August 4th 2017 will go down in history as ‘The Day I visited Halong Bay’. I was so excited for this part of the trip. Of all the places I wanted to see in Vietnam, Halong Bay was IT!
The day started early… 6.30am, after a rubbish night’s sleep. We had to pack a smaller backpack with what we would need for our overnight stay at Halong Bay and we left our main backpacks at the hotel to pick up the next day.
The journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay took around 3 or 4 hours. We stopped on the way to visit a craft place. It was such a tourist trap. There were just coach loads of people from all over the world visiting the place on their way to or from Halong Bay. The place employed disabled workers who made beautiful silk tapestries, which were very impressive. The manager person seemed all nice and chatty and the workers all seemed happy enough but there was something about the place that didn’t sit right with me. Either the workers were shipped out to the craft place as they were unwanted and people came to stare at them or there was something dodgy. It could also have been a genuine place. Who knows!?
When we arrived at Halong Bay, I was blown away by how busy the place was. There were billions of boats (it felt like) dotted all around the place. It’s definitely gorgeous and very picturesque, but you never see just how many boats and tourists there are in any pictures!
We had lunch, then chilled out then went on a smaller boat to a cave. There was the option of kayaking but as I can’t swim, I’m not a fan! Despite it being busy, the boat trip was really calm and peaceful. The sun decided to make an appearance around this time and it was the only time during my 24 hours in Halong Bay that I saw it. After the boat tour, we went to the only island that people are allowed on. This is where the lookout point is, where you get the famous postcard shots of Halong Bay and there is a beach. Now, the beach was ridiculous because every tourist visiting Halong Bay seemed to be there at the same time and it isn’t especially big. The sea was lovely though and I can now say I’ve swam in Halong Bay.
When we got back to our junk boat, we had more chilling out time before dinner and karaoke!
The next morning, we were up early to visit some caves with stalagmites or stalagcites (or both) in. Unfortunately, the heavens opened and there was some amazing thunder and lightning. We got a little bit soggy whilst queuing to get in the caves. Not many of us had brought appropriate clothing or footwear!
We then headed back to our boat, had brunch, packed up our day bags and made our way back to Hanoi ready for the next part of our trip!
I just want to end this post by saying how amazing Halong Bay is. It is truly stunning and can see why it is mega famous. Sometimes, touristy places don’t live up to the hype but this place does. The whole area is so photogenic and undoubtedly deserves it’s Outstanding Area of Natural Beauty accolade. The only thing that ruined it was the few pieces of rubbish in the water. It’s a shame some people don’t treat our planet with more respect. Having said that, it was possibly my favourite place we visited. Whilst we were at the lookout point, I was quite content to just sit and soak up the view. I spent a bit of time sitting by myself, taking in the view (not through a lens) and thought how lucky I was to be there.
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