Ha Long Bay is Actually Quite Nice This Time of Year

On the morning of Tuesday, December 10, we boarded a van for a day-trip to Ha Long Bay. We would wind up spending more time on the road than at Ha Long Bay, but it was still very fun to visit for the day. The scenery was beautiful, and we met some nice people along the way.

It turns out that Ha Long Bay is actually quite nice this time of year.

Here are a few photos from the trip.


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This is Michael (Hoai). He was our tour guide for the trip.

He's a lively, funny guide who entertained us with witty banter and versus from some of his favorite American pop songs.

We shared the bus with this fine young German gentleman who will be graduating from his undergraduate studies back in German. He never had Oreos before. Andrew changed that.

After a four-hour drive, we arrived at our final destination: Ha Long Bay. We entered this building to get our tickets, join a different group for those only doing the day-long tour, and board our vessel.

We boarded a ship that looked a lot like this.

In fact, they all look the same...

Port security has beefed up a bit. These guys make sure that captains and tour guides abide by safety guidelines and that tourists don't get out of hand.

We were on the water by around 1:00 PM. Since it's December and thus Vietnam's version of winter, Ha Long Bay was shrouded in a thin mist. I'm actually glad we came during the winter, as this is a view that not many get to see since most come during the peak summer season.

We disembarked our ship at one of the popular islands for our first of two destinations for the day. This island (the name escapes me) has a big cave that we would all walk through for about 30 minutes.

Michael shares his knowledge of the island and cave.

I've been to one of these kinds of caves before on my last trip to Ha Long Bay 11 years ago. It looks the same, only it feels like it has even more colored lights. The lights take away from the natural feel of the cave and towards a more Disneyland-esque experience.

By the time we left the cave, the haze around the bay had dissipated. Everything around the bay was in its natural color and full glory.

We were having a fun time drinking beers and meeting new friends along the way.

And the view couldn't have been better.

We arrived at our second and final destination for the day trip: One of four fishing villages that floats on the bay. This is an actual village, complete with small commerce and a school for kids.

These two are on their way to bring in more fresh fish for visitors like us to purchase.

After leaving the fishing village, the sun was starting to make its decent.

And boy was it pretty.

We made our way back to the port and boarded the bus to make our four-hour journey back home. We got home at around 9:00 PM. We made plans to grab a late dinner with a couple of gents from Scotland who were doing their own awesome adventure across East and Southeast Asia.

Here's a video vignette of our boat tour of Ha Long Bay.

Stay tuned for our review of Ha Noi.