Halong Bay, Vietnam's gigantic limestone karsts and isles, left me awe. There are literally thousands of them -hence making the cut as one of the 7 wonders of nature. Ever so popular, you can imagine there are hundreds of tour groups offering to take you to see the majestic Halong bay - decisions decisions. Since we had opted to stay in hotels for the duration of our stay, I thought it would be great to branch out and go on a tour with some young people our age - you know meet and mingle with peers, get some travel tips for our onward journey etc. I took some advice of a trusted travel blog and went with Hanoi Backpackers - and although I am still a fan of the blog, this tour was the BIGGEST regret of my entire time in Vietnam. Don't worry this will not turn into a name calling venting session about the tour company, suffice it to say, I did not feel I got 1. value for money@200 USD for 2 days (in Vietnam this kind of money goes a very very long way) 2. the best fit for me - as in, I don't think I was the target audience they had in mind anyway.
The tour was 2 nights (3 days) on a castaway island - our tour group was the only one on the island. We stayed in, i think people call bungalows, to me it was just a wooden structure with a thatched roof over my head and a mosquito net as cover. Although not requiring a tan myself, I did spend plenty of time catching the sun- enjoyed some kayaking and tried my hand at tubing. Needless to say I wiped out twice, struggled to hoist myself back onto the tube much to the delight of the French guys I was sharing the tube with. But in my defense the first wipe out was a matter of urgency. The speed we were going at was so fast that we found ourselves airborne at some points. The pressure of the water was so great that I could literally feel my pants coming off (later I heard I wasn't the only one). I had to decide between letting go of the tube to keep my pants - or to hang on and arrive back to shore half naked - the latter was not really an option if you think about it. I got a good laugh out of it myself.
We survived the rest of the tour deciding to opt out of the drinking games which I am guessing resemble somewhat of a Spring Break in the US. Enough words - lets see some pictures :
1. Fiesta time 2. lunch on the boat 3&4. majestic Halong Bay 5. bungalows (with cold shower) 6. Castaway island - survivor style
Tips
1. With any popular tourist attraction - some people are bound to be underwhelmed, what, with all that anticipation and excitement. I was quite blown away by Halong Bay myself, the sheer number of them and how they ended up there. My travel companion on the other hand, not so much. She still liked them, but was not convinced by the 7 wonder of nature in the world part and thats okay. My advice, if it's at all possible, try to lower expectations of any place you visit. I happen to be a somewhat easy person to please but a lot of people are not thus leaving disappointed.
2. When booking for your tour double check that the information provided on the website is what they are still offering. On the website, I had read that we would sleep on the boat on the first night and then in the bungalows the second night. This was however not the case and apparently has not been for a while. Although I have no way of knowing whether sleeping on the boat would have been better or worse than the bungalows, I was not given what I was promised.
3. There is tons of travel advice out there, its overwhelming - from the hotel front desk to tour agents and websites - it can all be too much leaving you even more confused on how to spend your hard earned penny and precious time. I've recently become a travel-blog convert, taking a lot of advice from travel bloggers. However travel bloggers must also earn a living and some of the recommendations they give have been sponsored. Despite that I do still believe that the one's I read have integrity and do disclose any kickbacks they get from recommending a certain tour option. That was not the problem. My problem came in from ignoring who I truly am. I knew that they would be party animals in the relatively young crowd but ignored that and painted myself a different picture ignoring the fact that in reality I can be quite an old soul. Although I was probably of average age with my tour companions, within in the first 2 hours together, I could see that we probably spend our weekends very differently back home and have opposing ideas of what fun is.
4. Travel blogs are a great source of information and I will continue to use them in the future. But before taking any recommendation - I will scrutinize the blogger more in their travel style, look more into what locations they have traveled to before, what activities they enjoy and ask myself is that something I would do and enjoy. This was really a learning curve for me. In Saigon I followed advice of another blogger and thoroughly enjoyed myself and retrospect I can see that our travel styles are very similar.
Final thoughts
If you have the chance do visit Halong Bay :) please do. If I got the chance to go back I would - but I would want to be the youngest person on the boat - even if it means spending 2 nights with old married couples well into their retirement, I think their stories and wisdom will be far more interesting to me than drinking games.
Visiting Vietnam: Hoi An coming soon
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