Had we burnt our fingers in Cat Ba with the Vietnamese business, we have become more cautious, and rightly so. Our bus trip to Ha Long City should be a prime example of the fact that we are actually perceived by Vietnamese as only changing ATMs. A nice staff member of a travel agency had told us exactly how we arrive with the public bus and the ferry to Ha Long and also the respective prices mentioned. So we stood about 20 minutes before the departure of the bus there and the lady who sold the tickets. After a little search we found her and she wanted to sell us the tickets directly. For the 2.5-times price as expected, because they said because of the low season do not run a public bus and we would have to take a taxi to the ferry. Slightly shocked, we went back to the travel agency to inquire, only to find that the seller had once again shamelessly lied to us. The bus should come as planned at 15:00 and the tickets are sold on the bus.
So we just waited. In the meantime, we were approached about 10 times by taxi drivers, who wanted to drive us to the ferry. Because – according to her explanation – there would be no public bus. Slowly nervously we waited eagerly, and behold, at 14:55, the small public bus came to the ferry.
Our realization: Do not trust anybody in Southeast Asia who wants to sell you anything!
After a very nice trip by the ferry through parts of Ha Long Bay and a taxi into the city we were then also in Ha Long City arrived and compared to Sa Pa we were not disappointed this time. The city is as you imagine it: full of hotels, full restaurants, full souvenir shops and carloads of tourists. But we were actually only here to book a 4-hour tour through the bay in one of the caves for the next morning, so the mass tourism did not make much difference in this case. Also here confirmed our trust problem, because after a little questioning we got the tour offered us from our hotel in Ha Long for 29USD, for 20USD … But well, we have learned our lesson yes
The tour was not much more than what you could expect for the price, but the cave was definitely worth the money. Look at the photos, then you know what we mean 🙂
Right afterwards it went back to Hanoi, but that is in the next (and last :-() entry.