Halong Bay, not as dirty or as polluted as you'd expect

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The title of the blog may seem a little toungue in cheek however after travelling north through Vietnam every person I met who had been to Halong Bay commented on the level of pollution and dirt and not a lot else really. Im not saying it is the cleanest environment on the earth it is however the largest tourist attraction in Vietnam and when you consider that the majority of junk boats carry between fifteen and thirty passengers the level of pollution per capita increases somewhat. So a little pollution is to be expected, I understand that due to it being a natural attraction the average tourist expects unspoilt landscapes and views, the reality is that this is very uncommon to find.

When i arrived in Hanoi i hadn't as yet booked a trip to Halong but i knew i wanted to do the 2 days 1 night, due to time primarily but also because Cat Ba island had received some pretty poor reviews from people back home who i trust so I decided not to take the option of staying on Cat Ba island. I asked the hotel about the options they recommend but it was ridiculous the cheapest was $130 plus $45 dollars single supplement (I wanted my own room on the boat as it is a fairly enclosed environment and not necessarily one you want to share with someone you've never met before. So I headed out and found aa travel agents and eventually after much trying booked with Poseidon for $100 including the single supplement, I would have liked it cheaper but it turns out I paid a lot less than anyone else on the boat and the Poseidon guy was wondering why, so took my receipt in order to chase it up later with the travel agents.

As with most mass tourism attractions there is an element of worry as to the actual experience you will receive, in this case particularly in relation to the boat and the all inclusive food, which when there is no land never mind shops can leave the picky in a pickle, the boat was great and for the first time just like the pictures! It started sailing in 2009 so was fairly young, the cabins were a good size, great shower and air conditioning so all was good. Shortly after boarding we ate lunch, there were twelve of us in total, 5 Vietnamese people from California, a Spanish couple, a Bermudan couple, 2 lads from New Zealand and me, there were two tables of six for lunch so i ate with the Vietnamese family, the father was a good guy really welcoming and friendly as were his two kids whose journey to Vietnam was their first, it was nice to chat over lunch which was really good. Soft shelled crabs which had been dressed and then deep fried, fresh prawns, squid salad, whole fish, rice, tofu, spring rolls and fruit, in plentiful supply also if you and your table wanted more it was forthcoming. During lunch a huge storm started to play out over our heads, it was good the boat was rocking the rain was blasting through the gaps between the window and the frame, the wind was up, I'm totally fine with boats but i think some people did struggle a little to keep lunch down!

The area the majority of junks go is within 1 1/2 hours of Halong port and the main attraction of the day was the Sung Sot (Amazing) cave, it was pretty good to be fair if not modestly named. It was huge and as a geographer a real eye opener, plenty of stairs for the less mobile and really hot inside but beautiful all the same, the guide (Hung- NAME NOT DESCRIPTION) kept trying to point animals, women, sexual organs and stuff out on the walls of the cave but it was basically rock. After this some sea kayaking which was nice trying not to get killed by all the boats sailing round who didn't deviate from their course so you had to, and floating shops, women in rowing boats selling cold beer, toilet roll and bananas, quite a menagerie i know but all the same very helpful.

When we got back to the boat there was time to chill and take a shower before the cooking class, spring roll making was fun and as a group we had a laugh and a bite to eat in the run up to dinner, by this point we were all really friendly and of the three couples and me, 4 of us were teachers, two were at uni (1 in Newcastle) and one had quit their job to go travelling so it was a great group all around the same age and their for the same reasons, there were three more guests also who were doing the 3 days 2 nights trip but hadn't stayed on Cat Ba for some reason, Stollen a Norwegian man living in Thailand his two female friends, Stollen was great funny, friendly and outgoing, exactly my experience of all the Norwegian people i have met.

So we all ate dinner had a few drinks and then went off to sleep, really comfortable and stable until about 4am when a bigger storm started and the boat was moving a great deal, i woke for a bit but mainly slept through the Spanish guy in the next room was awake most of the night while his girlfriend slept like a log and everyone else seemed to notice it but not enough to worry. In the morning we were warned that the plan may change due to continued storms but it remained fine until lunch time, we went to an island climbed up 464 steps to the top for the view, which was ok nothing more. Went to see fighting cocks island, which is a small outcrop which has had a crevasse weathered and exposed so it looks like 2 rocks, but it doesn't look like chickens fighting or kissing or chickens in general, the Vietnamese seem to have a penchant for spotting animals in landforms where there aren't any!

After a quick lunch we got the boat back to the port and the bus home, stopping after ten minutes as the majority of cruises supposed to be leaving the harbour had been cancelled due to a big storm cell moving, unlucky for those guys as its an 8 hour roundtrip to Hanoi.......

Overall Halong Bay is a must, it isn't the most amazing thing I've seen nor did i expect it to be but it is a great tourism attraction, it is beautiful and if you're with a partner i expect it could be rather romantic. And for $100 dollars i got an 8 hour bus trip, a bedroom on a boat, 2 lunches, 1 dinner and 1 breakfast, relatively speaking you can't argue with that value they want more than 100n quid to get from Newcastle to Amsterdam.

Next blog Hong Kong, i love the place and can't wait to return, take care.

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