UNESCO was first listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. The place needs a more clean-up, but there is no doubt that Halong Bay is perhaps our Planet's Number One Marine Limestone formation. Halong may not have the rich red and yellow oxide stains, but the limestone is still beautiful - and goes forever.

The unique, unending beauty makes Halong Bay Vietnam's top tourist attraction, and it seems like every tourist in the country is there, somehow knowing that it's my turn, too. This makes Halong highly congested in well known areas, but guides make the trip, and the SeaCanoe Vietnam team is not only the original, but still the best in the Bay - and SeaCanoe Vietnam guarantee's it with annual training trips like the one we just did at the end of October 2011, with a marvelous British Expat family who are repeat customers from John Gray's SeaCanoe Hong By Starlight trip in Phuket.

It's always great to find intelligent parents who want to expand their children's minds at an early age, and watching Luke and Katie experience Halong Bay's remarkable nature at such an early age is a real credit to Neal and Louise M. No matter the location or country, what makes John Gray's SeaCanoe trips so special is the "fun with Nature" learning platform.

In the early 90's, the Hanoi-Halong drive was 10-12 hours, with long waits at rivers where bridges bombed out in the America-Vietnam war remained unrepaired. Since Vietnam had the audacity to actually won a war against America, the US government froze the World Bank from redevelopment just to be nasty. But in today's economic climate, Vietnam's economy is not just an emerging, but developed South-East Asia "Tiger" economy. The highway is World Class modern with new industry and cities spring up with each new trip.

The drive is now less than two hours, and we arrived at our Bai Chai pier before Noon, just as our escort boat, it was showing up with a load of hard-shell and SOTAR inflatable kayaks - and a great lunch perfectly timed with the soup still hot. John "Caveman" Gray has a background in medical research and special events, so every meal plan in his system is Top Quality Seafood vegetarian in keeping with the local culture. In Vietnam, one of the highlights is traditional drip coffee, the best in the World!

The M family boarded the boat to be greeted with a hot and steaming top quality Vietnamese seafood vegetarian lunch. As we sat down to enjoy, the escort boat departed the pier for islands unknown.

It's the karstic limestone islands that make Halong Bay, and we were surrounded by hundreds as we left the pier, thriving with colorful and unique Oriental activity. We wove our way through small motor boats called “the Tender” and traditional hand-powered rattan boat in the busy harbor. Every boat operator was wearing the traditional "coolie" hat, creating a scene straight from a Somerset Maughm novel.

Cuong became the first Vietnamese guide in 1995 when he followed John Gray and Kent Bry down a long Cat Ba fiord and followed them into a newly discovered Hong. "Caveman" recognized Cuong's talent and helped him develop into Halong's first, most experienced and best guide. Today, Cuong is well known for his knowledge, dedication and experience by all other companies. Along the way he has made some legendary rescues of folks foolish enough to enter small tidal sea caves in decked kayaks (more later). On this first day Cuong took us all the way across the Bay to a new, unexplored hong. Throughout the trip we were astounded how Cuong found empty hongs while hoards of noise novice kayakers were following the same old routine. (When we did enter these "popular" hongs at off-hour times, the waterline rocks were carpeted with rubbish that the SeaCanoe Vietnam staff quietly collected,)

Cuong also introduced Binh, another lead guide who also doubles as the SeaCanoe Vietnam webmaster (Cuong is also a webmaster). Binh is much smaller than Cuong, but said that his job would be paddling John "Caveman" Gray while he shot photos and videos of the trip. John "Caveman" Gray is almost two meters and 120 kilos, so we felt sorry for Binh, not only for the difference in size but because Caveman is truly ugly! It would be a long four days of torture for Binh!

There were two trainee guides on this trip. Nam is actually a lawyer who works in the Visa section for Inserimex, the parent company for SeaCanoe Vietnam. He's very muscular and will make a good guide once he learns. The second trainee Tao speaks perfect English - so perfect it almost embarrasses a native English speaker, but very good to see a Vietnamese with such excellent mastery of our native language. He’s now the Trainee guide of Sea Canoe Vietnam.

