Vietnam's Information
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Vietnam has grand plans for Halong City. South-facing, and with Halong Bay raising its limestone fingers just across the sea, this place has great potential, but unfortunately, development has been haphazard. The vast majority of Western tourists hitting the bay do so on the express service from Hanoi, going straight to Tuan Chau Island, the tourist wharf 12km west of the city from which most boats for Halong Bay depart.
Halong city is an amalgam of easterly Hong Gai and westerly Bai Chay, two towns each with their distinct character, merged in 1994 and lassoed together by a bridge and cable car. For the moment, locals still use the old names - as do services, buses, and so on - as a useful way to distinguish between the two areas. For those in search of more local color, or who are put off by Bai Chay's overwhelming devotion to tourism, Hong Gai provides more basic tourist facilities and has a more bustling, workaday atmosphere. It's from here that you can catch a ferry to Quan Lan Island in Bai Tu Long Bay.
Neon signs and flashing fairy lights blaze out at night along the Bai Chay waterfront, acting like a magnet to foreign visitors and advertising North Vietnam's most developed resort, with shoulder-to-shoulder hotels and a picturesque backdrop of wooded hills. While Bai Chay is swamped in summer with local holidaymakers and tourists from China, out of season it's a pretty sleepy place and decidedly less sleazy. Apart from strolling the seafront boulevard and taking a quick look at its newly prettified beachfront, Bai Chay has nothing to distract you from the main business of touring Halong Bay. If you're staying here, you can take a turn through the seafront market, a somewhat desultory array of stalls selling tourist tat.
In contrast to Bai Chay, Hong Gai has a compelling, raw vitality plus an attractive harbor to the east, crowed with scurrying sampans; changes are afoot, however, and some parts have been prettified in recent years, with parkland, new buildings, and the like. It's worth spending an hour or so wandering around the market and Long Tien Pagoda, especially if you are using Hong Gai as a jumping-off point to Bai Tu Long Bay.
Driving out from Vietnam's north coast in a wooden junk, your eyes will be riveted on what, at first, appears to be a jagged wall of emerald green. After an hour or so the wall swallows you up, and you find yourself in a fairyland of otherworldly limestone peaks, jutting from the water at sheer angles - this is Halong Bay, the number-one tourist attraction in all of Vietnam. Bar a clutch of impressive caves, specific sights are few on the ground, but even if you tire of the scenery there's a lot to do in the bay - cruises aside, there's kayaking across the tranquil waters, swimming amid the twinkles of phosphorescent plankton, or even climbing up a rocky cliff with your bare hands.
East of Halong Bay, stretching up towards the Chinese border, lies an attractive area of islands, known as Bay Tu Long or "Children of the Dragon". Some of the larger islands feature important forest reserves and are home to several rare species, such as the pale-capped pigeon, while dugong (sea cow) inhabit the surrounding waters. In 2001, Bai Tu Long National Park was created to protect 15,700 hectares of marine and island habitat. As Halong Bay begins to suffer from huge numbers of visitors, more and more tour companies are offering tours to this quieter, but equally impressive, bay. The only downside is that there are few caves to visit and it's more remote, so boats need to use more fuel, but most visitors are happy with this trade-off for a more tranquil experience.
The most visited of all caves in the bay, and featuring on almost all one-and-two-day itineraries is Sung Sot Cave, or the "Surprising Cave". Inside its three echoing chambers, spotlights pick out the more interesting rock formations, including a "Happy Buddha" and a rather surprising pink phallus. At the top, you come out onto a belvedere with good views over the flotilla of junks below and sampans hawking souvenirs and soft drinks. Also in this area are Dong Tien Lake and Me Cung Cave where, in 1993, ancient fossilized human remains were found; sadly, these only figure on a few tours.
Finally, Halong Bay has a sight that isn't a cave! Plenty of day tours now include a visit to Ti Top Island, which was given its unusual name by Ho Chi Minh, in honor of a visiting Soviet cosmonaut. The island's steep shape is unusual, too - like a jungle-covered Matterhorn in miniature. The done thing to do here, if you've got the legs for it, is march up the 400-plus steps to the 110m-high summit, for a fantastic bay view. More sedentary people may prefer to laze on the beach; snorkeling equipment can be rented from the island bar.
