Audrey had been dreaming of visiting Ha Long Bay for years. Surprisingly, I had never heard of Vịnh Hạ Long, otherwise known as Ha Long Bay. When she showed me photos of the region, though, I was absolutely in to check it out.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site that marks where, mythologically, the “dragon descends” to protect Vietnam from invaders, the gorgeous Ha Long Bay is accessed by cruise boats from Hai Phong, a town about two hours southeast of Hanoi. We booked a three day, two night cruise through Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay, a neighboring region. When it came time to go, a bus picked us up from Hanoi and brought us to our boat docked in Hai Phong. Accommodations in both Thailand and Vietnam didn’t hold back anything to make our trip romantic, a pleasant and welcome surprise.
As we cruised around Ha Long Bay, I couldn’t help but admire the soaring rock faces jutting out of the water.
Audrey and I hiked up one of the islands and got a pretty incredible view of the bay.
After a night on the water fishing for squid — our guide caught one! — we headed back out, this time to Lan Ha Bay. We passed by floating fishing villages and more weathered rock islands. On one particular island, we bushwhacked our way to the top of one of these islands to catch a pristine view of the beach below.
Eventually, our boat dropped us off in Cat Ba, the largest city in Lan Ha Bay and where we would be staying on land for the night. We roamed around the waterfront, finding crepes and banh mi, enjoying the ease with which everybody came and went around Cat Ba. Staying at the Hung Long Harbour Hotel, we had both an awesome balcony and rooftop view of the bay for sunset.
In hindsight, we wish we had avoided the three day, two night cruise boat tour and booked our own way to Lan Ha Bay and Cat Ba. While easygoing and an awesome experience to begin Vietnam with, the tour was, well, touristy and planned, and we longed for the independence we had on motorbikes in Pai, Thailand. We wanted to spend more days in Lan Ha Bay and Cat Ba, both of which we were drawn to more than Ha Long Bay. I wish we had time to check out some of the sport climbing routes on the islands around Cat Ba. But, understandably, for most tours, the majority of people don’t care for that and are more interested in Ha Long Bay so the schedule reflected that.
Regardless of our post-tour reflections, Ha Long Bay and Lan Ha Bay were absolutely incredible. Never before had I seen any kind of terrain like that. To think that the region is really weathered and eroded land that rose up due to tectonic activity during the Devonian period millions of years ago is mind-boggling to me. For a few hours, with the heat abating due to some cloud coverage, Audrey and I enjoyed our cruise back to Hai Phong and admired the endless karst towers floating by one last time.
