Halong Bay
One of the 'must do' things in Vietnam is to go for a boat ride on Halong Bay. There are several ways to do it, to list a few:
- Just do a day trip.
- Overnight on a boat.
- Overnight on Cat Ba Island.
We opted to overnight on a boat and Peter did the booking over the internet.
From Hanoi to Halong Bay
The trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay takes from three to four hours. The road is fairly flat but the journey has its risks because of the driving habits of all the drivers here. There is much to see along the way as the scenery changes from rice paddies to small and big towns. You may see things like motorbikes carrying cages of ducks or chickens. You may even see motorbikes carrying up to six large pigs or two dead cows. The instances we saw the pigs were alive but the cows were dead and gutted.
You may even see your small bus overtaking another bigger bus and coming in the opposite direction another small bus doing the same thing and the traffic just merges again with the blast of horns.
The tour drivers usually stop at a craft store set up to support handicapped persons. The goods on offer include silk scarves and ties, silk embroidered paintings, lacquer ware, gold and silver jewellery and general souvenirs.
Halong Bay
Halong Bay is a beautiful place with smooth seas and thousands of limestone islands of various shapes and sizes. It gas floating villages and pearl farms and scores of junks with no sails plying the tourist trade.
The boat we stayed on was called the Emmeraude, a converted paddle wheel steamer. This is the most expensive boat doing the Halong Bay scene that we know of and the service, accommodation, food and organisation were excellent. The boat did not cover a lot of territory and only one stop was made to visit one of the many caves in the area. We visited Surprise Cave along with 20 or so junks. The junks could tie up at the piers around the cave whereas the Emmeraude had to be moored outside the island complex and use a large covered punt to transport the guests to and from the island.
The weather during the trip was overcast the whole time and drizzling for most of the time. Even so the area looked beautiful and picturesque. It would be great to go there in warm dry weather and spend a night on the top deck.
There was a mixture of English and French speaking guests and the cabin crew could pretty well communicate with both.
Created on 02/20/2007 12:02 AM by Phil
Updated on 03/27/2007 09:12 AM by Phil
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