Blogs from Northeast, Vietnam, Asia - page 84

Halong Bay, Vietnam's most famous natural attraction and a UNESCO Heritage Site, was a much awaited part of our journey. The images of the surreal, sometimes eerie limestone formations coming out of the still green waters were facsinating to say the very least. We were looking forward to exploring the Bay with a tour on a Chinese junk boat, with an overnight stay on the boat in a secluded part of the Bay. Our bus ride to Halong City from Hanoi was promising. The 14 strangers with whom we were going to spend 2 days and 1 night with was young, fun and diverse. However, upon arrival at the Halong City dock, we were told that we two would separate from the group, as Princess Bianca's request for an air-conditioned room was not available on all ... read more

Hi All I'm just back from a 2 day cruise in Halong Bay with my tour group. It was really cool that we had a boat to ourselves and went kayaking round the large limestone rock formations (one of the James Bond movies was filmed here!) We also visited the caves that have been carved out in some of the rocks and they were pretty funny - trying to spot faces etc in the stone. The food on the cruise was fantastic and we had so much fresh seafood. Our first task was to open a full crab which was a bit disgusting when its staring at you but was really delicious. It wasn't that sunny but still really warm so it was lovely just to chill out on the deck and look at the scenery. ... read more

As Halong Bay is the number one tourist attraction in North-East Vietnam and a world heritage site, we thought we should pay it a visit, and it did not disappoint. Halong Bay translates as where the dragon descends into the sea and is a collection of over 2000 limestone islands which are absolutely magnificent. We decided to do a two day tour which started with a three hour minivan ride to get to Halong City where we boarded a boat (yes, Anna on a boat!) for a four hour cruise round the bay, once we were on board we discovered four Australian guys were also on the tour, who we had met the previous day. We stopped for some lunch near a floating village and also visited two of its limestone caves. While we were having ... read more

My luck was running thin in Vietnam. I'd left myself a measly 10 days to travel from Hanoi all the way down to HCMC. I spent the entire time catching buses and covering the highlights. My first hour in Vietnam was most eventful, indeed. I caught a minibus from the airport into town, arriving fashionably late at around 11.00pm with no pre-booked accommodation. Hell, I'd done it before, what was another multi-million over populated big city... By the time the driver had dropped off the other 6 people at their hotels, I was the last one left on the bus. Slightly uneasy about finding a free room this late at night, I told myself it would all be over in just a few minutes... They dropped me off out the front of some building and I ... read more

Ha Long Bay is stunning. We absolutely loved it and there is no way words, or sadly even our photos could do it justice. We spent three days and two nights out on the bay, with one of those nights on Cat Ba Island, the largest and only inhabited island in the area. We sailed on an old Chinese style junk with a whole group of Northern Europeans and our guide Ten. The air was cool, the sun was warm and the scenery was mindblowing. The first day after cruising the bay we stopped to explore the Amazing Cave (it was amazing!) and climbed to the top of Titov island to see the view over the bay as the sunset - amazing! After a refreshing evening swim we feasted on a seafood buffet and then went ... read more