Amazing beauty. I booked a 3 day/2 night trip as recommended by many travellers on the internet and I will say that I sure am glad that I did my research. A 2 day/1 night trip would not have been enough and a 4 day trip would’ve been too much. We were greeted at our hotel promptly at 7:45 even after we had been told by one of the women at the hotel that the tour operators usually don’t come until 8:30. After piling into the van and collecting a few other tour go-ers, we were on our way to Halong Bay. Half way through we stopped for a trip to the “happy room” (which I thought was some sort of joke, but is what they call the bathroom/toilet/wc) and the compulsory shopping which employed handicapped children and all proceeds were to go towards these children assimilate back into society. And if that wasn’t enough reason to buy these scammers whares, one of the signs also said that these children became handicapped through the American’s use of Agent Orange and other chemicals during the American (Vietnam) war.

I had been warned that I should book my tour ahead of time rather than just showing up at the Bai Chai Tourist Wharf where all the junks depart from. Boy were they right, the place was a madhouse and I had a tour guide leading us to our boat! We only had to jump aboard one other boat to get to ours on the way out which was nice as there were literally hundreds of boats but we weren’t so lucky on the way back as I had to step upon at least 6 other boats to get back to the pier.

When asked why we were still at the docks, our tour guide Ba told us we were waiting for paperwork and the police to give us the ok. On further inquiry about paperwork, I was told that the reason that we need a passport to sleep on a boat in the bay is “to keep out Osama Bin Laden”.

Once we got to cruising all I can say is wow! And pictures won’t even do the place justice, though I tried to capture its glory and will post them later.

Cool things I saw/did: huge karst formations, caverns, floating fishing villages, kayaking and almost getting lost because all the islands look the same, trekking in the forest, food, food, food, waking up and looking out the window to find a few other boats in the bay and a ridiculous view, beating the other boats to places and avoiding the crowds

Uncool things: pollution in the bay (by locals and tourists), dropping a spare camera battery in the bay, motion sickness, rock hard beds, cold showers