Tuan Chau

My arrival in Halong Bay began with an anecdote that illustrates the communication difficulties one can encounter when travelling:
I booked a hotel on Booking (although it’s hard to call it a hotel) in the port of Tuan Chau. This is the main departure point for tours of the bay. It is located on a peninsula that can be reached by a long bridge.

The minibus that brought me from Ninh Bình dropped me off near the pier, and the hotel was supposed to be very close by. So I set off on foot towards the hotel, but the problem was that Google Maps had located it very poorly and started by suggesting that I climb a long road that disappeared into the hills. I take the route, but after a few minutes I hesitate to continue because it doesn’t seem very logical. A scooter stops. The not-so-young Vietnamese man driving it seems really keen to help me. He tells me he can see where the hotel is by looking at the map and offers to take me there on his scooter, which I initially refuse. But he insists, telling me that he doesn’t want any money, that he’s only doing this to help me out. I finally agree, and he sets off back towards the mainland, crossing the bridge again. I try in vain to explain to him that he’s wrong, but he’s very pleased with himself. Finally, after I insist a lot, he agrees to stop on the other side of the bridge.

He leaves me there, after shaking my hand vigorously and trying to insist on taking me to the hotel, which he is convinced is even further away. So here I am, more than 3 km from where the hotel is supposed to be, and I don’t feel like crossing that bridge again with my bag on my back. The only solution is to take a taxi back to where I started. Fortunately, the taxi driver knows where the hotel is. It’s about 100 m from where the bus dropped me off more than an hour ago!

The lady who welcomes me at the hotel is incredibly kind. She doesn’t speak English but makes every effort to use her translator and communicate with me. However, I chat for a few moments with her father, a very old man who is very happy to speak a few words of French. He explains that he learned French at school until 1954, but that since then he has hardly spoken it and has forgotten it. A very nice encounter.

Unfortunately, I have to give a poor rating to what can’t really be called a hotel. It’s more like a single room on the ground floor of a very damp building that smells musty and is almost unsanitary. The price is prohibitive, but it’s only 50 metres from the pier. That’s its only advantage.

I spend the afternoon walking around Tuan Chau, which is a really nice place with a beautiful beach, but there is absolutely no one there. According to a Vietnamese woman who runs a bar on the beach, it’s because people are working today. But upon further investigation, it becomes clear that it’s because tourists haven’t returned in large numbers since Covid. It’s a shame because this little town is perfectly laid out, with a brand new street along the pier and some very nice hotels and restaurants. Everything is empty.

Of course, as everywhere else in the world, as soon as you go a little behind the beautiful developed areas, you find traces of the tremendous collective awareness of waste and nature protection.

I eat alone in a beautiful restaurant on the beach. Unfortunately, once again, the food is not very good.

I book a cruise for the next day. Someone will pick me up at 11 a.m. at the hotel.

Encounters

So here I am, waiting with dozens of other people in the large ferry terminal in Tuan Chau.

The guide (Henrik, who is very friendly and knowledgeable) arrives, takes care of the tickets, and leads us to one of these boats pompously called "junks". It is actually a large restaurant boat with a terrace offering beautiful views of the bay.

Some of these boats are really full. There are different standards, which I suppose also correspond to the quality of the meals. I get the impression that the four- and five-star boats are fuller. This time, I am very lucky with my booking: there are very few of us on this boat, which could easily accommodate 50 people. Only about fifteen passengers. The cruise begins as soon as we leave the port, with an invitation to sit down and enjoy lunch. Drinks are not included, and our crew insists heavily that we consume them.

The extremely generous meal (we barely eat half of it) is unfortunately not of extraordinary quality. But that’s not very important, as the focus of this day lies elsewhere.

I am at a really nice table with an older couple (on reflection, perhaps not much older than me, I don’t see myself ageing) consisting of an English gentleman and his Thai wife, a young Swiss man, Mathias, a young Filipino woman, Cynthia, and a young Turkish woman, Bella, all of whom are very friendly.
It will be a day of encounters, conversations and truly enriching exchanges. So far, it’s been the best day of my trip to Asia.

The couple are retired and travel a lot. The two girls are students and have decided to take several weeks to visit various countries in Asia. I chat mainly with Bella, who apparently comes from a fairly wealthy family based in London, but prefers to live in Turkey. She confides in me that she has a lot of trouble with the food in Vietnam. She is wary of it because she is afraid of the animals she might be made to eat. So she eats very little, mainly fruit.

Mathias, with whom I will be sharing the kayaking activity, explains that he can travel long-term because he made his fortune thanks to Bitcoin. He quit his job a few years ago and took a course in Bitcoin management, becoming a millionaire in a short time. Now he manages his capital, continues to invest in Bitcoin, which he is convinced is the future, and uses his money to spend his life travelling.

The bay

Halong Bay lives up to its reputation. It is an absolutely magnificent, magical place.

The islands follow one another, like pieces of a construction set placed there by a giant hand. Each one has its own unique characteristics.

To fully appreciate the variety, you would probably need to take a cruise lasting several days.

During the long half-day we will spend in the bay, we will have the opportunity to stop and visit a cave of immense proportions, then on another island we will take a kayak trip to discover an inland valley accessed through a passage under the rock, and finally on the third island, a magnificent sandy beach will allow us to swim in the waters of the bay.

The return to port at sunset is the height of romance.

The only downside is that since the beginning of my trip, I have been waiting for the turquoise waters promised in all the guidebooks. The water in Halong Bay is green and far from transparent. I also regret that in this extraordinary natural site, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, all the "junks" are motor boats. The trip would be much more beautiful and environmentally friendly if we were on sailing boats.

Nevertheless, it is an extraordinary site that really must be seen once in a lifetime, and I will gladly return.