His and Her Way to Explore the Bay
There are many ways to explore Ha Long Bay and we chose two……. Jim’s way and Alisa’s way. Jim’s….. We saw everything from old Chinese junk boats to sea planes leaving from the dock of Tuan Chau. We wanted to see the bay and visit Cat Ba to hike to the top of the National Park, Ngu Lam. For $2.40 a person, the public ferry chugs slowly along the bay, the same route taken by luxury cruises. The ride lasts about 50 minutes and is notoriously late. Our 0900 departure was 45 minutes late, pushing into our hiking time and the last return ferry at 1500. Soon we were sailing by those famous limestone formations dodging boats and barges. That’s when I noticed the ramp in the front was still in the water, no wonder we were going so slow. There were so many times in Vietnam I just shook my head. This was just one of many. However the views were impressive and the ferry was mostly clean. The public bus was packed when we finally made it off the ferry. The bus follows the ferry's schedule and