view of Ha Long Bay after your cave visit (although that spot with the incredible view would probably be way too overcrowded!)
Cave Island (Hang Sửng Sốt) | Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
16 November 2015 Hạ Long Bay, Vietnam
Remember my post on the Top 5 Things To Do in Hanoi? I mentioned in number 5 how going for a cruise on Ha Long Bay is one of the most common day trip / excursions to take whilst in Hanoi, Vietnam. I've never been on a cruise, unless you count my fjord cruise ride experience with Norway in A Nutshell, this was my first time sleeping on a bed in a boat. Of course, I was a bundle of excitement despite the fact that we had to wake up at 6, leave the hotel by 7.30am, and got news from the hotel staff that it has been rather stormy in Ha Long Bay.
Booking the Tour was really easy because our hotel offered several packages we could choose from (you can also find these packages online). We left the hotel around 7.30am in the morning on a bus with about 15 other people, and after a 4-hour drive, got to the port. On our way there, we passed by a shop selling all sorts of souvenirs, more importantly, there were selling hand woven cloth pictures done by the death and mute. This was a company that only hired these people so as to create jobs for them. Since I didn't have that much money, I bought a few small Cotton string woven ones instead of those done in Silk.
Eventually, we reached the port, and took a small boat to our cruise. Although the cruise ship was smaller than I had expected, our cruise was the most luxurious one because it was a partnership between 2 different companies. After getting our rooms, J and I immediately headed up to the deck to take some pictures before lunch was served. Thankfully, the weather was great, and the view was just stunning. It is no wonder Ha Long Bay is such a tourist favourite.
I was pleasantly surprised by all the various activities the tour had despite being only a short 2 day 1 night (technically it was only 1 day since we arrived on the boat in the afternoon and left then next afternoon) cruise. Our first island stop was this place called Ti Top Island where we could either climb up a small hill to get an awesome view of Ha Long Bay or have a swim in the waters by the beach. The water was actually rather dirty in my opinion, so I opted for the view instead. Although the steep stone steps were a challenge for my short legs, the view up on the top was INCREDIBLE.
After getting back from Ti Top Island, we went back on the boat to change and freshen up and had a short cooking class! It wasn't much of a Cooking Class than it was a cooking demonstration. But we did get a chance to roll our own Vietnamese Spring Rolls and then have them afterwards, so that was awesome!
In the evening, we had a short Kayaking Session where we could kayak around Ha Long Bay and then to a Pearl Farm there were loads of lovely pearl jewellery at the pearl farm, but sadly as I was kayaking on what seemed to be a rather unstable kayak, I left my valuables on the boat and so, there was no chance of me getting any pearl souvenirs. It was interesting to walk around the farm and see how they harvested the pearls, although I wished there was some sort of introduction or a tour.
Eventually, we headed back on the boat for dinner and spent the night on the deck attempting to count the stars of spot the lights from other cruise ships out on the bay.
Oh and Fun Fact: Our guide informed us that the reason why Ha Long Bay has this individual mountain like structure was because they were made out of limestone and got eroded over the years and are still being eroded slowly to this day! What an impressive natural phenomenon. I'm always impressed when I find out how mother nature forms these wonders.
The Ha Long Bay cruise was surprisingly more entertaining that I though it would be. As it wasn't a huge cruise ship, I knew there wouldn't be any of your typical games room or entertainment facilities up on the boat. But the fact that there were a few fun activities planned for us throughout the entire time was great!
There was one thing I wasn't too pleased about though, was that I had an assignment to submit, and despite requesting for cruise with wifi - and we paid more for that, there wasn't any on board. Although the boat had a wifi modem, there was no way any of its guest could connect on to it. So it was incredibly agonising when I had to rush to submit my assignment the next day. Guess I should have thought about that before hand, I mean we're in the middle of a huge bay after all, what signal could there be right?
But judging the cruise for its activities, Ha Long Bay was definitely worth it and I really enjoyed myself!
Cruising UNESCO Site: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
8 October 2015 Ha Long Bay, Hạ Long, tp. Hạ Long, Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam
It was before 8am, all bright and early for a summer morning. My friend/summer travel buddy, Ji Inn, and I were sitting side by side on a bench, munching on bread we bought from a nearby stall as we awaited the departure of our dalmatian coast cruise.
It was too early for a long conversation, and too bright for our bare eyes. So we sat in partial silence, munching on our bread, heavy headed from the lack of sleep, listening to the crashing of the waves, watching people hop on to their boats, but still excitedly awaiting for our turn.
Finally, we boarded a mini speed boat with approximately 9 other people, and were on our way, bidding the shore farewell, zooming across the water, and the having strong wind blowing in our hairs and faces. It looked to be a pretty exciting day.
B L U E G R O T T O ( B I Š E V O )
After cruising for 20 minutes, we arrived at our first stop. We hopped off the speed boat, and on to a smaller boat that took us into the Blue Cave.
Because the entrance to the cave is insanely small, the speed boat that we were on originally couldn't sail through. In fact, we had to bend down in order for the mini boat to pass into the cave. The guys rowing the boat kept going "BEND DOWN! BEND DOWN!!!" When we were passing into and out of the cave.
The blue cave was probably one of the most interesting caves i've been to. The entire cave was dark, and the water was shining blue. Deep, saturated blue.
