Photos From Halong Bay | 180 Degrees West

We spent two days and one night cruising around Ha Long Bay, a UNESCO World Heritage site about 4 hours from Hanoi on the Gulf of Tonkin. March is in the middle of the misty/rainy season, which added to the creepy effect as we sailed further into “descending dragon bay,” what felt like the evil lair from a James Bond film. We kayaked through a limestone tunnel into a lagoon with monkeys along the shore and shared our boat with friendly Scandinavians, Belgians, and Germans. Despite the 500 boats that go out into Ha Long Bay each day, it’s big enough to handle the masses. Here are a few photos from our time there.

Halong Bay - 074 — Inside “Surprising Cave,” one of the larger limestone caves inside the karsts. Unlike caves we scampered through in Cambodia and Laos, this one had handrails, stairs, lights, and everything!

Halong Bay - 082 — The boat anchored in a calm bay for the night

Halong Bay - 103 — Sea World must have had a closeout sale 40 years ago…these trash cans were all over the place!

Halong Bay - 123 — Doesn’t Skyler look cute in her new hat?

Peggy (Sky's Mom) says:

March 29, 2013 at 8:31 am

I saw these pictures yesterday – so who remembers the Top Gear episode where they ended up in this amazing beautiful bay? I hope your watercraft was much more stable than their homemade scooter-boats.

Sky you are looking very chic, a sophisticated world traveler, in your new hat!

Mom

Skyler McDonald says:

March 29, 2013 at 10:17 pm

It’s so funny that you mention that — we just re-watched that episode last night and immensely enjoyed it having been here ourselves. Turns out that we followed the exact same route as the Top Gear guys, albeit not on rickety old motorbikes with colanders for helmets! We also met a young English guy in Hue who must have been following in Top Gear’s footsteps — he bought an ancient Honda in Saigon for $200 and was driving north. I suppose you get your dong’s worth here — he said he was in mechanics’ shops every day and the day before we met him his bike’s rear wheel fell clean off!

As for that hat, thanks for the compliment. I owe Uncle Bill for the good idea of protecting my pale skin from the sun.

Uncle Bill says:

March 31, 2013 at 10:30 am

I think Skyler looks tres chic!

Skyler McDonald says:

April 1, 2013 at 10:03 am

Thanks Uncle Bill! 🙂

Kayla says:

April 3, 2013 at 8:35 pm

I’m going to comment on the hat too, you look like quite the classy jet-setter Sky. All of your photos have been impressive so far but I think these might be winning right now! As I sit at my desk it’s hard to believe places like that are just waiting to be explored…

Travel Costs: Vietnam Budget Update says:

April 12, 2013 at 8:05 am

[…] most expensive activity was our 2 day/1 night Halong Bay cruise ($96/person). We also took a cooking class in Hoi An, went on a snorkeling trip in Nha Trang, […]