People often complain about Ha long bay being touristy. As someone who spent a whole week where most people spend a day, a tip to escape the tourist trips and get an up close look of the formations, on a fishing boat with a local!
Hey guys, most people who go to ha long bay, take one of the options offered by the hotels and travel agents, but there is a way to escape the tourist trap side of the location, and still see the natural beauty of the place.
The town of Ha Long is divided in two sections by a bridge. One section has over 100 hotels, this is where most people stay. The whole area is one big tourist trap, with few good food options, but plenty of cheap accomodation. Aside from the guided tours, there is not much to do on this side.
If you manage to get across the bridge though, the area is mainly locals, with few (if any) tourists. There is more beautiful views of the bay, along a clean and new road.. There is nice street-food, a local Vietnamese McDonalds (Lotteria), and even a nice market!
Anyway, near the market there is a dock for the fisherman.. Its beautiful if you go close to sunset, you are sure to see droves of fishingmen and boats docked at the pier. With a few hand gestures, you could pay them around 5usd (100,000 Dong), for an intimate 30 minute tour (or give them more cash and stay longer if you desire).
They will paddle you around, take you close to the formations, and it is not a tourist trap, to them its a novel experience and potentially an extra days wage for little work.
In this link i give directions to the pier: http://ift.tt/2j6jIgt
Now here is a couple of photos i took there (plus a few others):
TLDR: if going to Ha Long, look at map i linked, get a local to explore the formations, fuck the stupid expensive group tours. Better off getting a taxi or moto and exploring yourself.
Submitted September 07, 2017 at 04:28AM by danmem http://ift.tt/2j4oyea
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