Halong Bay

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8th - 10th April

After arriving in from Sapa on the night train very early in the morning, We had a couple of hours to kill with some super strong coffee before we jumped on our three day tour of Halong Bay. We were very sceptical about the whole tour thing but just didn't have time to sort it out ourselves like we did in Sapa and our scepticism was well founded.

Here is Pete's very special super short summary of Halong Bay

"I'm a bit disappointed really. its been totally fucked by tourism. there’s hundreds of boats out all day every day, all of which dump their sewage in the water. The water stinks of shit and when they asked if we wanted to swim I recalled the floaters I’d seen bobbing past and respectfully declined!! We stopped at a beach that was made up of dead coral. I asked the guide what had happened and he just said "its all dead". So what was once a thriving and abundant coral reef that was showered with wildlife, is now a bunch of brittle and crippled mess, completely devoid of life, engulfed in sewage!! Scenery was beautiful though!!"

Its so true. It really is tourism madness. We spent the first night on a boat, the crew wee a bunch of arseholes and kept trying to sell us drinks and food at ridiculously inflated prices. We didn't enjoy it.

Second night was spent on Cat Ba Island after a bit of kayaking in the sewage around the dead coral. The stench was repulsive. Cat Ba did have one saviour. Bia Hoi and plenty of it! We manage to drink 15 glasses of Bia Hoi each and get pissed for less than 1 pint costs in the UK!

On the third and final day we cruised back on the boat again. The sun came out which was nice and then we were packed off with all the other tourists back to Hanoi.

Being on a tight timescale after the four hour journey from Halong Bay to Hanoi we jumped on a bus to Hoi An halfway down Vietnam's eastern coastline. It took around 17 hours! Fun! "Is it comfortable we asked"? "Oh yes sir.... very comfortable" This was a fallacy.

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Comments

[anonymous]

hey pete - nice to see your livin it up - extremly jelous! why didnt you tell me you where loggin everything - git ANDY