LittleSandyBeach

The bus journey from Sapa to Ha Long was very nice with great air con and only about 10 people on board so a lot quieter than some we’ve been on.

Our hotel is in the Bai Chay area of Ha Long which is named after the beach that runs in front of Ha Long bay. The beach is about a 10 minute walk from the hotel.

To say that it’s quiet is an understatement. From what we can find out it’s a combination of a lot of factors. From over development (there’s new buildings everywhere), lack of recovery in the tourism industry from the pandemic and also people picking different destinations due to Ha Long being more expensive than most places in Vietnam.

One of the first places we went to was the Quang Ninh Museum which has a mixture of exhibitions from natural history of the area, artefact’s from the Vietnam war and also history of the coal mining in the area.

Nearby the museum is a lovely shopping centre that is very grand so we had a stroll round.

As the Lions vs Australia rugby was on we found a sports bar right in the centre of Ha Long which was showing it, what a game!

At night along Bai Chay beach there is many bars and it’s when all the locals come out and it gets very busy! We went down there for a few hours and didn’t see one over tourist!

About a 20 minute drive from the centre of the city is Tuan Chau Island, which has one of the best beaches in the area, the view isn’t bad as well…

We were struggling to find a reasonable priced local meal near us but luckily we came across Hot Stone Pho which does our favourite dish of Chicken Pho for 50,000 VND (£1.44) so that’s dinner sorted!

We’ve got 3 more days here and the weather has warmed up to about 34 degrees and it’s stopped raining so time for some more exploring!