Halong Bay

Today we are having a Halong Bay trip the entire day. Before pick up we have a breakfast first at hotel. It was buffet with many food variation and western style. Pick up arrive late at 8.40am and journey to Halong Bay pier would take around 3.5-4 hours depend on the traffic road. We travelled by minivan for about 167km. Arrive in pier we boarding a ship cruise to Halong area, it takes 45minutes to our first destination which was Floating Village while we had our lunch with 10 type of dishes.

The name Hạ Long is derived from the Sino-Vietnamese, meaning “descending dragon”. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and popular travel destination in Quảng Ninh Province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various shapes and sizes.

According to local legend, when Vietnam had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. To assist the Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Under magics, numerous rock mountains abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of invaders’ ships; the forward ships struck the rocks and each other. After winning the battle, the dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth, and then decided to live in this bay. The place where the mother dragon descended was named Hạ Long, the place where the dragon’s children attended upon their mother was called Bái Tử Long island (Bái: attend upon, Tử: children, Long: dragon), and the place where the dragon’s children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vỹ island (Bạch: white-color of the foam made when Dragon’s children wriggled, Long: dragon, Vỹ: tail), present day Trà Cổ peninsula, Móng Cái.

Floating Fishing Village

In floating village there will be a two option activities which was kayaking and row boat to the lime stone and cave in the area. This time we opt for row boat as we already have it at Bor Thor before in Krabi and also for easy to taking a picture.

Floating Fishing Villages are among the most special attractions of Halong Bay. There are some villages in the World Heritage Site: Ba Hang, Cua Van, Vung Vieng and Cong Dam. Most of the junks and cruises would pass by one of these floating villages and would probably make a short stop at a fish farm to observe daily life or just for the visitors to have a peek into the basic living of the villagers. Among many activities in program, the one which is found to be the most enjoyable was the visit to the floating fishing villages. Some inhabitants came to pick you up with little sampan touring their village.

Cong Dam fishing village is situated far from the mainland. Its population is only around 120 people.

The number of visitors to Cong Dam fishing village is not much. Therefore, the scenery there has been remaining primitive and the environment is very clean. This area has many majestic lime-stone mountains and pristine coral reefs.

Coming to Cong Dam fishing village, tourists can embark in a guided kayak tour to see stunning seascape on the area around, try fishing with local experienced fishermen or explore its traditional fishing culture.

Tien Cung Cave

Finish up there the ship continue cruise to next and also our last destination which was Tieng Cung Cave. In here we are hiking for about 1 hour to inside of a cave and three view point.

Thien Cung Cave (Heavenly Palace Cave) is located in the southwest of Halong Bay, 4 km away from Dau Go Island, which is considered the most beautiful primitive cave of the Bay. The cave is 10,000 square meters with complicated interior structure, many floors, and high ceiling. The cave becomes famous thanks to a unique system of stalactites and stalagmites with different forms and shapes.

Exploring Thien Cung Cave’s craggy cliffs is no easy task. Going through a narrow door, you would be surprised by a large space inside the cave that the further you walk, the more beautiful formation of stalactites come to your eyes.

Last we back to pier and then transfer back to hotel with same minivan.

Back to hotel after drop the stuff we go out again for dinner. Tonight we tried street food which was pigeon roasted salt and vegetables stir mushroom. The tastes is good, specially the pigeon with a dip sauce from salt, sugar and lemon i think.

Trip Map