Ha Long Bay

Bay of the Decending Dragons

Ha Long Bay, 05. - 06 .February 2011

As we planed we booked a Ha Long Bay Cruise for 2 days and one night after Hanoi. I wanted to see this place since I was 15 years old and watched the French movie "Indochine" with Cathrine Deneuve and Vincent Perez. One of the movie scenes was shot in Ha Long Bay, a spectacular seascape in the Golf of Tonkin which was hardly known by tourists before. 15 years later I finally found my way to Ha Long Bay...

Our tour bus came at 8 a. m. to picked us up at our hotel. It took around an hour to fetch the other passengers in the Old Quarter before we left for Ha Long Bay. Our tour guide was a young Vietnamese who wanted to be called by her English name "Jenny". She explained that most of the foreigners couldn't pronounce or just forget her real name instantly because it's "too complicated for westerns", so that's why she chose an English name for us. Don't ask me what's her Vietnamese name was because I instantly forgot it after she told us. Vietnamese language is though to learn!

Ha Long Bay is located in the northeastern part of Vietnam, 165 km from Hanoi and takes about 3 hours by bus to get to Ha Long City - the portal to Ha Long Bay. But please don't expect that Ha Long City will be a foretaste of the bay because it's definitely not. All I can say is that it's all about Ha Long Bay not Ha Long City!

Location of Ha Long Bay in Google Maps

Well, to describe the area of Ha Long Bay, just imagine the Calamian (Coron) and Bacuit (El Nido) Archipelagos of the Philippines in one place! Yes, it's huge and breathtaking!

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site which was twice been recognized  for its exceptional majestic scenery, outstanding geological and geomorphic values. The World Heritage numerated 1,600 islands and islets, forming a spectacular seascape of limestone pillars. BUT without the beautiful tropical white beaches as we know from our beloving Coron and El Nido. AND the fact that this place is meanwhile a destination for mass tourism. I've read about this before but never expected that it would be that crowded. After we arrived at the harbour we needed to scratch along thousands of other tourists to get to a little motorboat which took us to our tour junk. See the crowded harbour of Ha Long Bay here.

But after leaving the chaotic harbour and arrived at our junk we promptly got rewarded with this view:

The gateway to Ha Long Bay

The itinerary for our 2 days and 1 night Ha Long Bay Cruise:
Day 1
- Bus from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay
- Check-In at Sapphire Sail
- Lunch
- Sung Sot Cave
- Kayaking
- Dinner

Day 2
- Breakfast
- Cruising through Ha Long Bay
- Check-Out
- Lunch
- Return to Ha Long Bay Harbour and Bus to Hanoi

We chose a Deluxe Cruise for 2 days and 1 night since we heard from some people that the Standard Cruise is not recommended. The surcharge was just around 20 USD per person for a Deluxe Cruise.
All in we paid 60 USD per person incl. meal and transportation. *Prices at Tet*
During our cruise we heard from Diana and Pernille (from Denmark) that it's possible to negotiate the price in some hotels/hostels because they paid only 50 USD p. p. for the same trip.

On the deck of our Vietnamese junk "Sapphire Sail" in the morning

Delightful scene in the morning

sunbathing on the deck and savor the majestic scenery

Travellers we met: Juan from Colombia, Pernille and Diana from Denmark

Juan from Colombia:
We met Juan in the bus from Hanoi to Ha Long Bay. He was such a funny, nice and charismatic guy from Colombia who accompany us to Hué and Hoi An after cruising Ha Long Bay. The funniest and most hilarious 5 days we've got in Vietnam.

On our way to Sung Sot cave

Sung Sot is the biggest cave in Ha Long Bay

The way our out of the cave

 
After we visited Sung Sot Cave we were able to go kayaking. We haven't took pictures while Kevin and I left our backpacks by our tour guide.

Our junk in the twilight