Halong Bay
Its not until we reach the rest stop that we notice the name on the side of the bus, The Black Pearl, is the suggested name of the boat that will be taking us out into Halong Bay. The name got us more than a little bit excited.
When we arrived at the dock in Halong City our tour guide handed all of our passports over to a guy sitting on a plastic stool drinking tea at the side of the road and continued to walk on as if nothing had happened. He seemed confused when we all stopped and questioned who this random man was and why he had just been handed the most important thing in our possession. The random man was apparently our captain and had to take the passports to the police station before we could set sail. If he had looked a bit more like Captain Jack we might’ve clocked on a bit earlier.
About an hour later our captain returned and directed us towards our boat. Not The Black Pearl as we had thought. On a budget tour you can never expect too much in terms of quality, our boat, a traditional junk but without the sails, had definitely seen better days, but it did at least float. We couldn’t really ask for much more.
Halong Bay is beautiful. Thousands of islands are dotted around the bay, most no bigger than just a rock rising out of the water, but some are inhabited and others have spectacular caves. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, there have been attempts in the past to have Halong Bay recognised as one of the natural wonders of the world. At one time it probably could have been a contender, but in its current state I would have to say its undeserved. The rise in tourism has led to a rise in pollution. The junks which once sailed are now all engine powered and so much rubbish seems to float in the water. Around each of the larger islands that we passed you could see that rubbish was being washed up. Not a pretty sight at all.
Our tour visited the most impressive cave that I have ever seen. It was huge and full of stalactites and stalagmites all of which seemed to have a story to describe their shape (some going back centuries despite the cave only being discovered 20 years ago) and illuminated in different colours. To emphasise that one particular formation was a dragon, red LEDs had been placed where the eyes supposedly were.
Halong Bay also plays home to a number of floating fishing villages as we pulled up at one for a spot of kayaking we were approached by woman in rowing boats full of snacks and refreshments. “Everything cheaper than boat” she shouted as we noticed her approaching. That may have been true but after paying a ‘corkage’ fee for having your own drinks it wouldn’t really be worth it. Kayaking gave us the opportunity to paddle around an island and explore another cave. This one had no lights to make things nice for the tourists, just a shed load of bats that came flying out to greet us.
We spent the night on the junk listening to a couple of American guys jamming with a guitar and improvised drums, drinking some cheap Vietnamese vodka that we had all brought with us and playing cards. When the tour guide came to join us he was jokingly informed that “entertainment charge” was extra as we had been surprised by a couple of extra charges earlier in the day.
The second day of our tour was a visit to Cat Ba island. A hangover, heat and walking usually isn’t the best combination, but throw in climbing a hill and its made that bit worse. The climb wasn’t that bad really but I couldn’t bring myself to climb the tower at the top of the hill as it looked like it was shaking in the wind and the supports were all covered in rust and looking decidedly dodgy. The views from the top of the hill were more than enough for me.
Halong Bay is one of the most scenic places to visit in Vietnam and if you ever get the chance its definitely worth doing. With the tours you get what you pay for. I paid $50 for 3 days and 2 nights including a night on Halong Bay and a night in a hotel on Cat Ba island, meals were included as was kayaking. The boat wasn’t over crowded, the hotel was comfortable enough and the meals were reasonably good. With a tour like this its the group of people on it that can make all the difference, I was with a great group and consequently had a great time.
I booked the tour through the guys at Central Backpackers Hostel in Hanoi. They’ve only recently opened and are doing their best to keep everyone happy, I got a 10% discount on the tour by booking through them and went on the promise that if I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t need to pay anything.
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