Magic Gate Vaio Driver

Baie Sapa

For Halong Bay, we chose to go through an agency certainly a little more expensive, but recommended to put the odds on our side and try to avoid scams, if Many in the region. We left for 3 days 2 nights, including one in the middle of the bay on a junk. After a few hours minibus from Hanoi, we reached the port of Halong City , which go all the boats that cross the bay. Our passage through the flash city was enough to understand that she had no interest and very like to Siem Reap in its worst days. We did not linger and have loads in our junk, which soon became the head of the bay. The sky was heavily overcast, so unfortunately, showers and many have followed, hiding the limestone formations that make the bay so famous, letting them emerge through the mists of time to time in a superb atmosphere Pirates of the Caribbean.

Halong Bay in the mist

After sailing for a while, we landed at the foot of the cave Hang Sung Sot , dug into the limestone, which has beautiful stalactites and other geological curiosities. Unfortunately the visit was marred somewhat by the manner in which the Vietnamese feed location, has great shots of bulldozer razing everything in their path, to chart a path that tourists should absolutely follow (otherwise probably be shot). It is almost like a Disneyland ... Despite all the cave is beautiful, too bad we is not in Laos, we could explore it on as large buoys in Vang Vieng, without being guided like sheep, it would have been much more fun!

Cave Hang Sung Sot

View from the exit of the cave

After this call, we re-embarked on our boat and have joined our anchorage for the night. We then took the kayaks to go for a walk in the neighborhood at the foot of limestone cliffs. We found a small tunnel in the rock allow us to access the heart of a beautiful cove with turquoise waters, where it was the single point of access, surrounded by magnificent cliffs. Swim almost alone in the middle of this gigantic natural swimming pool has obviously been forgotten (for a while anyway) all the disappointments accumulated recently in Vietnam. Back in our junk, we could admire the sunset from the upper deck, which also serves as a nice diving! Our junk

Navigation amidst limestone formations Our anchorage for the night Sunset Bay

The next morning We headed to the island of Cat Ba by far the largest of Halong Bay. We did a walk of 2 hours on this island, within the national park of the same name, surrounded by dense vegetation populated by spiders quite impressive. This "trek" as the guide described him had unfortunately not a huge interest and is used mainly for the agency to furnish a portion of the second day. So our boat was later recovered to take us to take our lunch at another anchorage, yet surrounded by beautiful limestone formations. After eating, we took our kayaks to walk as before in this impressive setting.

National Park Cat Ba ... ... and spiders

Navigation up our mooring for lunch

It was then time to take the port management of Cat Ba, where we disembarked to join the hotel where we were to spend the night. According to our standards, it was approaching the luxury, we must also say that just generally very little! We have certainly appreciated the good buffet breakfast the next day it makes you want to travel with a budget slightly less emissions! Cat Ba in itself does not present a huge interest, the city is highly touristic and more like a city of the Riviera's another thing, with its tall buildings and luxury residential. We did not linger and have headed back to Halong City early in the morning of Day 3, one last time through Halong Bay in the same occasion.

City Cat Ba

last crossing of Halong Bay

few hours minibus later we were back in Hanoi, set to start on a train night for the region Sapa , our last visit to Vietnam, that we are, we must recognize it, eager to leave, despite the beauty of sites like Ha Long Bay ...