Ha Long Bay for flashpackers
Two night/three day mid-range tour
As with the budget tour, we kicked off with a packed minivan, but unlike the previous tour the staff were better trained, spoke better English, and were more informative. Again we stopped off at the crafts centre for the victims of Agent Orange, but were spared the confusion of any more stops and delivered straight to the pier.
Once there we still had to climb over several boats to get to ours, but when we did, we found a beautiful, new wooden junk. There was no top deck, but there were decks fore and aft with sun-loungers that actually had cushions! And tables to sit around, and a big pagoda thingy on the bow to shield us from the sun. More importantly, the boat set sail with a compliment of eight passengers, without packing it full of day-trippers.


