Ha Long Bay

We took a two day one night cruise on Ha Long Bay, one of the most well known tourist attractions in Vietnam and an UNESCO world heritage sight. I had heard many mixed reviews about whether it was worth it to go - some people said it was wonderful and others that it was over crowded, polluted, and depressing. So, I started to research and came across a company called Darian Culbert on TripAdvisor.  There were numerous good reviews about their booking service in Ha Long Bay, so I sent them an email. We received a recommendation to take the Dragon Pearl cruise through a company called Indochina Junk (the boats are called junks). This company operates in a different part of the bay than the other tour operators, which means it is less crowded and therefore more pristine.  I took the advice and booked the Dragon Pearl for our Halong Bay excursion.  I was also very happy to learn that Darien Culbert could book our train tickets to Sapa - thanks again, we are very grateful we found a good company to help us with our bookings.

We were picked up at our hotel in Hanoi and shuttled to the bay, which is about 3 hours away.  It was about 12:30 when we were taken out to our junk boat, the Dragon Pearl 3. We had lunch and got to know some of the other passengers. We ended up sitting next to two girls from Berlin at lunch, Isabel and Paulina, they were really fun to get to know. The food at lunch was fantastic and as soon as we thought it was nearing the end another dish was brought out. After lunch we spent the afternoon visiting a cave on one of the limestone islands and going kayaking in the bay. It was a great way to spend the afternoon and gave us a different perspective of our surroundings than we had on the junk boat.

Welcome drink on the boat - warm pineapple juice - interesting

From the cave with junk boats in the background

Post kayaking

Our itinerary gave us the evening to hang out on the top deck of the boat and we ended up visiting more with Isabel and Paulina. They served dinner around 7:00 - another meal with dish after dish of delicious food. After dinner the crew was fishing and invited guests to fish as well. We didn't end up participating, but we watched and visited with a woman named Jennifer from Singapore whose two boys were fishing.  She shared so much information about Singapore, now we can't wait to visit some day. Everyone turned in pretty early because breakfast was being served the next morning at 7:00 a.m. so that we could visit a floating fishing village at 8:30.

The fishing village was very interesting, the families live on floating houses and earn their living farming fish, cultivating pearls, and participating in Eco-tourism. We visited the local school where children from ages 3-11 all sat in one room having lessons.  Then we watched as a young girl from the village did a demonstration on inserting the necessary matter and seed into the oyster to create the pearl.  It was really cool.

School in the floating village in Ha Long Bay

The floating village

Cultivating pearls in oysters

We had lunch on the junk as we made our way back to the port. All in all we really enjoyed our quick trip on the Dragon Pearl 3. It is a very fast trip and you are kept on a tight itinerary, but worth it to see the beautiful scenery. I highly recommend Indochina Junk- they did a fantastic job!

We rode back to Hanoi with the family from Singapore and enjoyed visiting with them a little more. We had so much fun making new friends on our trip to Ha Long Bay. Jennifer, Isabel, and Paulina - if you are reading, don't forget to send us an email so we can stay in touch! It was a pleasure meeting you all (or y'all as we say in Texas).

We spent the afternoon in Hanoi just hanging out before we got on our night train to Sapa. Luckily the train was on time and although there was some confusion about our tickets, overall it was a good experience albeit rather bumpy.

Tomorrow we are going trekking with a guide from one of the local hill tribes near Sapa - I can't wait! I'm hoping for good weather - today its so foggy you can hardly see 10 feet in front of you. No matter what we should meet some interesting people and learn about the unique culture in this part of Vietnam.