Just imagine that you spend a night on a boat in a cozy cabin being surrounded by 1,900-2000 rocky islands and islets with caves and grottoes .. And in the morning what wakes you up is an unearthly view from your cabin window and it turns out to be one of 7 New Wonders of Nature… Ha Long Bay or Descending Dragon Bay is situated in the Northeast/Dong Bac region of Vietnam and it has been considered the UNESCO World Heritage site since 1994. This incredible place is visited daily by a large number of tourists, who most often go there for 4/6/8h trips looking from the distance like herrings packed in small boats entering the bay. They all are taken to the same place, so called Surprising Cave, the most spectacular cave in the bay. We did not want to make this kind of hop-on-hop-off trip in a cramped boat. Instead we decided to establish a closer contact with the Ha Long Bay and spend there almost two days and one night – the boat cruise provided us with many unforgettable memories!
You already know us quite well: we always haggle, and this time we also wanted to bargain as much as possible, the price was extremely overrated so we didn’t want to give in. We chose a 2 star boat: Moonlight Cruise, for which the travel agencies were quoting us 95dolars per person, then the price went down to 80, then 75, then 70 dolars, until we finally lowered it to the ‘’planned’’ 60dolars for the whole cruise including all the attractions (the details will folllow). In the end, we paid 65 dolars per person as we wanted to book also a minivan to Hanoi from Bai Chay and have it available right after the cruise. Vietnam in terms of ripping tourists off outdoes other Asian countries – the prices of tours are extremely high everywhere! On our cruise we were with people who did not haggle and paid even 90-100USD excluding the minivan to Hanoi – do not let to be ripped off – taking our example you can see that travel agencies want to earn 40 dolars more than they should take from one person!
But back to the program of activities during the cruise – once you decide to take it, then believe us that you will remember this experience for the rest of your life! Here below you will find a picture with the whole program set from Hanoi (we started our tour in Bai Chay – they picked us up around 12 o’clock when the minivan packed with tourists from Hanoi reached our city).
We agree that the tour schedule looks quite busy. Of course you always have an option of buying a cruise for 3 days and 2 nights and you will have the same programme spread out in 3 days time. Here you can see how the cruise is advertised in travel agencies:
And this is how the boat looked live:)
Our cabin was really nice: equipped with air conditioning, a private bathroom, towels, basic toiletries, toothbrushes and a toothpaste.
The food on the boat was delicious! Many options to choose from: fish, pork, spring rolls, chicken, beef, hot cabbage, fried vegetables: beans, onions, carrots; seafood, tofu, rice, pasta, French fries, soup with seafood. In addition, vegetarians also got individual meals (important to raise it when you buy the tour!).
And this is our chef onboard, or rather 2 chefs:)
The cost of beer on a boat is $ 2, but beware! – They add 10% service charge! It is worth mentioning that in a small shop or a supermarket you will buy beer for 50cents. And you’d better buy some water before boarding up the boat if you really need it as on the boat they only have sweet soft drinks: Sprite, Coca-Cola, Schweppes…
Here’s how the Surprising Cave looked like – a huge, beautifully lit cave with plenty of stalactites and stalagmites and rock formations resembling different animals: elephants, turtles and others. The below specimen carved in a rock by nature caused a lot of speculations: we were assured that it’s a ring finger, hmm, and we had some doubts. What about you? What can you see in the below photo? 😛
A very interesting and useful point of the trip was the visit to at Pearl Farm, where pearls are produced. The entire process can take from 4-8 years depending on the size of an oyster shell, the bigger it is, the greater the pearls it will produce, but it requires a lot of time. Besides, after checking the shell inside after so many years there is never a guarantee that it will have any pearl inside..
Cultured Pearls result from a small irritant (usually a natural shell bead or a piece of fleshy tissue) implanted into living oysters. The pearl of the lowest quality costs 10-15 dolars – how can you know that it is of less quality? Because of its imperfect surface or colour, you can easily spot that it requires polishing. And here is how oysters are ‘’tored’’ underwater and left there for 4-8 years:
Of course, the prices in the jewellery store at the farm can knock you flat:
To sum up, this fantastic experience will long remain in our memories! And the view from the boat accompanying us for almost two days!
If you decide to take such a cruise in January, be aware that after 4pm it’s quite chilly on the boat and you will need a jacket when sitting on a roof terrace.
Below: photos with various attractions in and out of the boat:
How to get to Bai Chay?
If you want to do it the cheapest possible way and at the same time observe local people you have to take a local bus from Gia Lam bus station in Hanoi and prepare yourself mentally that you will not get to Bai Chay bus station in 5h (like the locals say) but around 7h. From Bai Chay bus station you have to hop on a bus no. 3 and say that you want to get off at Vuon Dao Street (the whole trip cost us about 86,000 dong / 4USD). Oh, we must admit it was dragging a little bit. Why? Well, we didn’t leave Hanoi even after 1 hour even though we traveled at 5:30 in the morning. Apart from us in the bus there were 3 people and the driver still wanted to fill up the bus, so driving 20km / h he was asking all the pedestrians on the way if by any Chance there was anybody who wanted to get on the bus. If you do not have time during your stay in Vietnam for such an ” extended ” bus journey, it’a better to buy a ticket for a minivan at a travel agency. Probably you are wondering: ‘What were you doing at 5:00 in the morning at the bus station in Hanoi?’ ‘Calm down, that night wecame back from Sapa and got to Hanoi by a night train 🙂 We got off earlier at Gia Lam Railway Station (one stop before Ga Hanoi Railway Station) and then walking 500m we got to the bus station with the same name where we purchased tickets for a local bus to Bai Chay, a city located near Ha Long Bay.
