KayakHalongBay.com

And now, our adventures at sea have drawn to close. We’ve sampled the budget, mid-range, and luxury tour options. And as we reflect on the experience, what conclusions can be drawn?

The budget tour is a crap shoot. We’d be hard-pressed to say which of the myriad agencies offering discount tours is most likely to offer the best experience. The problem is, in order to fill all the boats, agencies shift passengers around from operator to operator, so there’s no telling in advance what which boat you’ll be on or how good the crew will be. For every report we get of having a wonderful time going through a specific tour company, we hear from elsewhere that travelers had a trip from hell.

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Introduction

Ha Long Bay is distinguished by the hundreds of small limestone islands that rise steeply or vertically from its shallow waters. Its dramatic and beautiful landscape is deservedly famous as one of the world’s outstanding natural sights, but it is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site of international geomorphological significance (Fig. 1). The bay lies on the northeastern coast of Vietnam, immediately east of the Red River delta . It is bounded on the north by the mainland hills either side of Ha Long City (also known as Hong Gai), to the south by the open waters of the Gulf of Tonkin, to the west by Cat Ba Island, and to the east by islands of sandstone (Fig. 2). Ha Long Bay has an area of about 1500 km2, and contains nearly 2000 limestone islands.

The caves described here were all visited during an assessment of the bay’s geomorphology with respect to its position as a World Heritage Site. Records of other caves in Ha Long Bay are sparse. A British team led by Howard Limbert mapped the Hang Hanh stream cave in the mainland limestone along the north shore of the bay; and a French team led by Marc Faverjon explored caves in the islands east of the bay, and also a few in Ha Long Bay itself.

Locality names are here translated into English, except for the cave names which are left in Vietnamese. The key terms are: dao = large island; hon = small island or rocky tower; hang = tunnel or passage cave; dong = chamber cave.

Fig. 1. The view out from Hong Gai harbour, with the limestone islands extending out into Ha Long Bay.

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Hanoi to Halong Bay

Halong Bay’s sister cities of Bai Chay and Hon Gai are about 165 kilometers northeast of Hanoi. The repaving of Highway 18 (and the redesign of Highway 5) has cut a full 90 minutes off what was formerly a 3-4-hour trip from Hanoi. At present, the most convenient route from Hanoi to Halong Bay is via Bac Ninh:

Hanoi – Bac Ninh – Pha Lai – Dong Trieu – Uong Bi – Halong (At 155km, this is the shortest route to Halong)
• Hanoi – Bac Ninh: 30km
• Bac Ninh – Pha Lai: 25km
• Pha Lai – Dong Trieu: 30km
• Dong Trieu – Uong Bi: 30km
• Uong Bi – Halong: 40km

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