Heading to Halong Bay

Another beef Pho for breakfast. I wonder if I can keep this up? It might just have to be the mission for the rest of the trip in Vietnam!

We were collected this morning by the cruise company we had booked with to tour around Halong Bay. Once everyone was on board, we were straight on the expressway. This has got to be easy right? Wrong. After 40 minutes we left the expressway and things got more dicey from there. Our bus driver (apparently the best driver in Vietnam… sound familiar???!!!!) had all of his skills on display to get us to the departure point for the cruise. Then we had to wait almost an hour to actually get on the boat. And boy there were a lot of them. Boats I mean. Nothing exclusive about this trip.

Finally away and the four course lunch to start us off was well done (probably one course too many to be honest!) and we chugged away – behind what seemed like hundreds of other boats – all apparently heading in the same direction. It didn’t matter – the scenery was spectacular, even for a grey old day. Once we made it to our stopping point, we followed instructions and gathered a meagre few things to take on our afternoon excursion.
First stop – the Luon water cave. Helly’s arm was a bit sore – so we elected to take the guided option on the bamboo boats over the self-propelled kayaks. Just as well – it was certainly relaxing and we just giggled at those that were struggling to get going or go in a straight line. One kayak literally steered directly into the front of our boat (you can see them in the picture) – like a possum in headlights – very amusing (everyone was OK – just pride dented).
The cave itself was just the entrance really – and a lagoon type place where you could kayak around. Nothing really to see here.

Once all the kayakers were collected, we got back on our tender and headed to the next stop – Ti Top island (named after a Russian general that Ho Chi Minh was friendly with). Along with everyone else in the bay. Literally. It seemed like a cool thing to do – to climb up 500 plus steps to see the view around the bay. But, it was raining (well spitting anyway) and there was half of all the Vietnam tourists trying to do the same thing. Then, the only place to swim in all of Halong bay was the beach at the bottom of the walk. The fun police definitely had some impact here.
Ti Top Island from the tender

View from Ti Top Island
Although the excursion and two sights were nice enough, it was very unpleasant with the sheer number of tourists around – all trying to do the same thing at the same time. If things had just been spaced out a bit more – I am sure it would have been more enjoyable.

Back on the boat, we tried cocktails at happy hour, a rice paper roll making demonstration where we got to eat our creations, a lovely four course dinner and squid fishing at night.

Location: Hạ Long Bay, Thành phố Hạ Long, Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam

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