Ha Long Bay

One of our most anticipated destinations in Vietnam was Ha Long Bay. In addition to being yet another UNESCO World Heritage site that we’ve been fortunate enough to visit, it’s also our fourth New7Wonders of Nature. We decided to splurge and spend two nights on a fancy boat to get the most out of the trip. We recommend going for at least one night, but two is probably best so you don’t feel rushed, especially with the long drive from Hanoi and back that you’ll more than likely take. Over the three days, we visited some caves, viewpoints, a pearl farm, and also went kayaking a few times. But, the highlight was simply seeing all of the limestone karsts and isles dotting the bay.

It’s definitely a beautiful area, but it does have some downsides that we were prepared for. The main issue is water pollution. We didn’t even try to swim in the water, and even kayaking in it was not that enjoyable at times. Apparently, they remove two tons of trash from the water every day so it could be a lot worse, but I think they’re fighting a losing battle and should do something to prevent it instead. There are also too many boats in the bay, which isn’t that terrible when you’re on your boat, but once you visit one of the popular stops, you’re then swarmed by way too many tourists. But of course, I shouldn’t complain about there being too many tourists when I’m one of them.

On our three-day Ha Long Bay cruise, we went on several excursions. On our first day, we went to Titov Island, which has a great viewpoint at the top. The walk up was slow going with the masses of tourists, but at least you didn’t get out of breath! Kayaking at Luon Cave was our next stop – not really a cave, but an entrance tunnel carved out of rock leading to a lake. It was an adventure going through the entrance on a tiny kayak since it’s easy to get caught between larger boats going in opposite directions.

On the second day, we got up early to do Tai chi, which wasn’t very exciting since it only lasted a few minutes and most of it was watching the guy demonstrate moves. Then we headed to Ho Dong Tien (Fairy Lake). After visiting Phong Nha, the caves in Ha Long Bay were underwhelming, but I think you would be satisfied if they were the only caves you saw on your trip. Then we did some more kayaking, and the trash in the water was definitely the worst here, so we opted to stop at a cave and walk through it to a nice view on the other side. After kayaking, we went on a small boat ride in an area that was quite beautiful, but I lost the GoPro memory card so we don’t have any videos. Our last stop of the day was at a pearl farm, which was a quick stop and somewhat interesting but nothing to go out of your way for unless you want to give someone a pearl necklace.

On our last day, we stopped at the artificially lit Sung Sot (Surprising) cave, which is the biggest cave that we saw in Ha Long Bay. The colorfully illuminated phallic rock formation, a fertility symbol to the locals, was the most memorable part.

Overall, the excursions weren’t that spectacular, but we didn’t expect them to be. I guess that’s not a glowing review, but the whole experience of our cruise was still positive.