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Published: August 11th 2009
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Day 405: Sunday 9th August - Day 1 of Halong Bay
Today I’m off for a two day tour to Halong Bay. It seems to top most people’s lists as the must do thing in Vietnam and is also on a shortlist of 28 for the 7 natural wonders of the world. However, after my experience of tours in Vietnam I’m not going to get carried away. Sure enough this, my fifth tour in the country doesn’t get off to the best of starts. It is a three and a half hour drive to Halong Bay from Hanoi and we are packed on to a minibus like sardines for an uncomfortable journey. Arriving at the harbour it is bedlam, tourists everywhere, boats scattered across the harbour and it is a wonder how the guides get the right people on to the right boats, however they do.
It takes time for me to appreciate the scenery in Halong Bay. After settling into the boat which is nice and my decision to pay a bit extra proved to be the correct one, we have lunch and get to know the people who I will be sharing the next 24 hours with.
Except, everyone seems to be on different agendas, some are staying overnight on the boat, others are staying on Cat Ba Island and doing a three day trip. I really don’t know how the guides keep up. We spend the afternoon on the tourist treadmill, first visiting a cave and then doing some kayaking around the bay. But it is difficult to enjoy when there are swarms of tourists in the caves and you’re avoiding traffic whilst kayaking. This isn’t going great up to this point.
It’s only when we leave all the other boats and tourists behind and sail around the bay when I start to appreciate the beauty of Halong Bay. It is sunken Limestone Karst scenery much alike that of the Krabi coastline in Thailand. In the late afternoon sun and then watching the sun set across the bay and picking out the silhouettes of the many limestone islands is a delightful sight. I just wish we could have spent more time sailing around the bay away from the other boats and tourists. The scenery alone does the talking and you don’t need to kayak or see caves to be entertained.
Day 406: Monday 10
August - Day 2 of Halong Bay
We don’t seem to do much this morning other than pick people off Cat Ba Island and then sail back to Halong harbour. Too many people on different itineraries, too many tourists in the bay at once, full stop. I don’t know whether the latter was because of a backlog after tours got cancelled a few days ago due to the typhoon warning or if it’s always like this. If it is always this busy it is a real shame because it undoubtedly detracts from the beauty of the bay. For me I wouldn’t put it anywhere near the seven natural wonders of the world but I’ll be interested to see how it does. It certainly didn’t live up to my expectations beforehand. The other aspects of the tour (the boat, the people I shared it with) I can’t knock and I also think that two days/one night is the right amount of time. It would be too much travelling to see it in a day from Hanoi and I’ve heard mixed reports about Cat Ba Island (the biggest island in the bay) where people usually spend one day if they’re on
a three day trip.
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