Fantastic routes Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lan Ha (episode 9)

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Trip of the couple Anne-Marie and Christian AUDE with the local agency Vietnam Evasion

From September 20, 2019 to October 2, 2019

Tour : Hanoi – Bac Ha – Hoang Su Phi – Ha Giang – Dong Van – Lung Phin – Lan Ha Bay

Episode 9: Lan Ha Bay

We planned to visit Hanoi when we came back from the cruise to Lan Ha Bay, whose organization was entrusted to our agency:

– the next day a bus will pick us up in the direction of Cat Ba

– the bus drops us off at the “non-private” junk, which means that we have booked on a junk of 7 cabins shared with other people. There are private junk of 1 or 2 cabins (much more expensive) and bigger boats where you can get 30 or 50 people.

– After the cruise, the bus will take us back to the Chic Hotel where the services of the agency end.

After the big traffic jams at the exit of Hanoi, the journey by bus is done in 2 hours on the highway of Haiphong rather little frequented, although it is the port of Hanoi.

We cross then an ex-island connected to the continent by a bridge of 2 km (of memory) or an immense (and even more so it is large!) industrial zone and of offices is in construction.

Then the bus goes up on a well rusted ferry

We cross the gulf of Haiphong in 20 min

… and there, we discover another Vietnamese people than that of the northern ethnic groups

During the crossing, I notice that the traditional skirt of the Hmong and other Dao gives way to another local skirt a little shorter, and that the favorite pastime of the Vietnamese and Vietnamese is to be taken in photograph. We will only see Vietnamese taking a break in front of a monument, a beach, a tree, a restaurant, a store… in front of everything is anything !

After this photo interlude, the ferry docks on the island of Cat Ba

and half an hour later appears Cat Ba, former small port being transformed into a seaside town not so good !

2km further on, our junk is waiting for us :

Instead of a 7 cabin junk, we have a 2 cabin junk

In front of our astonishment, we are explained that it is the off season and that there is nobody, so we will have this junk of 2 cabins for us only

We had already noticed it in the north that there were few tourists, it will be almost the case everywhere where we will pass.

So here we are in the bay of Lan Ha…

But what are we doing in the bay of Lan Ha while everyone dreams of going to the famous Halong Bay?

Did we get tricked? Are we in a cheap bay?

Some explanations are necessary before embarking :

The bay commonly known as Along (or Halong) Bay extends over 120 km along the Gulf of Tonkin

It is divided into 3 districts: Along, Lan Ha and Bai Tu Long, so Along Bay is actually divided into 3 bays: Along, Lan Ha and Bai Tu Long

Along Bay is the easiest to access from Hanoi and the most known, so also the most touristic, and also the most polluted because all the waste of Along city is dumped there: as everybody we saw these pictures of floating garbage on Along Bay which don’t give us much desire to go there. However, our daughter went to Lan Ha and Along by kayak at the end of September, and she didn’t see all this garbage: did the images that went around the world push the authorities to do something for the cleanliness of this world heritage? The fear of seeing tourists turn away from this bay which is a financial manna has perhaps played… so much the better.

Lan Ha Bay is reached from Cat Ba Island by the old ferry, so it is a little more complicated, while Bai Tu Long Bay is a little further away.

According to the experts, it is impossible to see the difference between Along and Lan Ha in terms of landscape.

For all these reasons we chose the bay of Lan Ha (in fact especially to avoid the very numerous boats in Along), so no deception on the goods !

As soon as you board the “junk”, you cross floating villages where the inhabitants live from fishing and fish farming. Along Bay has become so touristic that the floating villages do not live from fishing but from tourism, and they empty themselves in the evening as soon as the tourists are gone.

Small white sand beaches appear here and there at the foot of limestone peaks, while there is no beach in Halong Bay

We thus make a stop bathing

We wonder about the cleanliness of the water, but we don’t see any garbage or strange colors or oil stains and we do as the few other tourists we see.

This part of Lan Ha is at the limit of the high sea, so there must be a lot of current, not sure that it is as clean inside.

The bath is nice, there are many passages under the rocks that we go through either by swimming as on the picture or by the sandy beach. Some of them are tiny, you have to crawl…really a very pleasant and original bath

Then we leave a little further to make of the canoe: we also pass in several tunnels more or less high between limestone peaks until reaching a lake (salted) closed, beautiful stroll or we are not the only ones but it is correct. No photo of this walk, I had left my camera on the boat, we are not safe from a desalination

The sun is already decreasing on the horizon, it is time to join the place where we will spend the night

An excellent night in a sumptuous setting with a few other boats in this part of the bay (no karaoke as it often happens in Along Bay, it seems).

The sun rises at 6:10 am, but the most beautiful colors are around 5:45 am

The cruise continues in the middle of the houses and the limestone peaks

We make a stop on the other side of the island of Cat Ba to join by bike a small village. Nice walk

Return to the port by crossing other villages

During these 2 days, we made a magnificent course: navigation in the middle of the pitons, sea bath, walk in canoe, stop on the island of Cat Ba with walk in bicycle. This well-trodden path was very nice with sublime landscapes… and small cherry on the cake, the cook prepared for us succulent meals in gargantuan proportion: in addition to the classic egg rolls and meats with all the sauces, we were entitled to hot oysters and all kinds of seafood.

Enough to treat ourselves to a good bottle of New Zealand wine

Here’s to you

Prochain épisode : Hanoi