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Woke up at 6am, opened up the curtains, and immediately, I was caught in surprise. I didn’t know that my room was directly facing the east!
See! What a trilling morning to begin my day in a foreign country with a beautify sunrise view.
According to the second day of our itinerary, it was a day trip to one of the UNESCO world heritage spots - Ha Long Bay, located in the Gulf of Tonkin, northeastern part of Vietnam.
Journey to Ha Long Bay
From Hanoi to Ha Long Bay, it was a 3.5 hours journey by bus via highway, with 2 stops along the way. However, don’t pay high expectation by the word “highway”; the highway in Vietnam is like some of the better-built old trunks in Peninsula Malaysia.
While the first toilet stop was at a typical souvenir center preparing to “slaughter” tourists with inflated prices, the second stop was quite interesting. The second stop was at a road-side stall selling pineapples and dried lychees.
There was this pretty Vietnamese lady selling pineapples.
At the back of the pineapple stall was a small residence of wooden houses, and there was this simple toilet. Since there was only 1 sheltered toilet, so we leave it to the girls. Guys le?? Look for a tree at the nearby bush and pee lo..
They were still using traditional wood-fire cooking. All the pots were burnt to black.
Probably The Only Place with 1 Thousand Junks
Due to the surge in touristic attention and principal of supply-demand economic model, the local business entities stared deploying a lot of junks into Ha Long Bay, aiming to maximize their returns. In order to minimize the potential environmental and heritage value degradation, Vietnamese government has enforced a law to cap the maximum number of registered junks at 1000 units. If not because of this regulation, I think it would be practically impossible to take a seascape picture without capturing any junk into the view.
Boarding to a junk.
Doesn’t it look like a typical war scene in olden time?
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Lunch on the boat with steamed prawns, stuffed crabs, French fries, clams and spring rolls.
What to Do when You’re Cruising at Ha Long Bay?
Basically, besides admiring the limestone islets and islands, there’s nothing much to be done on the boat, except these:
- photography, if you enjoy taking pictures
- cam-whoring, if you enjoy seeing yourself in pictures
- sleeping
- sun-bathing
- playing cards
Thien Cung Cave
As part of the itinerary, we’ve got a stop at one of the limestone caves - Thien Cung Cave.
Could you spot the dragon?
The stalactites and stalagmites, accompanied with cool lighting, naturally created illustrations of some animals and Buddha imageries.
My Opinions on Ha Long Bay
While the spectacular limestone islets and islands are undeniably beautiful, but I think Hoa Lu Tam Coc offers a more picturesque view. I will blog about Hoa Lu Tam Coc in the next post. If you’ve been to Phi Phi Island (Thailand), then probably the limestones at Ha Long Bay is nothing too surprising. The distinct difference though, is that the Ha Long Bay sunken limestone plateau connects all the way to Guilin in China.
Anyway, if you’re visiting Hanoi and you have never been to Ha Long Bay, then I think it’s still a place that we should go once in our lifetime. If there’s choice, I would opt for an over-night package though; staring at the starry night on a junk would be an interesting experience.
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seemed like u had a fair good fun. i went there earlier this year. and i thought its ok, but like you said, phi phi island is great. in fact, i think our very own langkawi boat ride is also very good indeed.
but of course, going here once is a good experience - the ‘ive done it’ thing!
QuaChee:
haha ya.. so to say “i’ve been there” when ppl mention about Ha Long Bay.
thx for ur Hangzhou and Shanghai posts; your articles will be useful for me