I’d heard great things about Halong Bay and being a UNESCO heritage site, I knew it would be good. All I can say is WOW! It’s a pretty mystical and beautiful place, over 200 islands and thousands of jagged limestone cliffs jutting out of the sea into the jade green waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. On arrival to the marina I was a bit concerned as it was full of tourists and boats everywhere. However, once they loaded us on to a small boat to take us out to our overnight boat, it felt a lot more peaceful and relaxing. Half the tourists are doing the day trip and the others are staying in overnight boats ranging from smaller ones to more luxury and the older junk boats.
Once we disembarked, we were greeted with a drink and cold refreshing towel and went to sit down for lunch. It was pretty grand and formal and there I was in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops! However, despite the appearance of the boat, the staff were all welcoming, laid back and the vibe was really relaxed. I couldn’t wait to see my private room! The boat had 4 floors, the top being the sun deck and my room was on the 3rd floor and pretty big for what I was expecting with it’s own en-suite and private open air balcony. The bed was right by the large window and I just lay there looking out at the amazing scenery as we sailed calmly by the limestone cliffs. I had never been on a cruise before so wasn’t sure what to expect but thankfully as the waters were calm, I had no sea sickness, phew.
We anchored off shore and hopped on a smaller boat and were taken to the eerie but spectacular Sung Sot Cave. You can see the cave entrance from a distance high up which you climb up to and once inside it’s a pretty cool cave system, the third cavern being the most impressive. After the cave, we sailed over to
another island with a beach and climbed the 400+ steps up to the top of the island where there is a small pagoda and amazing views looking out over Halong Bay. It was about 5pm at this time and somewhat cloudy so it was a shame we didn’t get the see the normally amazing sunset.
Back on board, we had a gala dinner which tasted amazing! By the fourth course they kept bringing out more! We then had some somewhat bad but very amusing entertainment from the crew on board. It was so bad it was good! The first girl was a good singer but you get the idea of how it went downhill when the next singers were introduced as ‘the third best singer we have’ etc etc! They had so much enthusiasm though that we couldn’t help but laugh and enjoy it.
I headed up to bed and sat outside on the balcony for a short while looking into the distance and the speckling of lights from other boats. It was pretty eerie being in the bay at night with the shadows of these huge limestone cliffs around but so peaceful at the same time. The gentle rocking of the boat sent me to sleep and I set the alarm early to see if it was clear and if I could see the sunrise as I hadn’t been able to see the sunset. Thankfully it was clear so I put my clothes on and headed up to the sundeck where there were a few others and watched the sun come up, amazing! At 7am the crew gave a Thai Chi lesson so myself and 9 others gave this a go on the sun deck which was fun, even though I had no rhythm or coordination!! Still, it set me up for the day.
It was then off to pack and check out while the boat sailed back to the marina for my onward 4 hour journey by road back to Hanoi. Definitely one ticked off the bucket list with a big tick!
