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Halong Bay Travel Blogs

Background: The conquest of Vietnam by France began in 1858 and was completed by 1884. It became part of French Indochina in 1887. Independence was declared after World War II, but the French continued to rule until 1954 when they were defeated by Communist forces under Ho Chi Minh, who took control of the North. US economic and military aid to South Vietnam grew through the 1960s in an attempt to bolster the government, but US armed forces were withdrawn following a cease-fire agreement in 1973. Two years later, North Vietnamese forces overran the South. Despite the return of peace, for over two decades the country experienced little economic growth because of conservative leadership policies. Since 2001, Vietnamese authorities have committed to economic liberalization and enacted structural reforms needed to modernize the economy and to produce more competitive, export-driven industries. The country continues to experience protests from the Montagnard ethnic minority population of the Central Highlands over loss of land to Vietnamese settlers and religious persecution.




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We were collected early from our hotel in Hanoi for the three hour drive north to Halong Bay. Once we left the city we passed big wide fields where rice was grown - all empty now as they only have one rice season a year in this area. The farmers were however burning off the stubble from the rice crops and therefore the skies were shrouded in a heavy smoke haze. We hoped that the haze wasn't going to extend to the Halong area and spoil our view of the large limestone peaks which make the scenery so spectacular there. After [View Full Entry]

lmh - lin hunt | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1086 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 9 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: December 10th 2009 | 45 Views | [diary=458329]

Peaks and clouds
Small boat in Halong bay
Linny

After months of research McKay and I finally decided on the PINTA GOLD cruise for our Halong Bay trip... it is a hard area to research/make a decision on and we decided after one too many horror stories that we would go with a company that had rave reviews on Trip Advisor... only to be disappointed by the whole experience... We woke up bright and early for our trip and as I lay in bed waking up I could hear McKay in the bathroom... (in an American accent which made it even funnier)... Oh my god... OH my god... OH MY [View Full Entry]

Reet - Reet | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
1389 Words | 8 Comment(s) | 30 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 26th 2009 | 621 Views | [diary=447744]

Pinta Gold
The Long Bus Ride
Halong Bay

Day 3: Sunday, 18th October 2009 After saying goodbye to the friendly hotel folks at Hanoi, we continued our voyage to Halong Bay, about 3.5 hours drive from the capital. For USD95 per person, we were given a night's stay on the mid-range Halong Phoenix Cruiser including 4 meals on board. Fair enough, even though we wished that there could at least be 2 bottles of drinking water available in each cabin. Ironically, drinking water was a precious commodity in Halong Bay, something we oftened took for granted back home. A 500ml bottle would drown USD1 from our pockets. The cab [View Full Entry]

Budokan - Close to You | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
355 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 4 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 25th 2009 | 115 Views | [diary=447799]

Picture Perfect Memories from Sung Sot Cave
Halong Phoenix Cruiser
Captain's Call

Oh my oh my, this place is beautiful! So where did I leave off last time I wrote in this blog? Oh right, the night before getting into Vietnam. Well, we got up fine and got on our early bus out of Phnom Penh. The bus ride was about 6 hrs and the funniest part was when we hit the border. We think they like to screw around with tourists, mainly because we were the only white guys on the bus. So they took our passports when we got on the bus and when we reached the border crossing we figured [View Full Entry]

kifandpeter - Kristoffer Fransson and Peter Wright | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
2322 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 15 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 20th 2009 | 182 Views | [diary=445766]

Jealous?
Boat Vendor
Little house on the Island

By AliQ
October 12th 2009
Day 13 - Halong Bay  Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Halong Bay
Boarding our mini-bus bright and early in the morning, this time we were on the way to Halong Bay . Half way there we informed that we would no longer be sleeping on the junk, as planned, as there was a tropical storm on it way. We did however enjoy the whole day on the junk and slept in a nice hotel on dry land instead. Halong Bay has 1969 islands in total, made of limestone of rock. None of them are inhabitated. They range in shape and size, from small little dots of rock to tall hills. At the beginning [View Full Entry]

AliQ - Ali Quinlan | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
296 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 13 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 15th 2009 | 118 Views | [diary=444969]

7 wonders of the world ???
our junk
Halong Bay

5/1/09 Ha Long Bay The bus turned up at 8am to take us on our 4 hour bus trip to Ha Long City. Our guide Duc picked us up and luckily Zo and I had 3 seat for the 2 of us because of my need for leg room. The journey was very interesting crossing the Red River and headed across the beautiful Vietnamese countryside, via rice fields and mountains. We arrive at midday, and had to wait for half hour for our captain to get his boat sorted. We got a nice rocky boat trip to our 3 storey boat. [View Full Entry]

TommyandZoTravels - Tom and Zo Vs. The World | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
934 Words | 3 Comment(s) | 26 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 11th 2009 | 162 Views | [diary=443936]

Boats
Capitins check in
Our room on the boat

Prepare yourselves, readers. This is a long one. Might want to grab a cup of tea or beverage of choice before settling in to read this one. Or make it a two part experience. I decided to publish it all as one since I tell the boat trip story start to finish. I hope you enjoy it. When I researched Vietnam, everyone I spoke to said we had to go to Halong Bay. Halong Bay means descending dragon bay in Vietnamese. The area has thousands of the limestone formations that are mini-islands. After doing some research online and seeing the photos, [View Full Entry]

soooze - Suzanne S | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
2206 Words | 1 Comment(s) | 24 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 11th 2009 | 200 Views | [diary=443925]

Emily with her decorative oar
sun setting
us in kayaks

This was the reason we decided on Vietnam in the first place, Halong Bay. Breathtaking beauty is only one simple explanation of this absolutely GORGEOUS place. It is by far one of the most beautiful places we have both ever been to. It's almost as though you are dreaming, being in a place this beautiful. Everywhere we would look, you just wanted to stop and just breathe....PHENOMENAL! The drive from Hanoi to Halong is about 3 and 1/2 hrs. We were picked up by a tiny bus, along with 6 other people and all our packs. Lets just say the ride [View Full Entry]

Aly M - Adventures of the A-Team | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
979 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 9 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 9th 2009 | 132 Views | [diary=443557]

Halong Bay
Halong Bay
Halong Bay

Wow, time is flying - it’s three weeks today since we got married and our time in Vietnam has already come to an end. It has been a whistle stop tour starting in Hoi Chi Minh City and ended in the capital Hanoi, via the beautiful towns of Hoi An and Hué. Fortunately this week we have avoided long bus journeys by cheating and flying, however, the one bus we did catch from Hoi An to Hué ended up taking twice as long due to a puncture. Flying has also proved to be a learning experience here: The first flight we [View Full Entry]

Andy Beccy Brown - Andrew & Rebecca Brown | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
602 Words | 2 Comment(s) | 7 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: September 26th 2009 | 187 Views | [diary=439905]

Halong Bay
Sung Sot
Halong Bay

Majestic and mysterious is a great way to describe the impressive scenery in Halong Bay We opted for a tour to take us to this incredible place, we were glad to pay a bit more for one that we got recommended. On the first day we had a four hour drive to Halong City where we boarded a boat taking us cruising through over 2000 lime stone islands. We stopped for a huge lunch including amazing fresh seafood that even Dale was keen to try, and I’m happy to say he enjoyed! We spent an hour and half kayaking through hidden [View Full Entry]

Kat Larsen - Katrina Larsen | Read The Full Entry | Subscribe
348 Words | 0 Comment(s) | 15 Photo(s) | 0 Video(s)
Published: October 17th 2009 | 93 Views | [diary=440680]

Us on the Junk
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