Halong Bay    

Overview

Halong Bay is known as one of the "jewels of Vietnam", and is a must-see if you are visiting the north.  It's a 3 hour drive east of Hanoi, not far from the port of Haiphong.  We took an overnight trip there, something like this, and spent the night in the Bay.  

Here's an overview:  It's name means "Bay of the descending dragon".  The rocks of Halong Bay, scattered over 1,500 square km, are a remarkable natural wonder, which is why UNESCO was prompted to name it one of its World Nature Heritage sites in 1994. Several of the karsts are hollow and are riddled with caves and grottoes, some of which have been turned into Buddhist shrines, while others are studies in the wonderment of nature alone. From outside the different shapes and sizes of the karsts and islands have inspired local fisherman to give many of them names for the animals and objects they most closely represent. 

Dates: 

November 6-7, 2001

Updates

10/5/01 about 10pm ... This was a private tour, so we asked Reception at the hotel to arrange the pickup for 8am on the 6th. Inexplicably tho', we got a call to come to the lobby 10pm the prior evening. We'd been packing (and updating this web site), and were about ready for bed. Scott went down, and a representative from the tour agency (ODC Tours) was in the lobby. He wanted to go over the tour, and he wanted to be paid. No traveler's cheques, no credit cards. Cash, then and there. I only had about 1/2 in cash, he agreed to take it but either wouldn't give me a receipt, or didn't understand. So this guy I'd never met walked out of the hotel with my $100, and I had nothing to show for it. But like most things here, "no problem". The driver and guide arrived early, and we set off on the ~3 tour drive to Ha Long Bay.

10/6/01 Arrived around lunch time, got brought to what turns out to be the only "tourist class" (known safe to eat) place in the city. Which means we'd be seeing it again the next day (on the way out). Fortunately the food was great and more than ample — about 6 full courses, soup to bananas. After that the guide chartered a boat for us. This boat was about 70' long, with 4 crew members, the guide, and the two of us. Masters of All We Survey. It was a little strange, truth-be-known, but we got used to it. Scott didn't get used to the low ceilings, and bumped his head repeatedly. No apparent damage.

The bay is beautiful. It's full of limestone islands that jet up out of the water, you navigate between them. Several have caves and we toured one of those. The Vietnamese in the area lived in that cave for some time, to avoid the American bombing. 

Dinner (and breakfast the next day) were served on board. Pretty good cookin' for a bunch of 20-something Vietnamese guys — also several courses, including soup and fruit for dessert. We bought a bottle of wine for $12 — approximately 1/3rd of a month's salary for the average Vietnamese.

There are hundreds of fishermen and their families who live full-time on the water, either on regular boats, or house-boats. Most of the time, they line the boats up together and make  a little neighborhood. Think of a downscale version of House Boat Row on Key West. If the neighborhood gets large enough, the government will build a house-boat school for the children.  The residents move all the houseboats about once a year - when the water around them gets too polluted. 

This, along with our our visit to the Economics School, have provided a lot of insight into the way Vietnamese see their world and ours; what life's like, what things cost. More on this topic here.

Photos

Interesting links

http://www.visit-mekong.com/vietnam/jewels/index.htm
http://www.vietnamadventures.com/destinations/hal_about.html
www.1000traveltips.org/halong.htm