Halong Bay has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is located at the Quang Ninh province in Vietnam. It is also one of the recently declared 7 New Wonders of Natures, where our own Palawan Underground River is also a winner.
We had a day tour to Halong Bay since were running on a strict schedule. We only had to spend a day in Hanoi to catch the train at night going to Ho Chi Minh City. So we decided on going to Halong Bay that doing a city tour in Hanoi.Halong Bay is about 3 1/2 to 4 hours away from Hanoi.
If your planning longer stays in the Hanoi area, you should consider having the 2 days/1 night or 3 days/2 night stay but costs double and triple the money.
How to get there:
You may book a trip to your hotel or any travel agency. I advice that you book online and ahead of time whether through the hotel or travel agency. Before going on this trip, I tried haggling and it worked! Until I found out that one of our companion booked in another hotel. But anyways, I haggled and every hotel has different price, they may say that its a promo for booking early in their hotel or you just want the price to lower and since they want you to book in their hotel, they will give you lower price. The lowest price a hotel has given me was 18USD per person. But the one that our companion booked was 25USD per person.
What will happen during the tour?
First, they will pick you up in your hotel around 8am, give you a bottle of water, have a 30 minute bus stop where you can shop and eat, then arrival at the port. When you aboard the junk (yes, they call the boat, junk), they will serve you with food first, and the food was DELICIOUS and let you take pictures.
A stop to one of the islands, and visit a cave, the Thien Cung grotto. It was alright, I'm not a big fan of caves but I appreciate the formation of stalagmites and stalactites and how great God is!
For 1USD you may take a trip around the area having a Halong bay local tour you to other caves. Other tour also include kayaking in the area. You may swim in he area, specially when you've rented a kayak.
My advice is to bring extra bottle of water and bring extra food. Have in insect repelant. Bring a swim suit, sunglass, a visor or hat or even umbrella for the sun.
Quan Vinh Port
Junks
Food served in the junk
The entrance to the cave
The community in Halong Bay
Fruit Vendor
superjola.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment