10%

The Bay Less Traveled

postcards from the other side of Halong Bay

By Crystal Stafford

January 14^th, 2018

The bay less traveled

For most who visit Vietnam, an excursion to Halong Bay involves boarding a bumping party boat in the crowded north west corner of the bay and drinking your face off as you cruise by hundreds of other party goers doing the same. For our trip to Halong we decided to take the bay less traveled. We chartered a junk boat of our very own and boarded at the less crowded Haiphong Bay, located on the south western side of Cat Ba island. We spent two days cruising through these isolated channels, weaving our way from Haiphong to Halong Bay, through majestic cliffs and stunning views.

water world

If I ever happen to meet Kevin Costner, my first question will be "Have you been to Haiphong Bay?" Because this is the true Water World. Colonies of floating villages line the cliffs in this region. The villages are populated, not by fisherMEN, but by fish farmers. They cultivate clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp and a myriad of other seafood delectables. Each day we passed by villages similar to this so the on board chef could pick out ingredients for that nights dinner.

On board the junk boat

Although this area is far less populated, we still passed other tourist boats, but only occasionally. These boats were much smaller than what one would find in the northern part of Halong, and quieter. For each meal we anchored in our own little bay, tucked away from the view of other cruisers.

Our cozy little cabin

Each night we slept in this cozy little cabin with the windows open, gazing at the stars and drifting off to sleep to the sound of water gently lapping up against the side of the boat.

long swims to secluded beaches

When we weren't cruising we would anchor near a secluded beach and swim over, getting in our exercise for the day. Large jelly fish crowded the waters so we had to constantly be on the look out for these.

kayaks and caves

One morning we crossed over into Halong Bay and took a kayak through caves to hidden bays. As you can see, the number of tourist in this part of the bay substantially increases, but it was a very cool adventure nonetheless.

a family affair

Most of the floating fish farms were inhabited and run by a family of 4-5 people. The husband and maybe a brother did maintenance and the wife handled sales while the young children and dogs skipped around on the rafts, amazingly never falling in, though I did see several dogs paddle over to other villages for a visit.

AS EVENING FALLS

The magic begins. My favorite time of the day was sunset. The magic of this place truly began to show itself with the setting of the sun.

A bay of our own

Each evening the crew found an isolated bay for us to anchor for the night. Although there were no other tourist boats around there would usually be a small floating village on the other side of the bay. We spent the evenings sipping wine and shooting photos of the sunset.

bioluminescence

Once the sun fell completely Antonio swam around the boat as bioluminescent plankton trailed his body through the dark waters. We tried to capture this magical phenomenon but it was very hard to get a good photo.

the tour company

We did this tour with a company called Eco Friendly Vietnam. I will start by saying that we loved our tour guide and the crew were so nice. As amazing as this tour was, I DO NOT recommend the company. They called themselves "eco friendly" but they made no effort to live up to this standard. It seemed they used this name more as a marketing scheme than a ideal to operate by. Also, the food was terrible. They never served any local fare, and local Vietnamese food is so delicious!! It was a shame because there was so much fresh seafood yet for the most part they only served us tilapia that they brought on board and they fried EVERYTHING. After we complained they began picking up fresh items from the local farms. So, although I highly recommend doing this tour from the other side, it would be best to go through one of the other operators.