Halong Bay Boat Trip and Jelly fish

PR Log (Press Release) – Jul 24, 2008 – Myself and Caroline had a trip booked to Halong Bay for two days and one night on a boat. The previous night we went to call for David and Teri in their hotel. David wanted to watch the Rangers vs Dundee game on TV so we polled up with a large bottle of vodka which we bought for the boat and a small bottle of vodka that we could drink before we went out.



Needless to say both bottles got drunk pretty quickly and David was dispatched to the office to procure another large bottle. We vaguely remember ending up in a bar until 5am which was not a particularly good idea consider me and C had a 7am start. Which bar?, we are not sure but it was the one with the smallest pool table on the planet. We inexplicably ended up smoking a bong with some work men who were paving the street at 5am in the morning, got lost and had to get a motor to take us two blocks. I suspect when we see David and Teri in Laos they may or may not be able to shed some light on the situation.

When our tour guide knocked on our door early the next morning things were not too perky, considering we were not packed and not showered, we got our arses into gear pretty swiftly and were loaded onto the mini bus feeling like badgers had shat in our throats and mice were playing a game with iron footballs in our heads.


I tired to purchase a large bottle of water from across the road but they claimed they did not sell water. This was not good, we were dying of thirst, the bus was very hot and C was feeling really ill. After asking the driver to stop for water at the next convenient shop, and his subsequent ignore of my police request, I lost my cool a little, scared him a little and he stopped. We loaded up with nice water.

Four hours later we arrived in Halong Town, not really wanting to be there but looking forward to spending the day on the boat chilling out.

We boarded a traditional Junk Boat. The top deck was open with sun loungers and seats, the middle deck was a bar/restaurant affair. The lower deck was the cabins. Our cabin was very nice.

On board were a couple of Argentinean girls, a Hungarian couple, A Chilean/German couple, a Malaysian couple and a group of older French people who were traveling together. Everyone was nice and friendly.

Hanlong Bay is a World Heritage Area and consists of green still sea and huge towering limestone islands, sparsely populated by greenery. The weather was overcast and it would look so much better with a blue sky backdrop. It sort of reminded me of Yangshou on Sea.


Our first stop were some amazing caves that were only discovered in the late nineties, we walked around for forty five minutes and got back on the boat

Late evening we dropped anchor in a bay and went kayaking. I had never done it before, C had once, so she was deemed the experts and took the lead in the front seat. We paddled ourselves around a nearby island and saw lots of massive jelly fish everywhere which rather put us off this idea of swimming.

After the Kayaking we waiting on the top deck, starving hungry for our food and watched the day turn into night and the lights come on the other Junks that were anchored nearby.

We were fed a very mediocre meal and everyone was in bed early due to the fact that there was not much to do.


We woke for a 7am breakfast and set sail back to Halong Town. We were due to arrive back at 4pm and then get an eighteen hour bus to Laos but we were shattered and could not face it, we decided to postpone it for twenty four hours and book back into the Blue Star Hotel for some rest.

We sort of enjoyed the trip but it was not spectacular by any means.

Damien and Tanya have gone ahead to Laos and we shall see then in a few days. David and Teri may have gone to but we are not too sure if they were sober enough.

Source: Kayak Halong bay & Halong Bay cruises