Ha Long Bay in Pictures
My expectations for Ha Long Bay had been growing for weeks after hearing the impressions of other travelers and reading online. If anything, Ha Long Bay exceeded those expectations.
It’s as if the floating Hallelujah mountains from Avatar fell from the sky into a green ocean. Karsts, limestone protrusions that tower thousands of feet in the air, dot the near and distant horizon in just about every shape physics will tolerate. There are over 2000 karsts in total that are officially part of this UNESCO world heritage site. Add fog, mist, sunrises and sunsets and it’s possible that James Cameron might have been able to save some money and used some good old fashioned real world beauty.
Just like the humans in Avatar, China has found folly attacking Vietnam via Ha Long Bay. They couldn’t tell where they were being attacked from.
Sasha did her homework and found an excellent cruise company — Bhaya. It was a splurge for us, but three days and two nights of gourmet meals, a luxurious cabin, kayaking, swimming and cooking classes were well worth it. For anyone deciding on two vs. three days, we strongly recommend three.
We made some new friends too who we shared the vodka tonics we’d stowed away to avoid an oppressive bar tab. Thanks to Erin and Jeff for that helpful Ha Long Bay tip.
The only thing that almost marred an otherwise perfect couple of days was that Sasha’s camera took a vacation from us. She accidentally left it on the top deck and it was nowhere to be found. 24 hours later it made its return to a corner of our room hidden behind a plant. We’d bet the farm, it had some help making it back home.
My favorite part of our Ha Long Bay experience was looking out the window of our cabin in a half sleep early in the morning watching massive karsts near and far drift by.
What a gorgeous piece of the world! I’m so glad you had the camera returned, too!
Outstanding! One of my favorite places.
Same — love it there.
Thanks Dan. And thanks for all your Southeast Asia tips.
Hi Guys,
No pics come up on this post for me. Also, did I miss a post on Josh’s mountain climbing in the rain? Been enjoying the ones from this past week or two–catching up. By now you must be in China. -S
Looks like our slideshows widget is currently rebelling. Thanks for alerting us. I’ve added the picture at the bottom of the post for now. Hopefully it will start working soon since it powers all of our slideshows.
My mt. Fansipan post isn’t up just yet, but hopefully it will be soon enough.
I think everyone of these could be a postcard! And it is working.
This place looks really amazing! I should go here one day. By the way, you’re already in Guilin now? I heard that they also have similar karst and limestone formations there.
It’s true. It’s Ha Long Bay on land. We’re getting a little desensitized to karsts to be perfectly honest. We still think Ha Long Bay is the winner.