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Published: August 7th 2007
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Ha Long Bay is one of Vietnam's most hyped must-see destinations, the karst formations in the bay attracting thousands of tourists for whom local boat owners offer 2 or 3 day cruises. Like in the Whitsundays in Australia, there are packages for every budget - on the premise that you get what you pay for, LA Woman and I decided to go for a 3 day cruise operated by a well-regarded company called Handspan, at the more expensive end of the spectrum.
Our boat was the Dragon's Pearl (though the sign actually said Dragon's Pear), a 4 floor junk with 2 floors of accommodation, a dining level, and a sundeck. The welcome drink was a cup of tea, an unfortunate early indication of the kind of short-cuts that would bedevil the trip. The cabin was small and luxurious but I was left wondering why the builder had furnished it with aircon yet provided no hooks for hanging up towels and swimming costumes.
The first day consisted mainly of cruising around the bay, seeing the many limestone cliffs jutting impressively from the ocean. We also stopped briefly at an island where the more active people hiked to the top for
views over the surroundings, and people like me went for a swim in the surprisingly cold water - given all the garbage, and slicks of various unknown liquids that I subsequently saw in the bay, I'm not sure if having a dip was such a great idea.
Meals were communal affairs and quantity wasn't an issue (breakfasts being a glaring exception), though no drinks were included (not even water - despite the fact there were free watercoolers elsewhere on the boat) and the staff were much too aggressive in attempting to remove "finished" dishes.
With only a few legal mooring spots in the whole of the bay, we had 20 or 30 other vessels for company after dark, creating a pleasant scene of boat lights mirroring the stars in the clear sky. Several squid boats were visible going about their business, their blindingly bright lights apparently fooling the squid into thinking it's full moon hence time for them to come to the surface. We also saw an example of bioluminescence, the movement of a boat through the water causing algae to briefly glow green in its wake.
Day 2 was supposed to be a "day" of kayaking,
Kayaking
Copyright LA Woman 2007 though in reality this translated to 3 hours. The boat to/from the kayaking site was possibly even slower than a kayak, and we spent 3 hours in that too. It was overcast again, which was good from a kayaking point of view. We passed a couple of floating villages patrolled by yapping dogs, and also saw some huge jellyfish pulsing in the water. There was also a surprising number of seaborne vendors selling Oreos, beer, and toilet roll, their cries of "You want to buy something?" as irritating as those of their land-based counterparts. It was noticeable that most people here row the "wrong" way, i.e. facing the direction of travel.
The kayaking itself was easy, given the general calmness of the sea, and it was great to get closer up to the karst as well as go through a couple of tunnels.
Day 3 was taken up with cruising back to harbour. There wasn't enough room on the Comments sheet for all the complaints we had, but I would summarise by saying that we paid a luxury price for a mid-range product. There was nothing horrendously bad about it but, knowing how cheap things are in this
Junk
Copyright LA Woman 2007 country, it was vastly overpriced. And given that you can see karst formations in umpteen different places, I'm not sure Ha Long Bay is as essential a stop as received wisdom says it is.
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