Hao Long Bay
Photos have been updated!
Gorgeous Hao Long Bay!
We decided to spend out last two days in Vietnam on two different day trips. The first was Hao Long Bay, we took an 8am bus which got us there about 12:30, 4 hours plus a rest stop. We had lunch on a boat as we sailed out to Hao Long Bay. The photos I took really don't do it justice by any means and I'll be adding more when I get some from my friends.
It was like the towering green capped mountains in Krabi (Thailand) but these came out of the water not the ground and they seemed to go on forever. They were absolutely gorgeous and the boat went between them. They said that this area had 1976 islands or something like that. The photo below starts to give you an idea of their size and how many there were.
Once we got there we were able to take kayaks around this beautiful area where we actually went through little water caves under these giant rocks. That was really cool and I really like kayaking which was a plus. Some people got taken around in little bamboo boats that other people who worked there were rowing but it took away the feeling of autonomy in decision making and also the successful feeling that you got there on your own. I really liked kayaking for that reason, while others just made it to the edge of the caves we went further to the other side and found ourselves in the center of a completely isolated part surrounded by rocks only accessible by the little cave opening. It was beautiful and I am so glad we did it.
After that we got back on the boat and headed to go see a cave.
This is the cave. I mean I get it, it was huge and had many beautiful rock structures. They told us that Hao Long Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site for its beauty and a few scientific/ecological reasons if I recall correctly. It was really cool but I wasn't interested in the cave as much as the rest of the trip.
At about 4:30 we got back from the boats and back onto the boat. We would be back in Hanoi at about 8:30 and then had an hour turn around to catch our night bus to Sapa the next day at 9:45pm.
Needless to say being in a bus for 9 hours to actually do things for like 4 sucked but it was so beautiful that I think it was worth it. The bus really wasn't that bad either. Gaston had gotten a one week unlimited data sim card so we were all just stealing his wifi hotspot and that made the bus easier.