The McDonnell kids were amazed with the smallest wildlife as we paddled through this first hong, top secret and still unknown to other companies. It was completely quiet and carpeted with mangroves, none broken.

The caves was fairly large and about 100 meters. We could see through it all the way, filled with amazing stalactites and many rocks. It was a great start - we all knew this would be an amazing trip.

We did another coastal paddle on our way back to Titop Island. It was getting dark as we approached the anchorage and there was a floating city in the Bay. Many people were paddling rental boats from a pontoon station and we could only wonder how healthy it was kayaking in these waters filled with the untreated sewage of a couple of hundred support boats. About a dozen were the size of small ocean liners and must have 100-200 people on board. We were worried about the anchorage but Cuong asked the captain to take us to the next cove where there were only a few boats.

Even there we didn't go swimming, but we found the spacious cabins have hot showers and air-con. This is a luxury trip. We knew it after we sat at the dinner table and the hostess served us a great Vietnamese seafood dinner. We had a good chance to meet the rest of the boat crew, very nice people who didn't speak a word of English. It was a long day from Hanoi, and after dinner we retired to our staterooms for a good night's sleep in the quiet bay. I'm used to camping while kayaking and missed the opportunity to sleep under the stars, but the stateroom was the next best thing.

DAY TWO

We were all up early the second day, looking forward to a full day in the Bay. Cuong told us we were off to Hang Hai, Caveman's first stop on his original exploration in May 1992. We got there early and were the first people in the long Bay, but a kayak rental station told us the place would become crowded as the day went along.

Cuong got us into Haeng Hai early so we were the only folks in the long, beautiful cave and then the beautiful lagoon.

On the way back through the cave it was easy to notice how low the ceiling is, and how easy to capsize a decked boat in total darkness. I heard this was the spot of Cuong's most serious rescue, where eight people were seriously cut and capsized in total darkness, many of them bleeding profusely. We were very happy to be on our SOTAR inflatable caving kayaks that Caveman specially designed. Some of the guides paddled Sit-On-Tops, far less dangerous than the decked kayaks, and even the trainee guides made it through safely while paddling a SOTAR. Cuong and Binh were already coaching them on kayaking skills and the two trainees are so smart they should easily become top sea kayaking guides in no time at all.

We when paddled down the fiord to another very large cave about 200 meters long with a high ceiling filled with stalactites. We could see all the way through and it was very beautiful. The cave opened into a beautiful large lagoon but there was a special surprise. About 400 meter to the left was a small cave that Caveman found on his first trip in 1992. It's hidden behind some rocks and has two sharp turns so we couldn't see light all the way through. The hong behind is fairly small but the cave is so beautiful and delicate we took a long time taking photos. There was nobody else there so we enjoyed the quiet lagoon.

As we left the cave the first of the other kayakers arrived, including one decked kayak with the guide sitting on top, with his passenger in the front hole. It looked very goofy and was definitely dangerous. They had a definite balance problem and if they capsized in the cave somebody would certainly get cut on the oysters - these kayakers there are no professional standards or safety rules. Seems to me that they needs to set some standards, and hire Cuong and Binh to teach the other guides how to paddle as professionals!

We then paddled out into the channel and up the (big channel to Dao Da Be) channel to another low overhand that opened into a huge hong that would take hours to circumnavigate. We waited here for our "Floating Palace". Once we boarded for another amazing lunch Cuong told us were off to find a new hong near Cat Ba island. Caveman didn't believe there were any undiscovered hongs left in the popular spots, but Cuong did find a small, low cave that could be unknown. We paddled in, thinking it was possible this might be a Virgin hong. It was very beautiful and delicate but just as we were leaving two decked kayaks entered the hong.

Cuong took up a conversation in Vietnamese with the guide. We learned on the way out that the other guide told Cuong this is a rarely visited hong because of so many accidents from capsizing decked kayaks under the low ceiling. Caveman said he could see this already and asked Cuong about the accidents.

Cuong replied that the Cat Ba guide told him they had many accidents in the decked kayaks, but since the tourists changed with each trip, they never knew how dangerous the cave was for decked kayaks. When Cuong asked why they kept coming here in improper equipment, the guide told him "We want the money, and no tourist knows what happened in here the day before."

