Ha Long Bay means “Descending Dragon” in Vietnamese. According to local legend, when Vietnam had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. The gods sent a family of dragons to defend the country. The dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the rocks and islands dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. The place where the mother dragon descended was named Ha Long.
Day 1 in Ha Long Bay
Time to relax after some tense trekking/ walking in Sapa in UNESCO’s World Heritage site and one of Vietnam’s biggest attractions. We had booked our Ha Long Bay trip from London, our schedule was very tight so we had to eliminate the chance of disappointing surprises. We followed Lonely Planet’s guide recommendation and we booked the 3 days trip from Vega travel.
At around 8am we departed from Vega travel in Hanoi and our guide Binh was telling us all about the Vietnamese culture, their customs, their history. He created a great friendly atmosphere among the 15 people group who were a bit reserved in the beginning, mostly because we were used to travel alone.
By 12.30pm we were on the boat. The crew welcomed us aboard and our cruise began. Swimsuits on and straight up to the sundeck to relax and enjoy the view past the hundreds of islands and islets Bai Tu Long Bay area, well-known for its magnificent seascapes.
After lunch, time for exploring. Following Binh we all got in 2-person kayak boats and away from other touristic boats. Paddling around the narrow lanes of limestone mountains and karsts we had the chance to experience the limestones up close, passing under low and very narrow rocks. We also visited visited Trong Cave (Drum cave) and Trinh Nu (Virgin Cave) while Binh was singing in Vietnamese.
KK, brave enough, jumped in to the sea and enjoyed some moments of swimming. I stayed on the kayak, someone had to make sure we don’t lose our kayak (and the water was not very clean, unfortunately due to the popularity of the area the boats have done a big damage to the environment).
Back to the boat and after a shower ready for dinner. Binh and the boat staff taught us how to make Vietnamese spring rolls, a fun activity to enjoy local food and get to know each other better, it worked!
Day 2 in Ha Long Bay
Saturday 20th October. Early wake up call to visit Hang Sung Sot, the Surprising cave, before rush hour. Sung Sot cave is one of the biggest caves in Ha Long Bay. Climbing up about 100 steps or so we arrived at the entrance of the cave with a great view to the bay.
We prefer to believe the local legend with the dragons about the formation of the limestones and islands in Ha Long Bay but there is also a more realistic explanation. From 520-470 million BC, Ha Long Bay was subject to intense tectonic plate movements, along with severe rainfall and flooding which caused the formation of underwater mountains. Millions of years later, the Halong Bay area began to experience a period of extreme heat and drought. The change in weather patterns is what eventually contributed to the emergence of the thick limestone formations that we can still see today. The steady erosion of these sea mountains eventually delivered to us the much-coveted caves of Ha Long Bay. The advancement of the sea and its effects on the formation of the caves can be seen on the ceilings, where a ripple-like pattern is often visible.
The entire cave is full of stalactites and stalagmites. Our guide, Binh, was telling all stories and legends about the caves and he helped us recognise (or not) shapes, animals and patterns formed by rocks inside the caves. Binh tried hard to show us a horse and a sword shape. According to the legend, they belong to the hero of Thanh Giong, a pretty famous figure in Vietnamese folklore, who left these items here to protect Ha Long Bay from evil demons.
Next stop is the top of the Titop mountain. We took a deep breath and climbed up 340 steps to go up to the peak. The 360 degrees view of Ha Long Bay paid us back in maximum, we got amazed. Not enough words to describe that view, hopefully our photos will persuade you to climb up to the top.
Being still fascinated by the view we arrived to our next stop, Cat Ba National Park. We cycled around the Viet Hai village. A very peaceful place where people live attuned with pure nature. Leaving our bikes behind, we did trekking for about 2 hours, on a roundabout trail into the park through the cave of Bat. We explored the tropical forest (some insect repellent would be very useful) and we climbed up a mountain for universal view of Viet Hai village. That activity required some climbing skills and it was a bit dangerous.
After lunch on the boat and relaxing for a bit, we were ready for our next activity, our favourite kayaking. That day we visited fishing villages on the bay and we had the chance to observe the daily life of local fishermen. KK and I left the group for a while and we even visited a floating fishermen house.
We spent that night in Cat Ba island. By then, we had all become a big group of good friends. Sharing stories from our life, the countries we had visited and what’s on our travel bucket list. Binh took us to a local restaurant and he challenged us to taste an alcoholic drink they make by infusing whole snakes in rice wine or grain alcohol, weird, none of the two of us was brave enough to try it.
The next day we cruised back to Gian Luan dock from a different route. We got back to Hanoi at around 4.30pm and we had to catch our train to Hue that night.