Vịnh Hạ Long known as Ha Long Bay

4 06 2013
Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay

When after three consecutive mornings, the guy at the guest house wake me up abruptly, banging on the door of my room to see if I leave or not, I decided it was time to leave Mù Cang Chai to see other places of this country, so I went back to Hà Nội, to plan the next destination.

Finally, though not at first attracted me too, I decided to go to Ha Long Bay, one of Vietnam’s tourist sites. I arrived on a Wednesday afternoon and after looking and haggle I got a room at a reasonable price, because as in any tourist spot prices are higher.

The first day I walked around the city and as the other cities and towns of this country, it don’t caught my attention, but I spent a good while in a restaurant talking with people here, I really do not understand these travelers who after have been in Vietnam, says that people are unpleasant, I think, they must travel in a way totally different from mine, because with people in this country you can have a great time. Speaking at this restaurant, I got the information and an unbeatable price for a tour in Ha Long Bay.

The second day I woke up at 6 in the morning to go to the dock where ships do the tour, but when I looked out the window I saw the whole sky was gray and rainy, so spend the day to rest and afternoon stroll a little more. Upon returning from a walk, at the hotel I was informed that Friday night and the weekend had a special price, and so special! as they were worth 4 times more, and they told me that if I wanted I could get a tour of two days and a night in a boat, for an astronomical price, they wanting me convince that it would be much cheaper to stay in the hotel, thank you very much but no. So I had to find another room somewhere else, which in the end turned out easier than I expected.

The third day I woke up at 5:30 in the morning, because as always, I leave it to the last minute to prepare the backpack, and I went to where I had bespoken the room but when I arrived, the boy said with signs, that the room the previous day they had promised me, it was not free, because after I left, someone called on the phone and booked, bloody hell! so I was no room, and I was missing 15 minutes to pick me up to go to the pier, you can imagine the anger I had with the boy, the hotel and the mother who bore them, but as I said earlier, the people here have mischievously and tries to cheat tourists, but has no malice, are good people, and a man in a hotel that was close, seeing the situation and how angry I was, he approached me and took me to a guest house that was in an alley behind where I found not just room, but also turned out to be the most economical. Solved the issue where leaving the backpack, I ran to where I had to pick, and after 20 minutes, passing a van that took us, to 14 Vietnamese tourists and me, to the dock.

Ha Long Bay is a bay protected by a lot of rock formations that form a mountain chain that prevents the arrival of the waves at the coast and from the city of Ha Long is impossible to see the horizon that draws the sea. The day was perfect, with sun and clouds and in the dock all tourists waiting their turn to get on the boat, most were from Vietnam, I counted only four Westerners with me 5. The tour tough about 6 hours, and was doing stops in different places, the first being in a place where they rented kayaks or small boats to go to a cave, which was not, as the pictures of the ad, very interesting, the second was on a houseboat where they raised fish, the third in an artificial beach, that they have done so tourists to cool off halfway, and the fourth was the best, in a cave quite large and illuminated with colored lights.

The following day I was resting and thinking that route to follow, to go to Laos, as the visa ends 11, and finally I decided to go back to Ninh Binh, and from there go get the border, actually right now I’m writing from this city.


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