Where to stay in Bai Chay and what are the costs?
We can recommend you Four Seasons Ha Long Hostel where we stayed for $ 5 per person. What was included in the price? A room with air conditioning, private bathroom, TV, towels, toiletries, refrigerator, heated floor and breakfast! Not bad, huh? 🙂
What to see in Bai Chay?
Actually we didn’t particlarly craved for visiting the town, our goal was to get to the highest vantage point from which you could admire the rocky islands and islets of Ha Long Bay, see the Bai Chay city from the top and capture the sunset! We managed to do all of these 🙂
How to do it efficiently when having only 2 hours and 10km to traverse and doing it cheap? Well, get along with some motorbiker. One guy took us for 100,000 dong / 4,50USD and was later waiting for us an hour near the rock that we had to climb ourselves as it was not possible to go there by motorbike. As you are moving up to the vantage point you will be stopped by a local woman who will charge you 10,000 dong / 0,40USD for passing through her backyard. The route is marked and the entrance gate looks like this:
And now we’re sharing with you the photos which we hope that encourage you to visit this place personally. We could not wait to finally be there standing over Descending Dragon Bay, and when we got there, it seemed even more mesmerizing to us! It’s one of those amazing places that look much better when seen live rather than in pictures, you stand there and do not believe that it could be so beautiful! One of our dreams has just got fulfilled 🙂
Witam,
Czy jestescie w stanie powiedziec, gdzie w Bai Chay kupiliscie wycieczke? Albo z jakiej byla firmy? Domyslam sie, ze na kazdym rogu ktos oferuje taka wycieczke, wiec chcialabym jakos ograniczyc wybor. Czy mozecie cos podpowiedziec, jak podjac decyzje co do wycieczki i na kogo sie zdecydowac,
Pozdrawiam,
Joanna
Witaj Asia! Oczywiscie 🙂 Kupilismy ją w miejscu, gdzie spalismy czyli w Ha Long Four Seasons, w hostelu znajdującym się niemal w samym centrum Bai Chay. Ogólnie tak jak pisalismy wszędzie przeginaja z początkową ceną 90-100USD/os, więc zbijajcie cenę jak tylko się da, bo gosciu w obiekcie, w którym bylismy też chciał nas wyrobić, ale zmięknął jak zaczęlismy porównywać ceny w innych miejscach na tej samej ulicy. Jesli chcecie dokładnie taką samą wycieczkę jak my mielismy, to musicie zaznaczyć, że chcecie jechać ‘Moonlight Cruise’, bo różne firmy organizują takie rejsy, są też te bardziej luksusowe, które kosztują dużo drożej, ale są tez rejsy zdezelowanymi łodziami, więc jak będziecie się już upierali przy cenie 50USD na osobę to cos Wam pewnie znajdą, ale będziecie niezadowoleni z jakosci. Trzymamy kciuki i życzymy wyprawy marzeń 🙂
Kiedy byliście w zatoce Ha Long? Jaka pora roku? Wybieram się tam pod koniec grudnia. Co jeszcze ciekawego możecie polecić w Wietnamie?
Czesc! W Zatoce Halong bylismy w połowie stycznia tego roku, więc było nieco chłodno, w zasadzie to mielismy szczescie, że temperatura wahała się miedzy 18 a 20 stopni i swieciło slonce, bo znajomi kilka dni wczesniej natrafili na deszcze i 16-17 stopni. Zdecydowanie warto się wybrać z Hanoi nie tylko do Bai Chay nad zatoke Ha Long, ale i do Sapa (np. nocnym pociagiem) badz Ba Be do wiejskich górzystych terenów z polami ryżowymi, nie pomin też klimatycznego miasteczka: Hoi An i jego okolicy (np. Da Nang). Można wpasc na chwilę do Da Lat (chociaz ogolnie wywarlo na nas slabe wrazenie, ale dla budowli takich jak Crazy House warto – jesli lubisz architekture a la barcelonski Gaudi), a jesli juz dotrzesz do Sajgonu na poludniu, gdzie pobedziesz chociaz 1-2dni, to warto lokalnym lotem dostac sie na wyspę Phu Quoc, żeby wypocząć 🙂 W polowie długosci Wietnamu mozna tez się dostać do jaskini Phong Nha (nie bylismy tam, ale podobno warto). Z niektorych miejsc znajdziesz relacje tutaj: https://www.kuukandtravel.com/category/azja/wietnam/ , życzymy wspaniałych wrażeń !!! 🙂
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