Ha Long Bay is one of the “must see” destinations in northern Vietnam, and the pictures I looked at were amazing. There are a dizzying number of travel operators offering tours, but we ended up taking one that was recommended in our Lonely Planet guidebook called Vega tours, which we thought worked out well. Something like 5,500 people tour Ha Long Bay each day, and it’s a veritable industry in Vietnam, between ships, cooks, captains, tour operators, buses, boats, staff, food service, etc…and a source of national identity and pride. On our trip, our guide pointed out the karst that is actually on the Lonely Planet guidebook cover for Vietnam.
And it’s truly amazing and beautiful, in spite of being over-visited. But maintenance of pristine beauty always a work in progress, especially where so many people visit. We saw lots of floating plastic debris during our trip, which was disheartening. A lot of it comes from the floating fishing villages, and we were told about a multi-year plan between UNESCO and the Vietnamese government to address the issues, which is trying to address a number of issues, including water quality, medical care and education for the fisher families, and other things all at the same time.
“Getting on the subject of beautification is like picking up a tangled skein of wool,” Lady Bird Johnson wrote in her diary on January 27, 1965. “All the threads are interwoven — recreation and pollution and mental health, and the crime rate, and rapid transit, and highway beautification, and the war on poverty, and parks — national, state and local. It is hard to hitch the conversation into one straight line, because everything leads to something else.” And this from the wife of the US president who escalated the Vietnam war in 1965.
We met our tour guide at their office in Hanoi and got on the shuttle bus to take to us to Ha Long where we would get transferred to the boat. It all went smoothly: this is a well-rehearsed process. Most of our group of about 20 were going for a 2-day/1-night trip, and we were going for 3 days/2-nights, sleeping on the boat each night. Our tour went a bit farther out than just Ha Long Bay, to a quieter area called Lan Ha Bay. In the below map, Lan Ha Bay is marked by the smaller trapezoid at the middle bottom of the map. The bigger shape is Ha Long Bay reserve.
After seeing the pictures of Ha Long on the Internet and books, it’s amazing to actually see the karsts appear on the horizon and then to experience them getting bigger and bigger as you approach them through the misty air. The weather was forecast to improve during our trip, but the skies were grey and the visibility was low as the tender we boarded took us to our boat where we would spend the next couple nights. The misty air lent a certain mystery to the scene, but it would have been nice to have blue skies and clear views!
Arriving to the boat, we get ourselves settled. We had requested a room with a balcony when we booked and one was available due to a cancellation (the weather?) so we grabbed it
That afternoon, the activity was sea kayaking. Chris and I are so unused to being managed like kids in a class that is all seems a bit weird to be herded around, but we board the tender again and are let off on one of the floating fishing villages with sea kayaks for a couple hour paddle. To say I was uncomfortable in that kayak would be a grand understatement. I had a lot of company with the other males of the group, and I’m not sure if it’s due to the fact that we were all in the back seat, or if we are just wimps.
That evening, I begin to feel kind of sketchy, and by the next morning I’m steady but feeling like a day doing nothing would be better than the activity of the day, which is a short hike on Cat Ba Island, lunch and then a visit to a cave. So I read in bed, watching the scenery go by and Chris did the day’s activities. It was very relaxing day and what the doctor ordered!
The weather was improving, and by the time Chris came back from her hike, the sun made an appearance and the air cleared. That was nice!
We’d met a number of other people on the cruise, including a couple of Irish ladies heading towards Australia to work, and they went into the bay to swim, revealing that the water was actually pretty darn clear…moreso than I imagined from just looking at it from the boat.
The day we were leaving, our morning was spent going back to Cat Ba Island for a short bike ride to a village, with some sightseeing. The bikes were ancient and too short, but we all cheerfully went along. Best part of the day was putting our feet into a pond with hundreds of little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. People squealed with terror or delight, and that was fun.
Overall, we had a good time and were really glad we went. The group was small, the cost was reasonable, the guide was attentive and informative and the food was good. Vega seems like a reputable company. The boat was clean and well maintained and the beds were good. It was definitely a good idea to go for longer, since it gave some time to experience things instead of just rushing around doing stuff. We met some really nice people on the trip as well.
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