Ha Long Bay - one of the new 7 wonders!

My first time in Ha Long Bay was sometime between 1993-1994 and it was not a sightseeing trip. It was a one-night stay for business. I had to accompany an Australian agency during the shooting of TV commercials around Vietnam for my company. Ha Long was the second selected spot after Hanoi.The film director, by his words, used to be a friend of Nicole Kidman and some other celebs, wanted to capture the sunrise at the Bay, so his request to everyone - to be ready by 4:00 am, but the next scene was more memorable - it was shot in the fish market, next to the fishing village, with a very nice view to the Bay.
It was wet, windy, fishy smell, muddy, dirty, big noisy crowd...and the talent, a Beauty Queen of Vietnam was asked to dress always in pure white áo dài that her mom had to wash, dry everyday after the shooting. That TVC was recognised one of the most beautiful TVCs at that time on air, as within 45 seconds we could see most beautiful places in Vietnam, from North down to Mekong Delta.

                      Hòn Trống Mái or Hòn gà chọi - one of the symbols of Ha Long Bay 

We arrived to Ha Long quite late at night, one friend of mine booked a room at Saigon Ha Long Hotel, our room had almost no view but next morning when we went up to 14th floor for breakfast at the Panorama Restaurant. I was amazingly impressed with the view to the Bay. The panorama shot would be an awesome picture but it was cloudy. 

              A breathtaking view of Ha Long Bay from the Panorama restaurant of Saigon Halong Hotel.

                          It was a very cloudy morning and another new day for the fishing boats...  

After breakfast we bought tickets: one for the boat, 150.000 VND and another one, like the entrance fee (!), 120.000 VND. The tour last about three and half hours, just around the core area with one or two stop-overs for visiting the cave.

                       
Ha Long Bay has an area of over 1500 km2 and 1969 islets in various sizes and shapes. Some of the islets have hollows or caves inside. Most of them are limestone and the formation of these islets probably occurred 500 millions years ago! I was told that the special tour could be designed for those who love to explore more the Bay. The boat would take a bit further in the Bay.

            

Anyway as we were still tired from the Yên Tử climbing yesterday, so we decide just to go for the 3 and ½ hours, it should be good enough for three of us. On the boat we met some guests who stayed at the luxury cruise American Line, they were cruising from Singapore to Thailand, Vietnam and Hong Kong within 14 days. We curiously asked about the price, it was some lovely 1,400 USD per person. 

                     This islet should have some name...that I don't know! 

Talking about Ha Long Bay I suddenly remember the story with the vote for "The New 7 Wonders" and Ha Long Bay was one of the finalists for the newly selected 7 Wonders of Nature. What we remember most from this campaign in Vietnam was not about the Bay or the criteria but about those funny rumours around the scandalous actress-business woman, who was assigned by the Ministry of Tourism as the Vietnamese Tourist Ambassador. Most people had a feeling that so far Vietnam was not doing good enough to develop the tourism here. It's sad.

                         and this one, too....should have some name! 

                         It was not a very busy morning, all boats heading to the stop-over

                 

Another thing I missed in the Bay was the beautiful boat with the red sails, now I didn't see it anywhere in Hạ Long. I was wondering where were they, those traditional boats with two big red sails. 

                                The stop-over to visit a cave in the Bay.

                      To get on this boat to visit the cave you have to pay an extra money 150,000 VND  

                      The ride was a short one, about less than 30', the cave was not that attractive 

                         I was expecting to see a fishing village in the Bay but it wasn't there...

                               on the way back to the big ship 

                 
Everything in the Bay was quite overpriced, we got three coconuts, some cooked corns but both were bad, coconut juice almost tasteless, the corn was hard and cold...During our ride there was a small boat with fruits approaching our ship, I was on the roof so I didn't ask how much the bunch of bananas but it seemed expensive...

                    Instead of the boat with red sails, I finally caught a small fishing boat alone... 

                         Back to the Quay 

Three hours in the Bay was very fast. We were lucky with the weather during the ride, not very strong sun, fresh breeze from the ocean...and surrounded by the beauty of the Bay, I was thrilled with my second morning in the journey to the North, especially after my unexpectedly terrible experience in mountain climb the day before.  

Hạ Long dramatically changed. The image that I kept in my memory when I was here in 90s was totally disappeared, when seeing a big and beautiful road led to our hotel and many another luxury hotels along the Bay. The old fish market next to Bay surely was gone for long, and I didn't have a chance to visit the city, only three hours in the Bay and time to get back to Hà Nội.