David Shoulder - Isle of Wight: #HalongBay

After rhe vigours of Fansipan we are heading for a gentler few days. It is back to Hanoi and the next day to Halong Bay in the North East of Vietnam. We plan to spend 2 nights - effectively 3 days on a small cruise boat.

Halong Bay is designated a World Heritage Site and pretty much every tourist will find their way there in some way. It is Vietnam's no 1 tourist attraction.

First of all why is Halong Bay so famous ? The short answer is it is extremely beautiful. It has a "Karst" land/seascape. Karst is defined as an eroded limestone plateau - eroded over millenia by wind, rain and sea to create more than 2000 limestone islands each beautifully rock sculpted, many with grottos and caves rising from the sometimes black but mainly emerald sea.

"Halong Bay" is actually 3 adjoining bays - Halong Bay itself - Bai Tu Long to the north east and Lan Ha Bay to the south west - south of Cat Ba Island. We are assured the landscapes and sea is exactly the same in all three bays. However Halong Bay is much easier and quicker to get to from Hanoi. Consequently day trippers from Hanoi head for central Halong Bay. There are 500 tourist boats operating in this area and that must be too many.

We travelled to Lan Ha Bay - across Cat Ba Island to pick up our boat. It takes twice as long and is therefore is a bit more expensive. The benefit is there are far fewer boats and the water is clean for swimming and kayaking. Another bit of advice I read and I am sure is right is the quality of boat facilities and food quality vary considerably with price variations. The trip is not expensive by Western standards so do your research and choose a good one. Ethnic Travel were recommended to us by a friend and they were right. Excellent.

So what of the trip? The Bay is naturally beautiful - special. Within the bay are floating fishing communities. It seems their mainstay is to fish farm. They use small boats to net small fish around the Islands - the little boats plying their nets were a classic sight. We visited a floating village - fish farm. Their pontoons were divided into netted holding tanks and the fish within were fattened up fed on the small fish catch. The fish are farmed for three or 4 years. Many are Groupers. One tank had a single 100 kilo fish. There are worst places and ways to earn an honest living. The Vietnamese love to eat their fish.

We had such a relaxing easy time. Our boat was almost palatial - 10 double cabins. The food was varied and fantastic Vietnamese fare - gorgeous big prawns and wonderful spring rolls especially. We sat in the sun - kayaked several times and swam a lot in and around the magnificent karst scenery. I had heard negative things about Halong Bay. Our experience was the polar opposite. An amazing place to be and just what we needed after the Fansipan.

Our guide had quite good English so I was able to probe quite a bit. He said he was very happy to talk openly with anyone interested in Vietnam. In no particular order a few snippets :-

If they are anything most Vietnamese are Buddhists but it doesn't dominate their lives.

There is no national health service - they have to take out insurance.

I asked what was Vietnam's biggest problem? He said people work hard to get the basics and then they stop working hard - there is a lack of ambition. I am not sure if this is the effect of communism but he saw it as a national problem holding Vietnam back.

I carefully and hesitantly asked him about his thoughts - the Vietnamese thoughts about the Vietnam War- the American War. He was clear. He said what the Americans did to his people was terrible and will never be forgotten. However he and the Vietnamese people saw nothing to be gained by dwelling in the past and they are determined to look to the future. They are achieving that outstandingly successfully. The world can learn a lot from the Vietnamese.

Next back to Hanoi and then overnight sleeper train down to the old imperial capital - Hue.

Here are some mob photos of Halong Bay (they maybe a bit repetitive but I will sort them back in 5he UK):-