Our next stop in Vietnam was Halong Bay, formed by nearly 2000 limestone monolithic islands.
Halong Bay is located about 170 km from Hanoi, and close to the border with China. Halong was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994.
We made the circuit of 3 days 2 nights (one on the ship and the other one in a bungalow on Cat Ba island). We were a little afraid to book this tour, because there are many agencies, all offer different prices and different categories of ships or bungalows, but not all are reliable.
We took Anna's Booking office, recommend by Mariona, because she knew people who had made trips with them and where happy. We paid $120 per person for three days with all meals included and the transfer from Hanoi to Halong Bay.
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During the three days we didn't stop for a moment. There were prepared a lot of activities, perhaps even too much. We would had liked to have some more time to stay on the deck, just enjoying the astonishing landscape.
The first day we saw the Hang Sung Sot Cave, afterwards they took us to another area to take kayaks and explore a bit, before returning to the ship, to spend the night.
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Hang Sung Sot Cave is the hole on the right side of the image
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| Inside the cave |
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| View of the bay from the entrance of the cave |
The next day, we went to a pearl factory. Afterwards, those who had chosen to make a second night in the bungalows we changed to another boat to take us to Cat Ba island, where he had our accommodation.
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| Floating houses |
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| Our bungalows at Cat Ba island |
Once on the island we had some free time to relax, take a kayak out to explore the surroundings or simply relaxing and doing nothing.
During these three days we met another catalan couple, Mariona and Ruben and a Canadian couple, Aviva and Hart. They where also travelling for a long time.
The next day, the boat came to pick us up, and start the way back to Hanoi.
Once in town, we still met them for a goodbye dinner with the two couples and also our friend Mariona came. Who knows, maybe someday we meet them again..
