Bai Tu Long Bay - the other "Halong"

Preamble

Before we took off for this trip, I went for a drink with one of my ex-team colleagues, Christine Amman, who did a year of mainly travelling Asia recently. She was so kind to share all her travel reports they sent back home to their loved ones – which also included some awesome and funny and Youtube videos:) - thanks so much for sharing, Christine! One of the many tips I got from her was a travel agency called ‘Ethnic Travels’, based in Hanoi, who does tours in Northern Vietnam.

Hanoi

We started our trip through Vietnam in Hanoi, which we used as a base to unwind and relax for a few days. It might not be the obvious spot to kick back but we enjoyed it at lot.

Our hotel was located in the Old Town, a bustling and buzzing part of Hanoi and definitely one we recommend to stay at. You can dine on the wild and wonderful at every corner, sample market wares, watch people while enjoying a 'fresh beer' at the Beer Corner, be entertained by street artists to only sleep soundly in a little luxury hotel for little cost. 

The Old Town is also where you find the many travel agencies and tour operators. The tours vary depending on your budget and what kind of experience you are looking for:

• backpacker-style with sleeping in a hammock/simple mat on the floor including a pretty high risk of sharing your bed with some 4-8 legged crawling creatures.
• The mid-luxury-way for which you might end up paying more with a mediocre ROI.
• The full-on spoil-me-rotten-luxury version, which I heard is fantastic!

And then there is Ethnic Travels whose focus is to take you to places off the beaten path and by doing so support local families with their homestays. Their destinations might not have been showcased in many travel magazines or been liked and reposted 10 bazillion times on Instagram, but they are peaceful and have a serene novice beauty about them. And that was just what we were looking for on our 8 days trip to Northern Vietnam.  

Boat trip in Bai Tu Long Bay

We started out of Hanoi by a 4.5h mini-bus drive to Bai Tu Long Bay, North West of Halong Bay, where we boarded a junk with only two other passengers, a lovely mum and her daughter from Latvia. The weather was slightly overcast which gave the scenery ahead of us a romantic and somewhat eerie touch at the same time. And most importantly: no other tourist boats in sight during the whole trip!

We stopped at an oyster farm and its surrounding karst mountains, which we explored by kayak – and we did pretty well for the first time in a kayak together :).

I have never seen an oyster farm before. It was interesting to see how they are all lined up on strings and arranged in lines.

After 1.5hrs we came back on board and sailed on to our little island. We stayed overnight in a homestay, which included a cooking class for fresh spring rolls: to not break the rice paper when you roll-up your goodies is not as easy as it looks like when you watch the locals do it!

The next morning we took off on bikes to explore the island. It was still overcast but warm. We passed by shrines, rice paddies, little lakes and small villages until we reached a secluded beach that we had all to ourselves.

It’s hard to believe that just a few islands away there are hundreds of junks and tourists grazing the islands of Halong Bay cheek to cheek.

Our boat picked us up at the other side of the island to take us back to the mainland. Sitting on the upper deck of our boat watching the karst islands go by had almost something meditating.

We enjoyed having parts of the Bai Tu Long Bay all to ourselves and some local fishermen – much more to our liking than checking boxes of must see destinations.