Expectations Vs. My Experienced Reality!
By Carolina –
First things first. Is Halong Bay a ‘must see’ in northest Vietnam?! – Most definitely!
The highlights of Halong Bay ❤️
Kayaking through the light cave (Hang toi) and into the green lagoon 🛶⛰🏝
A night sleep on board of the junk boat, anchored in Lan Ha Bay 🛥
Hiking through the jungle and the amazing viewpoint, at Cat Ba national park ⛰
The hike from sunrise beach to sunset beach, at Cat Ong Island 🏝
Our 2 sweet tour guides, Bing 🙋🏻♂️and Hung 🙋🏻♂️from Ocean tour.
Expectations – An amazing show of thousands of limestone karsts and towering isles topped by rainforests, resting on emerald waters sailed by traditional Junk boats with their iconic sails on display.
Reality – Don’t get me wrong! The Bay of the «Descending Dragon» is simply majestic – but there are things I wish I knew before going there. Things such as:
- Visiting the Bay during rainy season. The gray clouds and dark skies shadowing the bay won’t let you appreciated the emerald tonalities of the water Ha Long Bay is know for.
- There is plastic EVERYWHERE – The human impact on this natural ecosystem is very obvious (and I felt overwhelmed by this version of reality).
- You won’t be sailing (wind powered), you will be motoring.
The human impact was specially sad to witness, but also very eye opening. After visiting Ha Long Bay, we became more aware and better at recycling, using less plastic (whenever possible), avoid one time use plastic, using reusable water bottles, etc.
If I, the Carolina of today – July the 6th, 2017 -, were to travel a week or so back in time, I will suggest the Carolina from the past to get her expectations down⚠️, research more about Ha Long Bay today (The real state of the park. Not the tourist pictures they sell you at the agencies and postcards), I will also advice her to find more options regarding tour providers and last but not least, get a minimum of 1 mosquito-repellent per person. ⚠️DEET is an essential component, if you want your mosquito-repellant to be of use here in Vietnam!
Let me elaborate about all what I’ve just said – but please, keep in mind this is merely my perspective.
When I was back home researching about Vietnam and the list of things one could do, Ha Long Bay was always within the top 10. As I said at the beginning, I still think it is a must see in Vietnam. Just don’t expect the perfect Photoshopped pictures of the Bay, if you don’t want to risk feeling disappointed 😔.
Seeing this place with my own eyes, has given me a sense of the natural paradise this park might once have been, but it also made it very clear to me, the challenges our planet is facing. The threat? Simply put → us. Human beings! Hopefully, it is also us the ones that can, and will do something about it 🙏🏼.
Our tour provider – Ocean Tour – was good. Really sweet, service-minded and helpful people.
We took a shuttle-bus ride 🚌, then we took a boat 🛥, arrived to another harbor and finally got on board of our Junk cruise boat ⛵️.
I was expecting it to be the kind of sailing boats they show on the pictures. The ones with the kind of sails you see throughout different places here in Asia. On the contrary, it was a motor boat. The staff was really friendly, the food was good and the boat was exclusively for the 4 of us. That first night on the boat was the best night sleep I have had, since I arrived in Vietnam – We should have stayed on that boat!
The second day of the tour was a hike in Cat Ba National Park. Hiking through the jungle with +30 degrees and 98% humidity was a challenge, but the scenery was amazingly beautiful and I wouldn’t spare that experience. If you come, get prepared and go for that climb!
Cat Ong Island is the private island of the tour organizers. The islands is facing the harbor of the main island – X Island. It has the potential of becoming a nice stay, but in my opinion, they still have a long way to go to achieve that.
We were located in a half finished bungalow facing the beach. It could have been perfect, if the bungalow was finish, if the air conditioning or at least the fender on the selling were working properly, if they have had mosquito-nets to protect you from the mosquitos, while the non-working AC or fenders were lacking to do so.
We though we could scape our situation, by diving into the sea, but walking on the beach and going into the water for barely minutes, revealed the scale of the garbage situation here in the park, and I guess in many other places in Asia. If you’re going for a swim, you better prepare yourself to stumble upon bags, flamingo, bottles, cans,… just garbage in general!
As Daniela has written in her entry – read here ↓ https://los3mosqueteros.dk/2017/07/07/halong-bay/, the people of the floating village are facing the challenge of how to live sustainably in and from nature – and a lack of an ecotourism model contributes to the current situation 😔
The channels of the park are over trafficked by tourist boats, the large majority powered by oil motors rather. Most people look to the other side, rather than picking up a few plastics here and there… and most importantly, we don’t demand CLEAN!
We could get better at that. Demanding and contributing to clean/sustainable tourism, demanding and contributing to the education and awareness of the locals about the perks of taking care of the environment. Participating actively in reestablishing a balance between men and nature.
Most of us will come and go. We are just by-passers with an opinion about this and that. We might even think ‘this is their problem and not ours’ – but I challenge that! I wish I could have seen Ha Long Bay 60-100 years ago. I reckon it was gorgeous and breathtaking – when still today, in its less perfect condition, it still managed to leave me stunned by its beauty.
It is also my problem! as I just partly enjoyed my canoe tour 🛶, while collecting bags and all sorts of plastic here and there. It was certainly my problem, as I couldn’t mitigate the heat with a ‘so wanted’ swim at the beach right in front of our bungalow, duet to the water pollution. It is also my problem… IT’S ALL OF US’S PROBLEM!
I will end up by saying that I don’t regret coming here, and it has certainly been a wake up call for the challenges our planet is facing, and the effects of those challenges on us living in it and of it – So, what can we do? What would you suggest we do?!
While walking on the beach I got inspired by a post I saw once, of a woman taking 5 minutes to clean the beach every time she visits – this might be a help, but it addresses only the consequences. We need to tackle the cause!
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