Halong Bay, Vietnam – The Land of Scams?

It has been more than a month since we were back from Vietnam and finally, I’m writing the long-awaited Halong Bay piece. Why bother? Since I’m sure all of you who know us would have heard of the horror story by now. But this one is for my own record.

Many believe that if you haven’t visited Halong Bay, you haven’t really visited Vietnam. And so, Halong Bay was thus, a highlight of our trip. Halong Bay is a World Heritage site. A huge bay, with 2,000 limestone formations, scattered with wooden junk boats, offers breathtaking scenery.


It truly was quite awesome

We booked an overnight tour to Halong Bay through the hotel for USD53 per person. The tour was operated by Minh Sinh Travels. Departed from Hanoi at 8.30 in the morning and it took 4 hours to reach Halong City.

I think all tour minibuses stop at the claimed outlet shop selling products for war handicapped children on the way there and back. Can’t help but wonder how much profits would reach them.


The humanitarian center

When we reached Halong jetty, we had to wait around for quite a long time for our tour guide to settle some ‘problems’ (the infamous word we kept hearing within that 2 days) with our fellow traveller’s passports. And we surrendered our passports then, to be returned at end of tour.


I love the clashing colours of our t-shirts! No, we didn’t plan it

We amused ourselves looking at these 2 Canadian guys, urging mmkk to go for one of them. Obviously having them next to us, we started talking in Bahasa with a mixture of Cantonese, only to be greeted “Apa khabar?” by one of them. Opps!! Found out that he was working in Indonesia and picked up the language along the way and he’s currently based in Hong Kong. Double OPPS!! He won’t happen to know Cantonese too?! Luckily for us, no, he has not been able to learn that yet.


Lunch on board

Lunch was served when we boarded the boat, “Dream Vovage” (nice name, eh?). Food was quite crappy and we then noticed the other tables were served prawns. When ours didn’t arrive, we asked the staff only to be told rudely, “no prawns”. Oh well, did we pay lesser than the others? We soon found out there were a vast disparity of how much each of us paid (No, ours wasn’t the cheapest). But were we given the choice of packages upon sign-up? No.


Dream Vovage (that turned nightmarish)

The boat cruised along the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin.





We then stopped at one of the many islands and went caving at Hang Sung Sot Cave.



There were proper walkways and coloured spotlights illuminating the limestone formations.


They all looked alike after a while


View from top before leaving the cave

The whole trip turned into a nightmare around this time when the tour guide, River (he claimed his Vietnamese name means river), told us they had some ‘problems’ and 2 of the rooms in the junk were ‘broken’ (like how?). He begged for our understanding and offered to find us another junk to spend the night. It was a scam to start off with when the operator has overbooked on the capacity of what the boat can offer.


Yup, that’s him..

The next activity was kayaking for those who gamed. Yes, needless to say I chickened. Anyway, my poor travel buddies had to change clothes in the store room since we didn’t get to use our rooms.



The girls paddled around the islands and later told me it was the best highlight of the Halong trip.




While the others kayak, I took endless sunset photos

Back to our horrible circumstances, we were left wondering why it had to be us and not the other travellers in the junk with us. River even had the cheek to ask us to sleep in the captain’s room, which was out in the open!


The captain’s cabin

We argued and insisted that we get our rooms, but in the meantime also wary that we were out at sea with our passports in their hands. In the end, they anchored right next to another boat and told us we could sleep in the rooms there provided we had to be quiet! You wouldn’t believe the excuses given – there were old people in the junk, they have illness and needed medication and absolute silent etc. We pretty much guessed that we were not supposed to be seen in that boat. Therefore, we were not to make noise and were only allowed to retire to those rooms after 11pm! It was totally outrageous!!

Dinner was pretty much spoilt with each of us fuming over the situation. When we were finally climbing over to the other junk, we felt like some illegal immigrants. And when we talked to each other in the room, the wooden wall was knocked at to warn us not to make noise. We were treated like prisoners!


Sunrise at Halong Bay

The next morning, around 7am, our rooms were knocked at again, this time asking us to get the hell back to our boat. We gladly did so. After breakfast, it was free and easy till we disembarked back at Halong City for lunch.

Halong Bay is cluttered with junks. Competition has driven operators to cut corners and cheat. Could we have avoided that? I still think it was very much depending on luck. We have heard and read about Halong Bay scams all over the net, but there were friends who returned from the trip having a great time. So personally, I put it down as bad luck and an experience to remember.

When asked, 3 out of 5 of us actually thought it was such a trip from hell that they rather be at work at that very moment, going through all the deadlines and stress that come attached with the job. Are they kidding me?? Apparently not. I, however, firmly believe that we have control in making the best out of the hellish scenario by having a good time on our own.


Some silly posing at the upper deck


Striking a yoga pose


The making of a perfect yoga pose..

Having said all that, Halong Bay is a far cry from Hanoi of motorbikes, street stalls and constant noise.



Before reaching Halong City, we sat at the front of the junk savouring the tranquility and the beauty of the surrounding. Sitting there, I hoped that I would remember the moment and the sight for the rest of my life..