Blogs from Halong Bay, Quang Ninh, Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 7

So of course when you travel you learn a lot. But on our 3 day 2 night junk tour of Halong Bay I learned quite a bit: 1. Squid fishing is impossible. 2. Americans are backwards in a few things: I can now convert meters to feet much better, I am can figure out Celcius temps when people talk about them, and I have learned to eat with my fork prongs down. 3. The chance of meeting someone from Malta is slim to none. We met a couple from Malta. 4. Halong Bay was formed by dragons. 5. Our travel agent is for real! When we booked this tour I did a lot of research to figure out the best way to book and read a lot of reviews of this travel agent. So I emailed ... read more

So after the overnight return train ride back from Sapa to Hanoi, and another quick overnighter at Hanoi, and I was finally on my way to the place that I really should have gone to on my very first visit to Vietnam way back in 2005. For some reason I'd declined to check it out back then, thinking I would surely have an opportunity again in the near future. Turns out that near future would be 7 years later! So 2500+ days later, I finally saw Halong Bay in the flesh. And not a moment too soon either. If there was ever an attraction that truly reflects the extent of the development of tourism in Vietnam, it has to be Halong Bay. Crowded from the get-go, from the packed mini-bus ride there, to the throngs of ... read more

Travelling with Christine has been an interesting experience although one that has led me to the conclusion that as I probably wouldn't go on holiday for 10 days with many of my closest friends suddenly joining someone you've known for less than 3 is a fairly high risk strategy. Christine is an eager, French, forty something, Management Accountant from the home counties with a line in sensible travel skirts. She briskly guides us through the streets of Hanoi and organise our excursions. I am terrible at lazily taking a back seat in situations like this if someone else shows a modicum of interest in planning. As a haphazard marketer have a feeling she finds my total lack of logic and practical forethought immensely frustrating. She watches bewildered as I roll up notes and stuff them in ... read more

We booked a three day trip that would bring us to Halong Bay and spend the first night on a boat and the second night on Monkey Island. First day we done some kayaking around the floating fishing village and went into a cave that had loads of weirdly shaped stalactites and stalagmites. After the cave we went back onto the boat for dinner overlooking Halong Bay – such a beautiful view. Phil jumped off the boat and done a bit of swimming – I didn’t want to get my hair wet lol That night there was karaoke – the Vietnamese are obsessed with this! Next day we headed to Cat Ba Island and walked up one of the mountains guided by an overly enthusiastic Vietnamese dude who kept swinging out of trees and pretending to ... read more

I got collected at 8am for the 1 day HaLong Bay tour. Halong bay is a unesco world heritage site, the meaning behind the name is translated to descending dragon bay. The bay is home to thousands of limestone karsts, the 'kissing chickens' feature on one of their currency notes. It took 3.5 hours to get there and we had a real mix of nationalities; Russian, Polish, Malaysian, Vietnamese....a good bunch though. As soon as we boarded we were served lunch, a mix of fish, meat and vegetarian dishes. Really nice. We the. Took a 4 hr tiur round the bay, some of the rock formations are outstanding, it's a truly beautiful place. We stopped at some caves that we're found in the 90's by a fisherman. We arrived back at port late afternoon and then ... read more