Tuesday,Feb 9 2010, 03:26:00 AMWonderful Halong Bay, Vietnam

"The trip to Halong Bay was a wonderful experience and something we would highly recommend to anyone visiting Vietnam". Recommended in Vine_hooligans's blog

The mini-bus that collected us early on Tuesday morning.
 
The bus ride took us though some beautiful Vietnamese country side with row upon row of beautiful green rice paddies (Vietnam is SE Asia's second biggest rice exporter). The sea of green fields was occasionally dotted with the traditional beige cone shaped hats that is synonymous with Vietnam leading water buffalo or tending to the crop.
 
When we arrived at Halong Bay after the 4 hour journey were surprised to find rather than a quite little country harbour an extremely busy port with hundreds of tourist boats coming and going, not surprising since Halong Bay was declared a World Heritage site Busy Halong Bay.

The moment to start approaching the harbour the lime stone pinnacles are visible though the haze and I was blown away by the sheer number of them. The Halong Bay area has more than 2000 of these pinnacles rising out of the ocean some hundreds of meters tall.
 
After some passports checking we boarded our boat on which we would spend the night and set off into the bay. Our room was great and even though it was small it was bigger than some of the hotel rooms we have stayed in. All meals were also included on the boat and we soon settled in for a nice Vietnamese lunch of crab, prawns, octopus a whole fish, scallops and of course Vietnamese dish is complete without a big bowl of rice.
 
Cruising through the massive outcrops was magical and even though it was a little hazy the view was still spectacular. On the program for the day was a visit to one of the dozen caves in the Halong bay area, kayaking before mooring for the night. I had no idea how big the cave we'd be visiting would be and was blown away by the size.

When you enter the first chamber it looks impressive but only once you make your way through a tunnel into the main chamber do you realise how big the cave actually is. This must have been by far the biggest cave I had ever been in and with the lighting effects the made it look like a something out of a fantasy story.
 
Being such a major tourist attraction we were not the only visitors and had to often fight our way though big tour groups and often stand our ground when shoved out the way as someone wanted to take a photo and clearly didn't want me in it. I thought this was hilarious and acted completely ignorant when told to move and just smiled and waved.

From the caves we were taken to a floating village where we were given kayaks to tour the surrounds. The inhabitants of the floating villages all have little mobile businesses where they load up little boats with beer, wine, snacks and live fish and crabs and then motor alongside the big tourist boats and relentlessly try to sell their goods, anything to make a living.
 
Most the overnight boats moor around the area near the cave before setting off the next morning. We counted more than 40 boats moored for the evening. Dinner on the boat gave a good opportunity to meet the other travellers on the boat and swap travel stories.

We met a lovely Japanese girl called Hashmie who we plan to visit in her home town Kyoto when we travel through. We also had two American girls at our table one of whom was a teacher in a school in the south of China and it was very interesting to hear about her experiences as well as discuss some American politics which seems to be on the news channels every day now.
 
The next day some new passengers were transferred onto the boat amongst we met a guy called Keith who is an English teacher in South Korea who gave us some interesting insights into the Korean way of life.
 
We would strongly suggest spending more than one night in the area as it seems the further out you go into the bay the less crowded it feels.


Source: travelpod

Recommendation in Ha Long Bay:

Ha Long Bay Cruise

Category: vietnam adventure tour |  Tag : Long, ha, Long, ha, junk, bay, Long, ha, cruise, bay, ha, Long, bay, Kayaking, boat | 1 Views | Post Comments | Share with Friends | Recommend

Friday,Feb 5 2010, 07:53:28 AMRoad tripping through the hill tribe towns of Vi...

Exploring Vietnam's Central Highland's pine tree forests, waterfalls and coffee plantations by motorbike


"Nha san", or stilt house's K'Ho people in Lam Dong, Vietnam ...

Read More...

9 Views | Post Comments | Share with Friends | Recommend

Wednesday,Feb 3 2010, 08:41:41 AMVietnam's Tet traditional food - Legendary Chung...

Thanh Khuc (or Tranh Khuc) Village at Duyen Ha Commune, Thanh Tri District, Hanoi is famous for making their traditional Chung cake. This is a place where the spirit of Tet comes alive the earliest in Hanoi.

Tranh Khuc Village is particularly busy at the end of the year. Although Tet is approaching next month, the entire village is preparing to make Chung cake. You cannot find such a traditional feature of Tet anywhere other than here. ...

Read More...

Category: vietnam adventure tour |  Tag : Vietnam, adventure, tour, Holiday, tet, Tours | 5 Views | Post Comments | Share with Friends | Recommend