Halong Bay, a “must-see” in Vietnam

What to speak about Vietnam? Especially for Westerners, but even for the Easterners, characteristics and curiosities of this fantastic country leave any beginner or expert traveler awestruck.

The first stop was in Halong Bay, north of the country, which means bay where the dragon descended and was declared by UNESCO as World Heritage.

As we were on a cruise that would pass through that country, Halong Bay was presented as the first stop, coming from Hong Kong. And what a stop!

WHAT TO DO IN HALONG BAY

We had already booked the tour on the ship for the afternoon. So, we got the free morning to walk by the city of Halong. We walked a little and seek a taxi driver to take us to the downtown, which is very small. No need to wary of taxi drivers, as they are good honest, but it’s worth haggling is the tours because they are used to charge dearly Americans. Say that you are Brazilian, talk a little about football with them (they love it!!!) and get a good discount on the price of the ride!

In the taxi, we could see an nice downtown, though small, with many crowded trades and everything you can imagine for sale: food, drink, bicycle, toys, electronics, everything yourself!

We arrived at Halong Market, which is a market in the style of municipal market of São Paulo and Curitiba (Brazil), but very crowded. Outside, there are well stinking stalls (because of the fish), but with everything very, very cheap…

We bought something there, a souvenir rickshaw, with a size of a large wallet, but with real bike chain. We paid $10, but the starting price was $25, being properly negotiated via gestures with the sellers.

After an hour and a half with the taxi driver waiting for us, we returned to taxi and to the harbor area and exit to the tour of Halong Bay. On the way back, more curiosities about Vietnam.

Then, the boat departed to the Halong Bay tour. The boat is exactly like this one in the picture below.

And Halong stays in the background and Halong Bay was getting close…

The legend says that in the distant past, when Vietnam fought against the Chinese who wanted to invade their land, the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land. In the defense procedure, these animals began to spit instead of fire, jewelry and jade, which turned into islands and islets. After defending the lands, dragons were interested in the permanence of the land and where the mother dragon descended was called Ha Long and Long means dragon.

Excluding the legend, the islands were formed from limestone sediments that were at the bottom of an ancient ocean. With the rise and fall of the sea over the millennia, the soft limestone was forming huge monoliths that are seen today. For being as they are, most of them are uninhabited, which does not exempt an incredible beauty.

To know more Halong Bay, you must take a boat out of the harbor and it’s not very expensive. As the trip was cruising, we prefer to get the first (and only) tour offered by the cruise company just in case, but we could see that there were dozens of people offering the same service at much more attractive prices when we set foot on land. All boats are very old, but they have an acceptable structure for navigation.

The tour cost $50 per person to stay for a whole afternoon out, with the stop time to explore the caves. But due to dystrophy, we were not able with stairs and stayed in the same boat waiting staff back. The visual pays off!

On the way back to shore, we were “invited” to experience some fruit from a neighborhood boat that literally pulled our boat and had a family of fruit sellers with his Vietnamese pretty daughter. Everyone in the boat bought at least one berry…

The view of the way back is better than the first one.

The Vietnamese beer is good and cheap: for US$0.50, served on board, but not too cold, but almost everything in Vietnam is like that.

During the way back, we passed a suspended village, a conglomeration of several stilts. Place where many tourists are staying, and also, do kayaking lessons.

After walking sailing a lot, we finally got closer the “Fighting Chicken” rock, they really seem two chickens facing each other and ready to fight… or not…

But it’s all just an optical illusion because when we move, that’s how the two stones are …

The view in that place is wonderful!

So this is Halong Bay, Vietnam. A place that definitely should be visited if you go to Asia.

So, have you ever visited Halong Bay? Did you do something different that we have done? So let your review to help other travelers, ok ?? 😉