One of the World's Heritage - Halong Bay
I found out that the standard Halong Bay tour package price ranges anywhere from $39-$45. Well, it all depends on your bargaining skills. The deluxe package starts from $60-$70 with better junks, better food and better rooms.
But being budget conscious, I took the standard Halong Bay package instead. Paid $40 for a weekend 2 days 1 night trip.
We departed at around 8am at the tour agency. They do pick you up from your hotel if you’re staying around the Old Quater, but I stay some 7-8 km away. And 7-8 km would translate into 30-40 minutes journey looking at the traffic conditions in Hanoi. So, I got to find my own way to the travel agency.
There were 15 of us, the driver and the guide, all squeezed into a small mini bus for the 3.5 hours ride to Halong City. We passed through 3 provinces along the way. But because I slept almost all the way. I didn’t know if I had missed anything interesting sights. Anyway, I’ll get a second chance on the way back to Hanoi the next day.
At Halong City’s harbour, there are just so many tourists around. I’d never seen so many tourists converge into one small area in Vietnam, not even the Old Quater. I soon got my Halong Bay entrance tickets. It’s for me to go onto the junks and also for the entrance to the caves. It costs 40,000 VND and is already covered by the tour package.
Halong Bay Junks
Looking at these junks, you’d be amazed. Not because of how they looked, but by the way they are parked at the harbor. I don’t know how they manage to squeeze all these wooden junks into one small harbor and then find their way out, safely. But yeah, they did, and they do it every single day.
The tour guide soon showed me the junk I’m supposed to spend my next 24 hours.
It has 3 floors. The lower floor is where all the rooms are. Right above it is the lounge where I’ll have my meals. The deck is at the highest floor. There are nothing on the deck except straw mats. Soon I got to realize they provide benches for sun bathing for the deluxe package junks.
After negotiating our way our from the junks parking area at the harbor, we set sail towards Halong Bay.
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