10/25: Cruising on Halong Bay

We had read that no trip to northern Vietnam would be complete without seeing Quang Ninh province which shares a border with China in the north. It also harbors one of the wonders of the world with perhaps the most stunning scenery in Vietnam at Halong Bay, our port of call for the next 2 days.

View of teeming Hanoi from our Landmark Hotel. We only used our lovely balcony to hang laundry though!

We got picked up from the hotel for the 3.5 hour journey to Halong City where the boats leave from to tour the bay. Of course, we should have expected by now the obligatory rest stop at the factory en route!

I did enjoy seeing the fantastically carved wooden furniture here though that Vietnam is so famous for!

Imagine the cost to ship this 1,600 kg table and chairs home!

We hadn't seen so much statuary since we were in Da Nang in central Vietnam.

Surprise, surprise: I had a lovely time chatting with these 2 charming Vietnamese women who were helping to guide a tour of Bangladeshi tourists.

Yeah - by 12:30 - we were finally ready to start our 24 hour whirlwind trip of Halong Bay, getting into Palomo Cruise's tender here. A tender, for those of you who may be unfamiliar with the word, is the small boat that ferries passengers to and from the 'mother ship' or at least that's what ours did!

Photos on the way to our Paloma Cruise Boat:

Halong Bay's tranquil beauty encompasses 560 sq. miles dotted with well over 3,000 limestone islands, many of them unnamed.

Neither Steven nor I have spent much time at sea so being able to enjoy the wonders of Halong Bay on a beautiful cruise boat was a luxury for us and one we'd been looking forward to for several weeks. It was amazing just seeing other cruise boats and know we'd soon be on ours.

Great being met by Paloma's waving crew as our tender reached the boat and then be handed icy cold washcloths immediately after coming on board. I could seriously get used to this service!

On the long shuttle ride from Hanoi, we had a blast chatting with Dhivyan, an accountant whose family had emigrated from Sri Lanka before he was born, and Katie, an occupational therapist from County Cork in Ireland, both now living in London. There was also an American couple, now living in Singapore, with their 4 young children on the bus ride so it wasn't as restful a journey as it might have been!

It was delightful sitting down in comfort while hearing about the activities that were planned for us. Found out that Paloma Cruises just started in 2009 and the boat has 22 sleeping cabins and 1 spa cabin. Harry, the young tour guide, joked that people's chief complaint aboard the boat is the food - too much of it, that is! His only instruction was that no one jump off the boat when drunk in the middle of the night!

We then had a few minutes to freshen up in our cabins before lunch was served.

Janina, I wondered how large your cabins generally are when you cruise with National Geographic tours? I suspect they must be larger than ours was but this one suited us to a T.

Steven and I were reluctant to enter the dining room for lunch as we so enjoyed seeing the other cruise boats all around us! Halong Bay has been twice designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site: first in 1994 for its natural scenic beauty and again in 2000 for its great biological interest. 

Ha Long means 'Descending Dragon' originating from the myth that a celestial dragon once flung herself headlong into the sea, her swishing tail digging deep valleys and crevices in the mainland. As she descended into the sea, these filled with water, creating the bay.

Think I spooked Katie when I saw her through the dining room window!

Geologists believe the bay's rock outcrops, known as karsts were formed by a giant limestone sea bed that eroded until only pinnacles were left behind.

There was a formal sit down several course meal served at 2. We could understand Harry's earlier comment about people 'complaining' their being too much food. Thank goodness we were only on board for 4 meals as otherwise they'd have to roll us overboard!

Dhivyan and Steven had  a good laugh out of the Paloma T shirts we were given 'as souvenirs that came with lots of affection' after lunch especially when we were all instructed to wear them for the sunset party at 4:30. If you know anything about Steven, you'd know that that sort of thing is not Steven's cup of tea!

We had a few minutes to lounge around the boat and take in the spell binding views before having to be on the tender at 3 which would take us to Vung Vien Floating Village.

If you're a fan of James Bond movies, you may remember the 'Tomorrow Never Dies' movie. Part of it was filmed here in Halong Bay.

Photos from the tender en route to Vung Vien Floating Village:

Photo of our boat.

Vung Vieng is the largest floating village in Halong Bay but it has only 300 inhabitants living there now. Once Halong Bay received its second UNESCO nod, the Vietnamese government moved almost all of the area's former residents as they felt there were too many people and too much pollution caused by people throwing trash directly into the bay.

We all got into small bamboo boats so we could approach the fantastic karst formations up close.

Photos from Bamboo Boat ride:

The floating village's homes were linked together by pontoons.

The gorgeous green water reminded me of Lake Louise in Alberta.

4 members of the family on the long shuttle ride from Hanoi to Halong City!

Near the end of our bamboo boat journey, we stopped at a pearl fishing farm. Vietnam has over 3,000 kms of coastline but only 3 places for pearl farms.

Got off the boats and checked out the pearl farm. This was one stop I wished we had more time at as we were rushed through way too quickly. But of course every minute of our time on the cruise was carefully allotted for and didn't allow for dawdling OR shopping in this case, more's the pity.

From left to right, the South Sea Oyster, Black Pearl Oyster, Tahiti Oyster and Okoya pearl from Japan.

Back in the tender and the short hop back to the moored Paloma boat where we were again greeted with scented ice cold washcloths - not too shabby!

Our boat was surrounded by several other cruise boats all night long.

Watched the sun set by 5 as Happy Hour drinks were served. Too bad we all had to listen to Michael Jackson's Thriller album being so loudly played as it just distracted from the absolute beauty and serenity around us.

Watched as the chef cooked prawns right by our table. It looked like a steam bath!

What a magical day this was. We kept pinching ourselves and saying how incredibly lucky we were to experience such beauty amid such comfort, certainly a far cry from how we normally travel.

Posted on 10/30 from Hanoi, Vietnam.