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In the past travellers were able to easily visit Ha Long Bay independently by paying a fisherman to ferry them around the bay. But the popularity of the region has given rise to a cavalcade of wooden junks shuffling tourists about.
Apart from a handful of more expensive tours, the majority are uniform – a three-level wooden boat with an open deck on the top level, dining area in the middle level and quaint, clean cabins below.
Our tour promised a two-night, three-day sojourn on a sail boat in the World Heritage-listed site, with no more than 16 people on board. We slept one night on the boat and the other on Cat Bah Island. Once aboard, we quickly found the crew had little interest in customer service.
When the boat filled with more than 25 passengers, we approached our host. Instead of explaining that most of these passengers would be disembarking before we moored for the night, she told us sternly that the Vietnamese tourists were not included in the head count.
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Our tour was more like a dictatorship that masqueraded as a boat tour. We were told what to do, when to eat and when to get up (at 7am). We were forced to stick to a tight schedule, which ferried half the tourists aboard to and from Cat Bah Island, leaving little time to swim and kayak.
One local told us the lack of choice among tours was because the Vietnamese Government either owned or heavily subsidised the tour companies, allowing for no real competition in the market.
But despite the sometimes unfortunate aspects, Ha Long Bay is breathtaking. From the calm grey-green opaque waters of the bay rise thousands of limestone islands, with dramatic sheer cliffs and craggy openings.
There are nearly 3000 limestone islands in Ha Long Bay and many are hollowed out with enormous caves. On the first day we visited one of the largest caves, commonly called Wooden Stakes Cave.
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