Vietnam, Part 2: Halong Bay

I've never been one for packaged tours. I'm not a fan of spending lots of money for obnoxious tour guide and a group of people you may or may not like... it's also just nice to have the freedom to be spontaneous when you travel. However, it's quite difficult to take a trip to Halong Bay without a tour. Most people who come to Halong Bay spend a night or two on a junk-- and if you are going to pay for the boat ride, it might as well include someone picking you up at the door of your hotel in Hanoi!



Halong Bay is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. Thousands of limestone cliffs rise out of crystal clear turquoise water for miles around. There are tons of dramatic caves carved by the water into the cliffs, some are underwater or hard to reach but others are accessible to tourists. When I got up close to one of these impressive cliffs (in a kayak) I was fascinated by the tropical plants growing all over it. Big, leafy plants manage to grow out of the tiniest crevices in the rock.



Our boat was superb. Of course, our guides said that it was one of the nicest in the bay, but I don't really trust them to tell the truth about something like that. It seems to me that all of the many, many one night/two day junk tours that depart each day are exactly the same. They offer the same tours, the same activities, anchor in the same bays... the only difference is the quality of the boat and the price. These tours are really an example of price discrimination at it's best. We paid $60 while other people on the boat paid up to $150. Our tour guide told us that night over drinks that the company has three boats of varying levels of comfort. After all the bookings are made, people from the budget boats are sometimes moved up to the luxury boat to fill up the rooms. I'm pretty sure that is what happened to us.

Our boat tour brought us to a really spectacular cave called Sung Sot Cave. I think that this is the first time that I've ever been in a cave, so I was really fascinated. We climbed up some steep stairs that led into one large cave... that led into a much larger cave, that led into an absolutely enormous cave. I'm not sure how big it was, but I feel that a football field could have fit inside it comfortably. As cool as the cave was, the experience of visiting it really wasn't all that great. Did I mention the billions of tours that leave each day? Well, we were all there at the same time. This meant that there were literally hundreds of other people in the cave, pushing in front of other peoples photos, stopping in the middle of the path, and generally making it impossible to enjoy the place at your own pace. I would have much preferred to see a cave that was half the size with no other groups.



The rest of the day was spent relaxing. We were fed both lunch and dinner on the boat, good, fresh seafood. In the afternoon we relaxed on the upper deck in the sun and then jumped off the top several times into the water below (terrifying at first, then exhilarating). At night we pushed several tables together and relaxed and chatted over drinks with a group of about ten other passengers. This is probably the nicest thing about going on a tour-- the opportunity to meet other people. Some were just ending a short vacation, others were somewhere in the middle of an epic backpacking trip, all had great stories about what they had seen and what they were planning to do.



The next morning I woke up early to see the sunrise and enjoy the bay at it's most peaceful. It was really pleasant to be the only one up on the deck, watching the other boats gradually wake up. Later that morning we went for an hour-long kayak ride through the bay. I loved having the opportunity to explore the rock formations a little closer up. I wish now that I had brought my camera with me on the kayak trip. I was worried it would get wet. After that, it was back to land and onto the bus back to Hanoi! Many of the people on the boat opted for a three day tour... I wish we had been able to to that, but our vacation was just too short to spend so much time in one place.

Next post: Perfume Pagoda