Vietnam Part 3: Halong Bay and Hanoi (August 9-13)

Going out to Halong Bay was one of the few “Must Visit Spots” for my summer adventures. After I ran out of time in Vietnam in 2008, I knew I had to come to Halong Bay on this trip and the three day trip was so worth the journey!

Halong Bay was recent voted as one of the new 7 Natural Wonders of the World and I can see why. The bay itself, limestone rock formations were just amazing.

Arriving into Hanoi

I met a nice U.K. girl on my plane ride from Da Nang to Hanoi and we started talking about Hanoi and her experiences. She was working in Hanoi and told me about the local shuttle bus she always takes from the airport so I figured I would try that since I had time and wasn’t planning on sightseeing in Hanoi since I saw all I wanted to last time I was in town. So I collected my bag, walked out and found a local shuttle (like a Super Shuttle Van) and paid about $1 vs the expensive taxi (about $20). It actually was an interesting experience to travel with the locals, chat with this U.K. girl (as I ended up on the same van with her by chance) and I learned of a few hidden spots for dinner from her.

Halong Bay Trip

I decided go on the longer Halong Bay trip with was 3 days/2 nights. Many people are short on time and only do the 2 day/1 night and I thought that wouldn’t be enough (and I was right). The drive from Hanoi to Halong Bay was 4 hours, so I wanted to make the most of the journey.

 

Day 1

We met our guide Chong, who told us to think of his name as Strong with a “C”…so that was easy to remember. He was with us for the whole time which was nice. We arrived at the boat around noon and were greeted by a friendly boat staff. My boat was a typical size with 5 cabins, 3 levels to the boat and we had 9 guests on board. Our first few hours sailing were just beautiful. I went up to the sun deck and read and relaxed and it was perfect.

Around 4:00, we reached the main harbor where all the boats dock for the night. We all went out sea kayaking and then took another small boat to Ti Top Mountain. From here, we were able to climb a lot of stairs to the top for a really nice view of the harbor. As it was very hot outside, our captain wanted us to go climbing to the top of Ti Top Mountain later in the afternoon which was nice and we then lucked out to see the sunset from this viewing point which no other boats were able to.

 

The boat crew made a delicious dinner on board for us and we stayed up chatting with our new friends. We had an international group with 2 from Holland, 2 from German, 4 from Spain and me.

 

Day 2

Waking Up to Water Leaking in My Cabin – Not A Good Start

The next morning, I unfortunately woke up in my cabin to “drip…drip…drip” and when I opened my eyes, I could see water dripping from my ceiling right by my luggage. That’s not a good sign as I was on the bottom level and I didn’t want the 2^nd floor to cave in on me. I knew something wasn’t right and went out to get the boat crew. When they came back in to my cabin, I then saw water dripping on the other side of my bed. So really not a good problem for the boat as more guests would be checking into the cabin that afternoon. I quickly gathered my things, got dressed (as we were leaving the boat for our first stop in 30 minutes) and figured the boat crew could figure it out. Luckily, we were staying at a hotel on another island for our second night, so the water wasn’t going to be a problem for me.

Hang Sunt Sot Cave

The first stop of the morning was Hang Sunt Sot Cave. Our guide told us we were going to get up “really early” to go to beat the other boats and crowds. We had to be ready to leave by 7:30am. I laughed as it’s not really early to me and after the water issue, I had been awake for a while. What was funnier, when we got to the cave, there were already so many people there that I didn’t think we beat any crowds. Our guide told us that the number of people we saw, still wasn’t much as there are a lot of people that come out for the day only and this cave is very crowded and almost 2,000 people visit a day in low season. I couldn’t image driving 4 hours, spending 4 hours on the bay and then driving back 4 hours….but I guess many people do it.

So this cave was huge and we were able to walk around inside and see all sorts of formations and such.

 

Here are additional photos from inside the cave:

 

After we came back to the boat, the two German guys and I left our big boat and went to a smaller boat. We were the only ones that booked the 3 days/2 night option so we were off to the next part of the cruise to see Cat Ba Island and the rest of the boat would head back to Hanoi.

The German guys and I decided the second day of the trip was by far the best as it was less structured, less rushed and much more relaxing – and exactly what we came to Halong Bay for. I would highly recommend making the time for the 3 day trip. So we were off and a few other people joined our small boat which was nice to meet some others. We stopped at a small cove to swim between two tiny beaches and it was gorgeous. Here is a photo of one of the tiny beaches we enjoyed.

 

 

Biking to A Local Fishing Town

After our swim, we sailed further into Halong Bay and passed a lot more of the locals living and fishing. I loved this photo of a little canoe of three woman and a man…notice the man is just sitting in the back as the women rowed…hummm guess he was just along for the ride.

