Backpacking Vietnam: Halong Bay

Sung Sot Cave 

Halong Bay was one place where I was really excited to go to when I started planning for this trip (and excessively watched videos of it on YouTube). Some things always seem to be more beautiful and magical when I imagine them in my mind. However, Halong Bay was still a great place to visit but might have been even better if we went for a more luxurious cruise. On our first day, we kayaked leisurely and floated around a lot, visited Sung Sot Cave and a beach crowded with tourist. 

The 2nd day was a lot better, we got transferred to a smaller boat and had it all to ourselves along with another couple. We cruised along Lan Ha Bay, which felt a lot more serene and I got to relax and read my Kindle. I also might have fallen asleep at some point because it was so relaxing. We did more kayaking, swimming, and jumping from the boat. In the evening, we returned back to an empty Dugong Sail and waited for the sun to set as a new group of people arrived on the boat. 

Our Boat 

Dugong Sail was not the most luxurious boat but it had to do for our backpacker budget. After reading a zillion reviews and horror stories about the tours on Halong Bay, I was getting extra paranoid. We booked our tour with our hotel in Hanoi, the B&B Hanoi Hostel before even getting to Vietnam (because I'm crazy efficient). They were really helpful and offered us tours for different budgets and we eventually settled on the midrange 3D2N tour with Dugong Sail after consulting with Tripadvisor. We paid $135USD per person for it and it was one of the most expensive things we did on this entire backpacking trip. The boat itself was just ok. The beds were extremely hard and the room was stiflingly hot because of the weather and because they don't switch on the power in the day. Our toilet smelt kind of funky too and we avoided going in there. Also, I saw a cockroach while in the toilet :( The deck chairs on the Dugong Sail were also ridiculously uncomfortable and awkward. Food on the boat was pretty average but there were some lunches that were yummy, and since we did a 3D2N, the food we ate on the 2nd day was exactly the same.

I might go back to Halong Bay if I had more moolah.