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Vietnam - Day 3 - Halong Bay

By SoloSurfer, 11/01/2014 15:50:43
Another Galaxy Premium docked beside our boat. I think they had a couple of these sized junks in their fleet.




Another Galaxy Premium docked beside our boat. I think they had a couple of these sized junks in their fleet.



When you choose to take a Halong Bay tour you are faced with the decision of taking a 1 night, 2 day cruise or a 2 night, 3 day cruise. I would say most people who we chatted with were on a 1 night, 2 day. We both found that having that extra day proved to be perfect for what we were looking for. The second day was much more relaxed, we got on another boat in the morning and had a much smaller tour group. We first headed to another cave with very few tourists - The Maze Cave. I think this is the benefit of taking that extra night and extra day, you are able to experience a part of Halong Bay that fewer venture off to. We really enjoyed the mix of people we met in addition to the activities we experienced on that second day (I definitely recommend the 2 night, 3 day cruise if you have the time).





At the base of Maze Cave - Halong Bay.



Amanda was excited to see the sun come out, we were lucky to have an incredible day. Thinking back, this was only a few days before the superstorm typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and then traveled onto Vietnam, we were very lucky to experience Halong Bay with this great weather.



After Maze Cave on our second day, we ventured off to another set of islands where we had the opportunity to kayak around and spend some time on our beach of choice within this area.





In the afternoon of the second day, we cruised past this floating fishing village and then onto a Pearl Farm tour.





Halong Bay - Pearl Farm - This was a cultured pearl farm where the pearls were essentially created by man. Natural pearls are formed by nature or basically by chance, and the chance of a pearl forming in a mollusk or mussel is very rare... therefore most pearls are cultured. In this case, man made pearls are formed by inserting a graft into a mollusk and then a pearl sac forms and an actual pearl has a good chance to form in this controlled environment. They then cultivate, clean them up and sell them. It was an interesting tour.



The captain's helper, and a good one at that.





At the end of our second day, we had a chance to head back to the same beach we were at the night before. Instead, we opted to stay on the top deck of the boat, enjoy a Bia Ha Noi and relax before dinner. Cheers!



Amanda pointing out the exact same boat we were on.



The Galaxy Premium was a really great boat. We were noticing all different types of junks throughout the 3 days in Halong Bay and they varied in size and condition. The Galaxy Premium was on the smaller size of the overnighters.






All of our meals were excellent and the displays were very well done. For both lunch and dinner, they would serve us course after course after course, always too much food. Here our tomato swan was guarding our fried squid.
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