We were extremely hesitant about booking the Halong Bay tour because we had heard of people arriving at the port that is located three hours away from Hanoi and not getting the boat or services that were paid for. There are so many tour agencies to choose from and without the port nearby to verify the boat the only thing to go by is the pictures you are shown. Our entire time in Vietnam we used a tour company named Sinh Café to bus between cities or for city tours. It was a company recommended in our guidebook and it conveniently had locations in every city on the tourist trail. The weird thing about Hanoi was there were literally hundreds of tour companies called Sinh café, with the same logo. Now obviously not all the companies are legit, other companies used the name Sinh Café to capitalize on their good reputation. We decided to ask some guests in our hotel if they were happy with the tour that they booked through the agency in our hotel, all of the guests had positive feedback so we decided to give them our business and book the Halong Bay excursion.
The boats are known as “junks” and ours thankfully turned out to be great. We were a small group of eight passengers and our group leader was a kooky Vietnamese dude who asked us to call him Maverick. Maverick A.K.A. a character from the movie "Top Gun" (One of his favourite movies along with Sleepless in Seattle and Face Off) Our junk came equipped with a top deck for sunbathing, a dining room and cabins with two double beds air conditioning and private bathroom and A LOT of staff. I’m still not clear what each staff member did on the boat. We definitely didn’t go hungry on board, the cooks made us amazing Vietnamese meals.
On our first day we took a three hour minibus to the port where we boarded the junk. Thankfully our small group was composed of great people and almost immediately we became friends with a couple named Ray and Tara who were on their honeymoon. (Hi guys I told you we would do a shout out!) They were really nice people who had just started their trip of six months through South East Asia. For the next while we all sat and chat and became acquainted with each other. We docked at the caves and Maverick lead us off the boat and up to the entrance. Honestly, I was surprised at how cool the caves were. They were huge and as we walked from area to area each was lit up with coloured spotlights, which gave the stalactites an extra creepy quality. After about an hour of walking through the caves we were overheating and ready to board the junk again. In a few minutes we set sail and were off to another area to kayak around the bay. During this trip I have somehow been able to do the things that neither interest me or that I am afraid to do. A perfect example is kayaking, for some reason I have always been opposed to kayaking. Actually the kayaking was another highlight of Halong Bay. We were told to be out for an hour and we could basically go anywhere we wanted. It was amazing to be so close to the islands, each one standing so high above the sea level and the rock faces were rough and jaggedly shaped by the tide. The turquoise water was bright and completely still without any waves. We had information from Maverick that there were caves and we knew the general direction to where they were. Eventually Andrew and I found a small opening in one of the islands and we kayaked through. The water in Halong Bay was very calm the entire time, but in the cave it was dark, damp and eerily still. We both admitted it was a freaky feeling to be gliding on the water in dead silence.
After kayaking it was time to sail out to another section of the bay to go swimming and to anchor for the night. Maverick told us that it was ok to jump off the top desk into the water… everyone stood looking overboard with hesitation because of the height. Of course Andrew was the first to do a running leap over the railing and plummet into the water. As the night began to fall, we enjoyed a great dinner and some drinks and laughs. It was a clear night and the stars were bright, what a great way to spend an evening.
It was an early rise the following morning and we set out sailing towards the port. We had a few hours to relax on the junk then we arrived at the port for lunch then it was another three hour ride back to Hanoi. We agree that the experience was great, and we are glad that we were fortunate enough to see Halong Bay.
Click on the picture below to see the album in Picasa
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| Halong Bay, Vietnam |
~Nicola
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