 

Once we arrived at the new island, we picked up our bikes and started off. Chong was leading us on the bike, and I don’t know how he did it but he was biking in jeans and it was still extremely hot. I later asked why he wore jeans, and he said it was more formal to wear that as a guide. So over the roads and then some little and then big hills we went. Chong said we could take a more scenic route to the fishing village and if the water level was low enough we could ride our bikes through a little water and a cave if we were ok with that. We said sure and were off. When we reached the watery part…he looked a little concerned and told us to wait. He rolled up his jeans a bit and started to walk ahead to check out the water level.

 

 

When he came back he said it looked ok to proceed so we did. Riding a bike in water is not easy, and I remember the challenges I had riding through water and mud in Lao and just told myself to keep peddling. At least this time if I needed to put my feet down I was wearing flip flops so it wasn’t as big of a deal…and we all did as it was too hard to pedal through the high water.

 

As we got closer to the cave we were going to ride through, Chong told us the water was too high and we had to turn back and bike “the harder and hillier way”. Oh well…we tried and made it up and over the big hill.

The local fishing village was really small, quaint and gave us a good look at how the locals live out on the islands. Here are some of the photos from the bike path, some of the homes and other scenes from the area.

 

 

Cat Ba Island

At the end of the afternoon, we sailed to Cat Ba Island. This is where we would spend the second night of our trip and we had a really nice hotel. I ended up hanging with the German guys most of the time. After dinner, Chong offered to show us around the town a bit and took us out to one of the popular bars in town. Chong was very open to chat about his life experiences growing up in Vietnam and it was fun to learn about Chong’s life. He told us all about growing up in Vietnam, meeting his wife, his quick wedding last month (as he had to get married quickly this year as next year was a bad year for his wife’s birth year and the year after was bad for his birth year) and they had been dating for many years already. So it was either marry this year or wait another 3 years. He told us how much money his wedding cost in US money (we never asked). He said it cost about $2,500 US and he had to borrow money from friends, family and others to pay for it since they had to get married so quickly. I knew that was a lot of money in Vietnam, and when I did the conversion, it was almost 53 million Dong! When you think that a beer costs 15,000 Dong, that’s a whole lot of money for a wedding. Chong was very up front about everything about his life and the typical experiences in Vietnam and this conversation isn’t something you normally get traveling so well worth the night out with him and the guys.

 

Day 3

It was time to leave Cat Ba Island. We sailed back a few hours through some of the local fishing coves to meet the larger boat. We passed some locals rowing little boats with their feet in a more relaxed reclined manor like this:

 

Once we reached our main big boat, there were new people on this boat (as these people did the 2 day/1 trip) so we now had a few Americans on the boat and few Chinese. We got to learn how to make local spring rolls and then made them for our final lunch which was fun and tasty.

Hanoi

Once I got back to Hanoi, I had some extra Vietnamese Dong left and since I read you can’t leave the country with it and it was a very hard currency to exchange…I figured I had to spend it. I had just enough for a really nice spa treatment and asked my hotel for a recommendation. The spa even paid for a taxi for me so I was off for 2.5 massage, foot scrub and foot massage which was just wonderful.

I spent a little time wandering around the streets, walking around the lake and just watching the crazy traffic again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And if you need a balloon…there were many people walking around with huge balloon bouquets for sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another one of my favorite videos of the busy traffic circle with everyone going every which way.

Video of Crazy traffic roundabout in Hanoi 

or click on this link: http://youtu.be/bHkk_vgYDhw

All in all, lovely time in Halong Bay. Loved my trip there and would highly recommend going. The company I ended up going with was fine and it was one of the top recommended companies. The company I really wanted to go with was fully booked…and if I could go again, I would try to go with the other company and will list both companies in my logistics below. The other company, Indochina Junk, just had such amazing reviews from people I met and online reviews and I really wanted to use them, but I didn’t book it in time. Oh well, still great trip – but wanted to list that for others that can plan a trip from home with more time.

Heading to Chendgu, China next…

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Logistics:

Hotels:

• Tu Linh Legend Hotel – In the heart of old quarter (and there are three properties that are related). I stayed here before I went to Halong Bay and could have left my big luggage with them and taken a small bag (which would be recommended for Halong Bay). Really nice reception staff, but I decided to move as I wanted to be closer to the lake and also have a new location for my last night in Hanoi after Halong Bay. The hotel was really nice but I wanted variety when I was being dropped off.

 

 

 

 

 

•  Golden Sun Palace Hotel – This hotel was much nicer than the first and location closer to the lake. There are a few related properties as well. So if I came back to Hanoi, I would stay here again. In the heart of Old Town, and closer to restaurants and the lake so easier to get around. Also a bit nicer rooms.

 

 

 

 

 

Halong Bay Tour Company:

• ODC Travel (I company I went with) – www.odctravel.com.vn

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Indochina Junk (I company I really wanted to use, but they were fully booked) – www.indochina-junk.com