In the Old Quarter of Hanoi, it seems like every third shop is a booking agent for all of the tours, including those to Halong Bay. I used the one next to the hotel I was staying at to book a 3 day 2 night cruise using the Pearl Cruise line for about $200.
The large bus stopped for me promptly at 7:40 AM and then proceeded over the next hour to make its way up and down the streets of the Old Quarter picking up people for the tours. The guide indicated that large buses like we were in would no longer be allowed to pick up people in the Old Quarter after March 1.
When I visited how Halong Bay in 2006, we drove there on some old roads, but this time it was a freeway all the way out to Halong Bay. When we got there, the flotilla of smaller brown boats I encountered in 2006, was no more.
They’ve been replaced by a new harbor with larger boats all painted white. It was interesting how they orchestrated all of the passengers to various different tours some; one day, two days, or three day, or more.
After a short wait at the Harbor, we boarded a tender that took us out to the Pearl Cruise line where I would be staying for two nights and three days. The boat had a capacity of 24 passengers, but there were only 15 of us and some of those were only staying one night.
It was a grey, drizzly day with the temperature ranging from 55° to 62° as we headed out in the tender to our first island, Ti Top, where we climbed to the top of it to get a view of the entire Bay and a statue dedicated to the first Russian cosmonaut.
In addition to climbing up for the view, we were invited to go swimming by our guide, but nobody from our group took him up on it in this kind of weather.
We next visited another island where we explored the Sung Sot Cave with its amazing formations of stalagtites and stalagmites.
We returned to the Pearl Cruise boat and joined our guide, Cam, in a happy hour up on the deck. He showed us how to make spring rolls so we gave it a try. Most people endured the cold weather so they could get the two for one happy hour drinks.
Cam entertained us with a little dance he had made up, but it was hard to maintain a party atmosphere when it was so cold and drizzly out.
Fortunately, the state rooms were really nice, and they had an AC unit that converted to heat which I promptly turned on.
The following morning, we headed out for some kayaking and exploring some of the cave islands in the area. Instead of kayaking, I chose the boat since it looked like returning, Kayakers had gotten wet.
After going through the cave, we stopped by the Ha Long Pearl Farm to learn how they harvest and seed the oysters for pearls. Apparently, of all the seeding they do, only 6% end up as valuable pearls.
Of course, the big draw there was to sell pearl merchandise.
After that, we return to Ti Top Island, where some of the people they were staying just one night left us and another group joined us.
That evening, we tried our luck at catching squid, but had no luck.
On our last day, we visited Luon Cave for another opportunity to kayak or boat through the cave to the Lagoon, where we spotted several monkeys.
The two women behind me were from Italy and they had come to Vietnam or some medical tourism. The one on the right just got done doing a full facelift and a one on the left just had some lip plumping.
Everybody was taking pictures of this monkey.
After that, it was time to go to a place where we could go swimming, and only six hardy souls took up that challenge, including this one guy who did a fancy dive despite the cruise warning him not to.
We then returned to the harbor as the gray skies opened up and we began to get some rain so it was good that we were leaving when we did.
Waiting for my bus back to Hanoi, I met up again with these two Americans that I had seen in Hanoi, and they had just finished bicycling down to Halong Bay.
When I got back to Hanoi, I checked into the AncyyA Tam Tam Hotel—a much better hotel than before. The last place I stayed in Hanoi. I could feel the bedsprings, and this one was so much more luxurious at a lower price of $17 per night in the Old Quarter.
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