Feb 22, 2013 - Ha Long Bay (Hanoi) Vietnam

It was a 3 hour drive to Hanoi from Ha Long Bay where we docked, but the countryside and the city was well worth the drive! The country side is either mountains, lakes or rice fields, all of which make for a beautiful scene. Once in Hanoi, is is all about the markets, temples, and green areas and about 2 million motercycles! This traffic may be worse than Ho Chi Minh City! Crossing the street is always a life threatening adventure-the cycles stop for no one-not even the police! We visited the street markets and found things that grew in the...

Jan 10, 2013 - Hanoi to Halong Bay

Peaceful Vietnam Morning Ready at 8.30am to a peaceful Vietnam morning for our next adventure! Our bus is taking us to Halong Bay – a 4 hour drive to the coast – for an overnight stay on a boat in the Bay. Halong Bay is a Unesco Heritage Site and is one of the Seven Natural World Wonders. The drive there started with rush hour traffic in Hanoi. Toronto seems like child’s play compared to Hanoi. The roads were bumpy sometimes; lots of industry and construction on the way; lots of towns close together and in between lots of rice paddies....

Sep 2, 2012 - Ha Long Bay

After having another excellent buffet breakfast at the Asian Ruby, we met our tour guide, Chi, for Ha Long Bay who walked us to our bus. During the four-hour trip, he told us a bit about the history of Hanoi (Hà Nội literally means "between rivers"). After arriving in Ha Long, our tour group went straight to our boat, which had cabins for the passengers on the lower deck, a restaurant on the upper deck, and tables and lounge chairs set up on the roof. We were served a delicious seafood lunch with dragonfruit for dessert, and afterwards...

Apr 26, 2012 - Vietnam - Day 25 - Halong Bay Boat Cruise

We left our hotel at 8:15am and boarded our bus from Poseidon Sails headed towards Halong Bay for our two day, one night cruise. We picked up several other passengers along the way, as we headed out of the city we had 'Duc' our guide for the duration of our tour begin to tell us some history about the three main provinces that make up this North Eastern area and the two largest rivers that flow through them. We saw some great landscape, lots of rice fields, water buffalo's, small towns where the streets are dirty and smelly, lined with...

Mar 19, 2012 - Navigando nella nebbia

Voglio dimenticare il primo giorno e ricordare solamente l’incredibile bellezza e magia di questa baia, di queste isole calcaree che vengono su improvvisamente dalla nebbia, imponenti e spettacolari, dando vita alla leggenda che vuole che una draghessa avesse deciso di rifugiarsi qui, per partorire, in modo da confondere il proprio corpo con le formazioni della baia. Sarà quest’incredibile nebbia, sarà la suggestione del navigare lento, leggero, tra di loro, ma potrei quasi dire che questa leggenda ha del vero tanta è la meraviglia che si...

Jan 5, 2012 - Ha Long Bay

When I was going preliminary research on visiting Vietnam, I came across a photo of Ha Long Bay. That sold me. I had to see the bay. And today would be that day. There has been worldwide discussion on establishing the seven natural wonders of the world. Canada flouted a few things, amongst them the Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. They are fine rocks don't get me wrong. I have seen them and walked around them. And then you have to leave quickly because the tide comes in. But they are not in the same league as Ha Long Bay. And if I can...

Oct 21, 2011 - Ha Long bay more tourism

There isn't anything to say about Ha Long city, it is quite desolate except for a couple of buildings. It is however full with people who know exactly what every single tourist is here for. It seems easy to bat them off, but wading through to find the real location of sale isnt all that easy, especially when they close at inconvenient hours. We did manage in the end and we got charged only for $7 for the trip. Most people get charged about $10-$20 if they are lucky. We weren't too sure at first if there was going to be a junk for us, it...

Jul 26, 2011 - Caves, Kayaking, and a debate about pizza

Ha Long bay may have been the most beautiful place I have ever been (other than your moms house). We were lucky enough to spend all of our time on the bay, on a boat. Although there was a downside to this; Either you paid double for your beer, you pay a “service fee” to the captain for bringing your own beer onto the ship, or you sneak beer and say no to the service charge. Needless to say $2.00 per beer is just too damn much to be paying so we spent much of our time drinking beers out of the captains eye…well I mean where he couldn’t see...

Jul 7, 2011 - Halong Bay Boat trip

The Belgiam Couple(Fred and Alicia), an English couple (Daisy and Jack), alex and I booked the boat to Halong bay which are islands off the coast of Vietnam. There are either 400 or 4000 islands, I cant remember. It was beautiful, we saw a floating village where fisherman have lived for generations. The houses literally were just floating, they had animals and children and even had a floating school there. We also saw caves, swam in a desserted bay inside a cave, kayaked in caves, jumped off the boat, and ate lots of rice and local food....

Apr 29, 2011 - Cruising Ha Long Bay

Friday, April 29, 2011: Hanoi to HaLong Bay Everyone was surprisingly already assembled in the hotel lobby and ready to go by 8am, anxiously awaiting the arrival of Hao and our tour bus. The traffic in the Old Quarter was heavy due to the pending Holiday weekend and our bus couldn’t make its way to our hotel. Once he arrived, Hao explained that tour buses are actually banned from making pick-ups of tourists in the Old Quarter due to the narrowness of the streets but often they come in anyway, depending on the relationship the hotel owner...

Mar 15, 2010 - Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam; March 14, 2010

Exit the Chinese world of the twin cousins (cold & wet) & enter the mystic world of Viet Nam & the dark cousins (fog & mist) related to these cousins, who are related to those horrible twin sisters: heat & humidity. Sounds idyllic but in reality Viet Nam is in the "dry season," at this time. I can only imagine what the monsoon season is like here. Our early, early (06:00) approach to Ha Long bay harbor was shrouded in mist & a heavy fog, lending the appearance of mystery and suspense as we stealthy glided along. This would have been a good...

Mar 3, 2010 - Rock Long, Rock Hard - Ha Long Bay

The last few days have been so much fun. There were about 20 in our group, and it was a good group of people. I met a lot of people right away on the bus from Hanoi to Ha Long and hung out with them pretty much the whole trip. Ha Long Bay is one of the Natural Heritage sights in Vietnam and one of the 7 natural wonders of the world. There are about 2000 little islands made of limestone that just out of the water all over. It is such a beautiful place. Ha Long means "decending dragon". The legend is that a dragon went into the sea after...