Ha Long Stories


Romantic night on a boat anyone?

Halong Bay was not the experience we were hoping for. We were hoping, as you know, for sunshine and relaxation on a boat sailing through the beautiful islands. We got sunshine for about 2 minutes in three days and relaxation on the boat was non-existent! Firstly, there was chaos at the harbour with our 'guide' running around everywhere and refusing t...


Cruising Ha Long Bay and the island of Cat Ba

Another early morning start and the weather was still grey and overcast but at least it had stopped raining. The minibus picked us up at 7.45 and we spent the next hour doing a city tour picking up the other 10 people on the tour. Three hours later we boarded our 'luxury' boat which would take us to explore Halong bay. There were only 6 of of us on the ...


Descending Dragon

Ha Long Bay is a natural wonder consisting of hundreds of dramatic limestone peaks eroded into fantastic shapes. To the Vietnamese it looks like the back of a dragon descending into the ocean. To me it looks like so many gumdrops plopped onto a smooth green plate. Naturally, the way to see such a sight is from a boat, which pleases me greatly as my ...


The Peak District

I didn't initially loiter in Hanoi and opted to get straight on the road east to Halong Bay, one of Vietnam's most stunning areas of geography. A short bus ride and I was at Halong City boarding one of the many tourist boats jostling for position in the harbour. I counted 3 impacts with other boats as we sailed clear, but since we kept going and didn'...