KO and the Turk: How Long to Halong?

We flew from DaNang up to Hanoi where we jumped in a bus for the 110 mile drive to Halong Bay on the coast of north Vietnam. The fun part was seeing north Vietnam from the freeway.
We passed the largest building I've ever seen, likely close to a mile long. A whole town of apartments was under construction. The giant billboard outside said, "Samsung Galaxy Phones". ! They employ over 100,000 workers in shifts covering 24/7. We also saw a Foxconn factory and a huge Canon factory. Who needs China when you have Vietnam?

We passed many small farms and even little vegetable plots along the road. But what was odd was the architecture of the houses. Homes were narrow and 3 to 5 stories high, even when there were no buildings next to them. We found out that homes are taxed on their width. The next odd thing about these homes was seeing giant cell towers growing out of the roofs. We saw this at least once in every town. This is because the government owned cellular service has challenges finding available land in the increasingly dense communities. So homeowners are paid monthly for allowing a cell tower to be built on their home.

colorful farmlands

narrow, tall homes

We passed under a gigantic structure built across the freeway and were told this was welcoming us to the Halong Bay province. The structure cost $9million. Our guide then showed us pictures of the hospital ward where his wife stayed when she had their child. Women slept 2 to a single bed - head to foot. Families slept on the floor around each bed of their family member in order to care for them. Bathrooms were in a different building. When his wife started her labor, our guide took her to the hospital where the doctor took him to an office to discuss the bribe. Our guide pretended to be a poor farmer because anyone involved in the tourist industry is considered to have access to a lot of money. Once they negotiated a price (for the 'free' socialized healthcare services), our guide had to go get the funds so that his wife would have a doctor to deliver their baby. The reason he told the story was to highlight how money is spent in Vietnam - for show, not for the average person.

music greets us as we find our boat for the day. Kind of a groovy traditional vibe

this guy also greeted us and just made us smile

We spent the night at a hotel where the bar manager was quite the photographer. She decided that the Turk and I needed about 100 pictures taken from all angles and levels overlooking the Bay.

you might notice the construction cranes and under-construction buildings. This area was exploding with growth. Sadly

We were told that a former military man bought property along Halong Bay and built the marina. His relationships supported his effort to purchase this area and prevent anyone else from getting the rights to build the only marina that can be used for tourist boats. He has also built hotels, restaurants, and is building apartments for thought who want to live part time in this area. Needless to say, this guy is making a fortune!

boats waiting for passengers in the docking area

Halong Bay is in the Gulf of Tonkin in northeast Vietnam. Ha Long means descending dragon. Dragons are special to the Vietnamese as their stories tell that the Vietnamese are descended from dragons. It has been a UNESCO site since 1994, is made up of about 1600 limestone islands. There is a similar looking area in southern China that I've visiting along the Guilin River. I hate to think that it looks like this with so many tourists. But it is still beautiful, magical and worth the visit.

It looked like the best way to visit this area is to stay overnight on a boat to witness both sunset and sunrise on the water. Our day long boat trip was nice, but an overnight trip would provide a more complete experience of this beautiful area.