Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and translates as “the bay of the descending dragon”. It is on most people’s “must do” list when visiting Northern Vietnam. The trips aren’t cheap, especially the ones where you stay aboard for a couple of nights but a lot of people say that it more than lives up to the hype and so it is worth it…
Personally, with the power of hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have bothered. Don’t get me wrong, it was a lovely trip, nice people, good views, super fun kayaking in a cyclone (yes, we were kayaking in that!) but it was very expensive. A once in a lifetime trip I suppose but it could easily be ruined by the weather (particularly if it’s bad but not quite bad enough for the trip to be cancelled).
Really, my only niggle is the price, is it a lovely place and we had a fun time. On a friend’s recommendation, we chose to sail with Paloma Cruises, as with a lot of these tourist trips, there are so many companies and cruises to choose from, we found that each of them offer pretty much the same thing; welcome drinks, tai chi on deck in a morning, kayaking, ‘cookery class’, squid fishing and visiting a few caves. The time of year plays a part in the experience too, apparently, one of the areas we went kayaking in is full of jellyfish in summer (May to July), would have been cool to see.
Our trip in photos:
Chillin’ on deck:
Visit to the floating fishing village:
Views and sunsets over Halong Bay:
Chefs special steamed shrimps:
Sung sot cave:
All the other pictures!