The entire time, I had no idea why the waters of the cave were blue. I thought it was some reflection of the sky, but there was no opening and the sky isn't even that blue, so instead of wondering too much, I just marvelled at the beauty and classified this magnificence as one of mother nature's unusual phenomenons.
I did, however, overhear another guide on the other boat explaining some stuff to the people on his boat. Sadly, the rower/guide of the boat I was on did not further explain or give us any information of the cave. We just rowed silence, well, apart from the rapid shutter sounds from everyone's camera.
V I S I S L A N D
We didn't get to spend much time in the blue cave because there were so many people queueing and only about 2 mini boats that rowed into the cave from the shore. After roughly 10-15 minutes in the blue cave, we all hopped back on to the speed boat and continued sailing the seas on to our next destination.
See the fisherman in the image above? Our skipper told us that he is one of the oldest fishermen around! He's been fishing for tens of years! What dedication, and just look how cool he is! So much respect for him rowing that boat all on his own, casting the net and fishing for a livelihood.
Vis Island was one of the stops that I didn't seem to really care for sadly. It is one of the oldest island / towns in the region, but apart from having a very unique older style of architecture, and SUPER SUPER clear waters, I didn't get a super vivid impression of it.
Guess it could be partly because we didn't exactly have THAT much time there. I do, however, remember how insanely clear and lovely the water was!
To be honest, an hour to explore Vis was a really awkward amount of time. I got bored after 20 minutes or so because I'd seen most of the things in that amount of time. 1 hour was more than enough for exploring around coast/beach area, but, barely adequate for the whole island. Even if we RUSHED through, we'd still not complete it. I'm pretty sure Vis had much more to offer, but when you're on a day cruise as such, you don't have half a day to explore a small old town. Guess that's one of the downsides of such cruises.
So, after a cone of ice cream and some walking around, we were once again back on the boat and heading for our next stop.
The Green Cave, unlike the blue cave, was a little bit of a disappointment. It wasn't as green as I thought it would be. In fact, it was just green at one spot and all the different speed boats were crowding in that small area it was so hard to take a decent photograph or to even appreciate the cave for what it was.
This part of the cruise was also a miss.
Stiniva Cove and bay area, although looks nice in pictures, was also little bit of a disappointment. Partially because we thought we'd get to spend more time in the bay as we were all geared up to hop into the waters for a swim, but weren't allowed to.
By this time, we were a little hungry, a little upset, and mostly just jealous because we had yet to enter the water and were seeing how other people from the other boats were jumping in with their floats. Our skipper told us how dangerous (and crowded) it was to be swimming in the cove and promised us we'd get our chance.
So we continued on sailing and, suddenly, he said, "yeah we'll anchor here and you all can hop in for a swim, or head up the beach if you want."
1. The beach was empty.
2. There was only 1 or 2 other boats around, and THAT WAS IT.
The water was ours. IT WAS ALL OURS.
The clear, clear, waters. It was incredible to be swimming and snorkelling (not much to see actually) with practically no tourist or other people in sight!
The water was sparkling and absolutely clear, it was quite unbelievable. Croatia indeed has one of the clearest waters ever! We could see sea urchins from where we stood on the boat! Thankfully, no one stepped on any! And as you could tell, we were all very excited to be able to swim in that clear blue water. The mood was high once again.
H V A R
After maybe 2 hours of swimming, everyone got a little hungry, and we eventually ended our day off at the lovely town of Hvar. I remember seeing instagram pictures my friends put up of the clear waters of Hvar and thinking to myself "Oh, how I wish I could fit that town into my itinerary when I'm in croatia!"
Turns out, I managed! It was totally unexpected that my friend and I would end up going on a day cruise that ended off at Hvar.
Hvar, although has gorgeous clear waters, had more to offer than just its beach. Besides after swimming in that clear gorgeous greenish blue waters in the middle of no where, we had sufficient playing and the water and didn't mind being on land.
Instead of hanging out at the beach, we took the advice of our Skipper, and headed up to explore the Hvar Fortress to get and amazing view of the whole town. We did pay to go into and explore the fortress. Although it was cheap, it wasn't worth it.
Do NOT pay to go in, just enjoy the view from around the fortress!
As you can tell, it was one jammed pack day.
I should commend myself for being able to squeeze the entire day into one post, and narrow down 200++ of pictures to just 30.
The cruise I went on took me from Split - Blue cave - Green Cave - Stiniva Coast - Hvar and back to Split at the end of the day. That costed about $90 per person, there about, and a small lunch was provided. We didn't have to pay any entrance fees on top of that.
I would definitely recommend going on a day cruise from Split. You don't have to take the one I took, because they tried to squeeze lots of stuff in one day. There are many other more relaxed (or intense) options, depending on what you like. All you have to do is just google or approach the individual umbrella stands along the harbour to find out more about what services they offer.
The dalmatian coast is indeed worth sailing and cruising across. However, bear in mind that like any other cruise, there are good and bad points, and there will be times where you'd be disappointed. Regardless, I had a great time, and given that I didn't have a lot of time in Croatia, this day-cruise was a good fit. I'd give this cruise trip a 7 out of 10. At least that's an A!
Pretty wordy post, but I hope you enjoyed/gained something from it anyway! x
Cruising Past the Dalmatian Coast - Croatia
3 September 2015 Croatia
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