Advertisement
Published: April 5th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Ha Long Bay
Whole the bay contained more than 3000 islands rising from the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin We had only been just a couple of weeks in Vietnam but I had almost fell in love with the country and its people. The feelinf didn't start to disappear even after our long nightbuss trip from Da Nang to Hanoi which is the capital of Vietnam. Perhaps it was something to do with the fact that our places were back of the buss and we were sharing them with the three men, some liquid was dropping from the buss' roof and there were people lying also above us in the second level beds.. Honestly I can't recommend that to anyone. At least we appreciated the way and laughed a lot. It was raining madly in Hanoi and also during the trip. When we arrived, tired, wet and cold I felt the first time how does it feels to be "Backpacking".
Except of the bit chilly weather (it was only 17 degrees Celsius (!) and we were freezing after southern Vietnam's warmness) Hanoi's exotic chic impressed me and it has it all: the ancient history, a colonial legacy and a modern outlook. Our hotel (this time we were really staying in an hotel) location was excellent, middle of the old
quarter near Hoan Kiem Lake we had an easy access to many places. Otherwise while staying in Hanoi I started to appreciate my chance to travel more. All in all this destinations had been our choices and intentions to go. We knew where we wanted to go, not because people told us where we should go. We also searched information before the trip and read both positive and negative views of them.
Not surprisingly one of the reasons we came to Hanoi was magnificent Halong Bay, which is one of the UNESCO world heritage sites in Vietnam. There are 1,969 islands in the bay and our guide told us that Ha Long Bay is perhaps the most popular travel destination of the country.
We decided to spend two days in Halong Bay and book a two-day tour staying overnight on the Cruise Boat. Partly because Halong's location was 165 Km from Hanoi and we didn't want to be in a rush to go there and come back. It was good decision after all although we were unlucky since the weather was rainy, foggy and chilly when we arrived to Halong. However our Cruise Ship, Asian Cruise was, like
promised, the most good looking ship in the harbor and our own cabins were great as well not to mention delicious seafood, yummy!! Together with the easy going company, more or less 15 people and ship's staff were having the cruise with us we had a great two days there which contained a lot of fun and chess..
During the first cruise day we cruised in the bay and tried to spot those thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes which the bay features. Ha Long means where the dragon descends into the sea and during the second day, when the sun was shining again we were able to see all those "chicken" and "kissing" rocks and lakes inside the limestone mountains. Fantastic! Whole the bay was calm although it was raining, and the atmosphere was so unique. We were whispering to each others without any reason just because the Halong Bay's atmosphere reached us and the other travelers.
One remarkable place was the biggest cave which was lighten up with the several spotlights. I have never been in such a big cave, amazing! It took over an hour to walk it through. We
were told those caves been sometimes under the water but nowadays they are empty. There were even the instructions how to vote the Halong Bay to be one on the New 7 Wonders of the World list. After seeing the area I did not wonder why.
The second cruising day started with the broken engine and our lovely Asian Cruise Boat could not move at all. We were rescued by other cruise boat and tied up to it end of the day. Because of this our speed was remarkably slow which we didn't mind but I guess the other cruiser's travelers were not so please about it. But hey, imagine, we got two boats with the one prize!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.067s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0423s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb