Day 5 – Halong Bay

With a 4 hour drive to Halong Bay ahead of us, we were scheduled for an early morning pick up.  Wanting to see Hoan Kiem Lake one last time, we ran out for a quick look – and were surprised to find that an ad-hoc market had been set up on the street surrounding our hotel. We were even more surprised to find the market completely gone when we returned 15 minutes later (by 7am)!

Early morning market.  Check out the meat lady - one shoe on and one shoe off??  A shopper picked up the meat looking for a good piece - handling it just like it was fruit.

The Huc Bridge leading to the Temple of the Jade Mountain on Hoan Kiem Lake

Our hotel was a block from the Old Quarter

At 7:30am we were picked up by a “luxury van” similar to a limo, and accompanied by 3 other delightful travelers: a couple from Brazil and a lady originally from Africa.  Talking with them made the time fly by, and I was very disappointed to discover that we weren’t on the same ship.

As one of the most beautiful and breathtaking places on the planet, Halong Bay was declared one of the New Seven Natural Wonders of the world. It is famous for its emerald waters, thousands of limestone islands, monoliths and caves. Legend claims the islands were created by great dragon sent to protect the Vietnamese from the Chinese; to create a barrier, the dragon spit pearls that turned into islands.

It was magnificent to be completely surrounded by the limestone monoliths in Halong Bay

Happy to be here!

Our junk ship, the Dragon Pearl, was 29m long and 6.9m wide with only 11 cabins.  In keeping with ancient Chinese tradition it was made completely of teak wood – known for its durability and versatility on high seas voyages.  Until a few years ago they were all brown but the bay officials mandated that all 500 registered tour boats in Halong Bay be painted white so they could be found easier in case they sank.   

Indochina-Junk's Dragon Pearl

Our room on the ship - there was no space to open our luggage except on the bed

I was quite anxious to see Halong Bay yet apprehensive that our cruise might be canceled due to weather like it was a day ago.  On our ship we waited in the harbor, eating lunch, for the local government to report if the bay would be open. We were so lucky – despite the wind, they granted us access.  They restricted all routes and split all the tour boats to share 2 locations in the huge bay.  We headed to tiny Tiptop Island where we had an hour to either swim in the cold weather (60 and cloudy) or hike to the top of the monolith – crammed with 500 other curious tourists. We hiked and were rewarded with a spectacular view!    

View after climbing 524 steps on Tiptop Island