“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy’.”
– Sylvia Plath
Located in northern Vietnam, only 170 km east of Hanoi you can find the Bay of the Descending Dragon. Most commonly known as Ha Long Bay, it is one of the seven new natural wonders of the world according to UNESCO. With around 2,000 small limestone islands scattered about the bay, comprised of different sizes and forms, the views offered are nothing less than magical!
The most common way to visit Ha Long bay is via a junk boat cruise. (If you didn’t know, a junk boat is a type of traditional Chinese sailing ship.) While staying in Hanoi we popped into one of the numerous tour agencies in Old Quarter. With many options available from Hanoi, we decided to go with a one day cruise. We found Sinh Travel agency to be one of the least expensive in the area and through them we booked our one day tour with Dragon King cruises.
We were picked up early morning from Old Quarter in Hanoi then embarked on the 3.5 hour bus ride to Ha Long. Upon arrival to the port, every visitor must buy a sightseeing ticket. At 250,000VND this should already be included in your tour package, and must be shown at all activities throughout the day.
After collecting our tickets, we embarked on the junk boat. With about 20 of us on board, we were immediately greeted with a beautiful spread of seafood for lunch. Offering noodles, spring rolls, mussels, calamari, shrimp, vegetable medley, and more – the Vietnamese truly know how to eat!
While eating lunch we began our trip around the bay. As tasty as the food spread was, it was almost hard to focus as we were passing numerous gorgeous limestone islands. I quickly realized that this wasn’t just a stent of islands we were passing through, this was the start of hours of breathtaking scenic rock formations.
After lunch we moseyed onto the sun deck on the two layer junk boat to continue soaking up the views al fresco. While there are around 2,000 islands only half have been named. The names are pretty straight forward, if it looks like a cat then it’s proclaimed ‘cat island’. Nice and simple! While cruising around we saw kissing rock, incense burner, cock fighting rock, and tons more. It’s almost like shape guessing while cloud gazing but with lush rock islands!
After the food settled we made our way to Luon Cave where we had the option to ride in a bamboo boat or kayak. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to kayak in such a beautiful spot! We disembarked the ship and popped into some kayaks through a small cave that brought us to a secluded inlet surrounded by rock formations.
By far the most serene and breathtaking scenery I’ve ever kayaked in.
Afterwards we set out to explore the rock formations more in depth – by entering one! This one in particular is known to be the longest and biggest grotto in the bay, Sung Sot grotto (translates to ‘Surprising’).
Our tour guide led us through this stunning cave and walking around I was shocked at how large it was. It felt never ending. It had beautiful sandlike ceilings that looked like egg shells. Amazing!
The wild thing is apparently this cave was only discovered recently in 1994 by a fisherman. Can you imagine his shock in casually stumbling upon something so large and majestic?
Makes you think … if there are 2,000 of these rock formations spread along the bay how many more have secret, intricate caves tucked inside them?
Next up, Titop island for an opportunity to cool off and swim. There was a trek to a viewpoint at the top of the island, and apparently this is the site where King Kong was filmed. A ‘few’ steep steps up the mountain and there it was, a breathtaking view offering a full 360 of too many islands to even count!
After our time spent on Titop, we popped back over to the ship where they served us fruit and traditional Vietnamese wine as we cruised our way into the sunset.
Enjoying the last breathtaking views on our cruise back to the port before our bus ride back to Hanoi.
I was completely blown away by the beauty and serenity of Ha Long Bay. Though I tried, my pictures do not capture how amazing it feels to be surrounded by nothing but islands near and far. Truly a natural wonder of the world! I can’t recommend it enough!
Recommendations:
Travel Agency
- The Sinh Tourist Travel. Email: Explorevietnam90@gmail.com
- Dragon King Travel- One day Ha Long tour
