Halong Bay, Vietnam (June 2018)

Three weeks ago, my wife traveled to Hoi An, Halong Bay, and a brief stay in Hanoi. Today, I'll tell you about our wonderful trip to Halong Bay. Next time, I'll let you know about the very underrated city of Hoi An.

Before going to Halong Bay I heard a lot about it. Many students talked about it and one Kiwi friend mentioned how she had a blast when she and her husband went there last year. Because of hearing about it so much, I knew it would be nice but I didn't want the hype to cause me to have high expectations of this place.

While my wife and I were booking flights and hotels for Vietnam, I told my wife that we should wait until we are in Vietnam in order to book our tickets to Halong Bay. Why? I wanted to hear what the locals said about the place first and more importantly, every hotel and travel agency in Hanoi will try to offer you the best deal there. Sure enough. We tried our own hotel and they gave us some options but they seemed a bit expensive, so we tried two travel agencies. The first one gave us the same options and although the prices were slightly cheaper, we tried another one. We decided on staying to get a 1-night/2-day cruise and it was rated three stars. The deal we got was pretty amazing. We paid $115 which included all of our meals, a cabin, kayaking, hiking, swimming, fishing, and exploring a cave.

From our hotel, our guide, Thang (from Legacy Legend Cruises) picked us up at 8:00am at the Hanoi Space Hotel. He was a great guide because he was funny, patient, and very detailed into explaining what we were to do while we were on our cruise. He even had to wait for a group of five Chinese people that were still hiking while the rest of us were sitting on the boat wondering where they were. The rest of us went back to our cruise boat while Thang kept searching for them. What a tough job that a tour guide has!

After we arrived at our spot in Halong Bay, we went hiking. From there we took a long 4.5 hour ride in a van to the city of Halong. But the ride wasn't so bad. We had one rest stop where you can go to the bathroom, but some snacks, or buy some souvenirs. On top of that we saw some beautiful landscape along the way:

On the way to Halong Bay

Once we got there, we got out of our vans, and boarded our boat:

About ready to board our boat

Here's a look at our cabin. It wasn't huge but it was comfortable and since we were on a three-star cruise, we couldn't complain. We got toothpaste, shampoo, two cheap toothbrushes, and a bed that was comfortable enough:

Our cabin

And then we were on our way with some other vessels along the bay:

Just leaving the city of Halong

Next, we could start to see the limestone karsks and islets approaching in the distance:

Limestone ahead!

Limestone karsks and isles

And of course we had to take pictures while on the sundeck of the boat:

After a great lunch, we got into a smaller boat and headed to one of the islets to go hiking. Once we got there, we saw a statue of a Soviet astronaut, Gherman Titov, which was put on the islet in 2015. He apparently contributed to the reunification and liberation of Vietnam. You can learn more about him in this article.

Ti Top (Titov) Island

Once we finished a great lunch, we got into a smaller boat and headed to one of the islets to go hiking. Immediately after we got there, we saw a statue of a Soviet astronaut, Gherman Titov, which was put on the islet in 2015. He apparently contributed to the reunification and liberation of Vietnam. You can learn more about him in this article.

From there we hiked up the mountain, which took us about 40 minutes coming up and down. The view from the top was pretty amazing!

We then made our way down but we didn't have time to swim at Ti Top Island since we would go to another area to swim and kayak at. Eunhee and I were hot from the heat and humidity so we couldn't wait to get into the water. From there, most of us took the small boat back to our cruise boat to get changed except the group of five Chinese people that Thang couldn't find (as mentioned earlier). We rested for about an hour in our cabins before Thang let us know that kayaking was the next activity. All of the people from our cruise boat got back into the small boat and had a nice ride to our kayaking area.

After we were told what we could do, Eunhee and I got into our kayak and we just admired the scenery all around us. Since Eunhee wasn't a great swimmer, I would joke around and rock the boat a bit to try and freak her out. After a couple of times, I thought that was enough and let her enjoy the scenery. Haha!

Sadly, Eunhee couldn't get into the water since our kayaking area was in the middle of the ocean. However, I had to jump in to get refreshed and the water was really nice! I just wish Eunhee could have enjoyed it with me.

After we swam and kayaked, we went back to our cruise boat to rest. Dinner would be coming up next! We got on the sundeck and took in the beautiful scenery at night and were mesmerized by how quiet it was. We could see various other vessels lit up as it got darker and darker.

Halong Bay at Twilight

Getting darker

Then we ate dinner and rested before we tried our shot at squid fishing. Squid fishing was pretty simple. We just got a pole, no bait, and a hook. It was like competing in the lottery. The chances of catching something was REALLY small. But lo and behold, Eunhee caught a squid and she was the ONLY one on our boat that was able to.

A very tiny squid that Eunhee caught!

Just before she caught the squid

After squid fishing, we went to sleep and rested for the next day. The next morning, we had breakfast and then went back onto the small boat and headed to a cave. Eunhee and I were both expecting the cave to be small and interesting but we didn't expect how big it was going to be. We were pretty stunned at how tall and wide it was with various stalactites and stalagmites lining up the astounding mystery of God's creation. We were thoroughly impressed and it was definitely the cherry on top of this fantastic experience. Here are some various pictures of what we saw:

Myself exploring a cave!

We are so short compared to the height of the cave!

How enormous and beautiful it was!

Outside the cave

Outside the cave

After we went caving, we had lunch and headed back to Halong Bay. It was totally worth the experience and I totally recommend anyone to give it a shot. You won't be disappointed!

Scott Worden (The L.A./Seoul Guy)

Instagram: l.a.seoulguy