Before heading to South East Asia, I'd hoped this would be one of the highlights of the trip for me. I wasn’t disappointed. We were collected from our hotel and headed west on a five-hour bus journey to Ha Long. The Vietnamese government had closed the border by this point to the Chinese, meaning our bus was completely empty apart from myself and Kristen. On the way, we stopped at a factory where they cut gemstones and sculpt marble statues. The staff included a high number of individuals with disabilities who use their skills to stitch paintings by weaving thousands of pieces of string together; the end result is amazing. We bought a jade bracelet each for around £15 pounds that was well worth the money.
The journey was relatively smooth with many rice fields to observe in the distance. As we came closer to Ha Long, you start to see huge limestone mounds rising out of the earth. It really does build the expectation levels before you get into the bay. At the docks, there are many hotels being constructed in a French renaissance style. At this moment, it is pretty much a construction site so there was not much to take in. According to our guide, the government and a wealthy investor are pouring money into the bay so they can increase the revenue from tourists, who come in large numbers all year round. In 2018, 12.2 million people visited the bay. That’s an average of 33.5k per day, incredible!
We boarded the Halong Majestic Legend Cruise with only 3 other tourists from Myanmar. They were retired geologists who had been working in Malaysia for most of their working lives. We all had free upgraded rooms due to the lack of passengers which was a real bonus for us. We had a private balcony with an ensuite shower, great! The food on the overnight cruise was fantastic. There were many different dishes to try, it was too much in all honesty with there being 20 dishes between 2 people in each sitting. I like food, but this was on a completely different level.
One of the main places we visited was Ti Top Island. It was named in honor of Russian cosmonaut Gherman Titov who visited Halong Bay in 1962. With around 400 steps, it’s worth the climb to the viewpoint where you get a great view of the bay. It was quite cold and overcast but I decided to brave it out and go in the water for a quick swim next to the small beach that is at the bottom of the climb.
We went to a floating pearl farm to find out the process they go through before ending up in jewellery.The oyster gets inseminated with an irritant, this makes the oyster secrete layers of aragonite and conchiolin, the same materials that also make up its shell. This creates a material called nacre, more commonly known as mother-of-pearl that finally ends up being removed once fully formed. This process can take years.
After looking at the display of pearls, we were able to go kayaking in the bay. With fewer numbers of tourists due to visa restrictions, we had the whole bay to ourselves at that time to explore and enjoy. It was so peaceful and quiet. The water was emerald green from the dilution of the limestone rocks. We were on the water for around 45 minutes and were lucky enough to see a jellyfish before returning to the floating jetty. That evening, we did a quick cooking class rolling rice paper in preparation for another 20 dish banquet. I really wished the portions were more modest. We toasted over a bottle of scotch with our new crew mates before watching the crew fish for squid once it had gone dark.
The final part of our tour was to go to Sung Sot Cave. There were more steps again to reach the entrance but we were well conditioned by this point. The cave system is one of the largest in the bay and worth the visit to see the impressive formations and walkways inside.
The package for the tour cost £72 each including all the food and activities. I thought that was a terrific value to see one of the World’s most famous natural wonders for this price. If you want to see the floating villages, unfortunately, the government has removed them all now which is a shame.
