“ You have never been to Vietnam if you haven’t been to Halong Bay”
I heard that so many times that I just have to see what really is in Halong Bay that Vietnamese gives so much importance to it. Legend is the limestone formations were created when mythical beasts descended from the heaven spitting rock and fire to protect the Vietnamese aganst the Chinese invaders, at least thats what our guide told us. It is almost tantamount to saying ‘You have never been to the Philippines if you haven’t sung your heart out in videoke at least once’. Yep, every foreigner I meet think all Filipinos can sing, which is good but bad for me but I could not sing to save my life, does that make me less of a Filipinos then?
Halong Bay is located in Quang Ninh province, a good 3 hour drive if you’re driver will drive past 40 km/hr and will not stop for any gift shops along the way. If you book a tour, be prepared to spend a total of 8 hours travelling to and from Halong Bay and an hour of it is actually spent inside a gift shop 🙂
I took the 1 day tour for Halong because I have very limited time in Vietnam and don’t want to spend too much time in one tourist attraction, also, the day tour is a lot cheaper than going for the 2D-1N cruise. I was pretty happy with my decision to get the day tour as I have the attention span of a gnat and would probably lose interest in limestone formation in a day. But if you’re the type who like cruising and watching the sunrise and sunset stuff, then better get the overnight stay on a junk boat, at least to compensate for the long trip. And if you’re thinking that you will be staying in pirate-ship like wooden boat overnight because in the website and brochures it shows as this, then be prepared to be disappointed. All boats are painted white, as mandated by the Vietnamese government – another beautiful tradition being junked in favor of boring uniformity.
The days of brown, wooden junk boats are long gone. Welcome to boring uniformity!
Adventures of El Lakwatsera 