At the end of day, we went back to the anchorage place and had another great Vietnamese dinner.

DAY THREE

We left the anchorage early this morning to beat the traffic to Dao Da Be, which means "Three Lake Island". Caveman said he studied Halong's nautical charts in Hawa'i'i, even before he came to Thailand, and Dao Da Be and Haeng Toi were the two features that made Ha Long Bay a must do. Of course, Vietnam was still "off limits" to Americans in those days, but Caveman knew that someday he would come here. That happened on his May 1992 trip.

We motored back up the channel. When we finally arrived at Dao Da Be, there was a large fishing fleet anchored from the night before, so security could not be the issue. Anyway, showman that he is, Cuong brought us around an island to reveal the large cave that leads to the three "lakes". It's about 200 meters long and at low tide we didn't need lights to traverse the large cave. Caveman pointed out some small ridges in the ceiling that got him stuck one Midnight as he was playing with the tides, so high that Cuong couldn't believe he got into the Hong. "With the tide rising and those tiny ridges blocking my way. it was one of my lifetime close calls." Cuong, still up at midnight, was amazed that Caveman didn't sleep in the hong in his inflatable.

The Hong is spectacular, about 200 meters across, almost a perfect circle, with one large cave to the right and an almost unnoticeable on the left. The cliff directly over the entrance cave is colored with red and yellow stripes that follow the strata lines.

We went into the small cave first. It took a Z trajectory to get into the Hong that made the cave "good fun". The small hong is quite delicate and beautiful, but after fifteen minutes we had seen it all, so we exited the cave, paddled directly across the entry hong to the wide, low cave (about 80 meters) that leads to a hong so huge that Caveman said the first time he entered it he thought he returned to the open sea. Once you get inside the lagoon it's easy to see the wall at the other end - that looks almost 2K away!

We saw some Vietnamese women in Coolie hats with faces covered by linen. They were harvesting oysters with hammer and chisel across the hong and visited them for a while. They said they came from Halong City and stayed in the Bay chipping away at oysters that they put on ice. Cuong asked where their boat was - they said it would return to pick them up in the evening. It's hard, tedious, dangerous work but the women were cheerful and friendly. We paddle away feeling very fortunate that wasn't our job!

We then kayaked to the fishing shrine a few hundred meters from the Hong entrance. It was beautiful but under renovation so we really didn't get to see much of the inside. The tide was low so we paddled to another very beautiful hong on the next island before moving the escort boat to the Fish Farm Hong, which literally has a fish farm inside the island. Cuong and Caveman had a dual discussion on karstic limestone formation that was quite fascinating and educational, and then we exited the hong to take a coastal paddle.

Cuong found a legal anchorage just before Titop and we anchored all smiles. We knew we had another great dinner coming - this time accompanied by a pet white rabbit the kids fell in love with. The crew promised it was their pet and they had no plans to eat it.

DAY FOUR

The tides were low on our last morning so Cuong took us to school - literally. We went to a busy harbor with a floating village that includes a floating school. Unfortunately, school was out that day so the kids couldn't say hello to any Vietnamese kids, but the harbor was filled with action - including several hundred kayaks with guides who had no more training than their customers! It was really a zoo, but quite fun because it made us appreciate Cuong and Binh's creativity and effort to keep us away from the crowds for the first three days.

This "training" trip was so good it was a bit sad returning to Bai Chay Harbor - we knew the end was near. We motored between limestone islands as we ate our final "Break the mouth" delicious meal, and it was sad to say goodbye to the boat crew and spectacular professional SeaCanoe Vietnam team. We didn't even get to go back to Hanoi with them since they had to prepare for the next trip. We found it quite remarkable that all four guides - Cuong, Binh and the two trainees - all spoke impeccable English and gave us such great service. We made some great friends and the kids really enjoyed Cuong, Binh - and the rabbit. Of course, Caveman is so ugly the kids had nightmares all three nights!

SeaCanoe Vietnam runs this trip every year at the end of October as part of their franchise agreement with Caveman. If you can get free, make sure to do the trip - it's discounted because you have to put up with Caveman and his ugly mug, but the "Big Monkey" is great with kids since his IQ is lower their ages combined!