Ha Long Bay - Peace & tranquility... but no squid!
Trip Start
Nov 16, 2008
1
20
32
Trip End
Feb 07, 2009
Halong Bay,
Vietnam
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Headed out to Ha Long Bay and onto a cute boat called the Lagoon Explorer with two other people (Hello to Sophie and Carmen!) and the first signs of sun started to appear through the clouds.
The on board crew then introduced us to everyone that would be looking after us and told us the itinary for the next 24 hours. Then in walked the captain of the ship to a round of applause by the rest of the crew. 5 of them and 4 of us, we knew that we were going to be looked after. One to pilot the boat, one to cook, one to serve, one to clean....not sure what the other guy did!
The boat set off and we were starting to wonder when we were going to see all the other boats as there were only 3 others in sight It then became clear to us that we were heading off in a different direction to everyone else and it was explained to us that there are 2 routes that the boats can follow
Our boat...
. The big dragon and little dragon routes. The big dragon (due to shapes that the islands form) is where all the main boats go but the little dragon route is only for a few boats and has only been open up for the past 2 months to tourists. A sense of relief came over us all as we soon learned that only a few boats were allowed to go this way so we were unlikely to bump into many other boats... good news as this area is so stunning with so many little uninhabited islands each with there own characters. Some even have caves which can be explored which we were going to do a little further into the trip.After getting to know our fellow guests we were soon blessed with the cuisine this boat has to offer and tucked into lunch. Scrummy food which continued throughout our trip including some handy carvings of fruit and vegetables by our chef. A swan out of what seemed like a turnip, a replica of the ship out of a melon and then a bull out of some funny looking potato.
The boat then pulled up close to a floating village surrounded by huge mountainous islands where there are about 300 people all living on houses that float on the water and are held up by blocks of polystyrene and anchored to the islands and sea floors.... absolutely amazing. The villagers live out here as fishermen with each house having a massive fishing net underneath their houses where they hold their catches of the day
Captain Misha.....
. The also have Oyster farms where they grow for selling to markets and also to get the pearls from the Oysters to sell to Japan. Once we left the village we then headed to one of the islands to tour through a massive cave which had only been discovered a few months back... although the guide then proceeded to tell us that this is where the fishermen used to hide away from the ferocious storms that affected the islands a couple of hundred years back...?!?!
After Misha and Soph had taken a dip in the sea we had our evening delicious meal which was then followed by some squid fishing.... though the fishing bit was probably just for show as we didn't catch a single thing! Sophie tried to lighten the mood by singing and then trying to get everyone else to do the same whilst Carmen was trying to convince Mike that she used to live next to Fernando Torres in Madrid!!
After a good night's sleep we then kayaked for an hour around some of the islands before heading back to port and our bus trip back to Hanoi.
Ha Long bay was a beautiful and worth while trip for both of us and definitely good value for money, with the visit to the floating village probably the highlight for both of us... as well as meeting two new friends of course ;-) !!
Comments
Hola from Bangkok
Hi Misha and Mike,
our trip around Vietnam has finished :(, I left Sophie yesterday on her way to Cambodia and I went to HCM city to catch a flight to Bangkok where I am at the moment.
Tomorrow I'll be home and then I'll send you the pictures from Halong Bay and also I will talk to Fernando's mum to get an autograph for Mike.
Hasta pronto.
Un abrazo
Carmen (Torres's neighbour)
Hi there,
What company did you use to take your cruise? I am researching for my trip in Dec. Do you have a price range?
Thanks!
Jill
Hi Jill
There are alot of cheap offers around for Ha Long bay and I would be very careful about going for the cheap options.
There are basically two routes that the boats take..... one is the overpopulated and polluted route which sails out to the right and then there is the route that turns left and is less populated, less polluted. Fewer boats are aloud to take this route due to the protection of the area. We paid about £12.00-£130.00 each and shared a boat with 2 other people. The cabin we stayed in was spacious and well turned out. It was absolutely amazing and well worth the extra money spent.
We bumped into some other travellers who went for the cheaper option and they hated theirs.
Company we used was Handspan.
All the best!