You can imagine our sense of disappointment, therefore, when we opened up the curtains in our room early in the morning on our approach to Ha Long Bay to discover rain and total cloud cover greeting us. It’s a very humid area of the world so rain should probably be expected but we’ve generally been incredibly lucky with the weather when we’ve travelled and our Princess Patter guide delivered to our room the night before had indicated nothing of the sort for our second day ashore in Vietnam. We quickly realised, though, that we were still some way out from land and there was still some considerable time before we’d be able to leave the ship so we mixed a little bit of hope that the increasing strength of the sun would burn off the clouds tempered with the acceptance that even if it didn’t we’d just get wet and still enjoy the experience.

The cloud and rain washed out a lot of colour from the impressive seascape we cruised slowly through and the more distant limestone formations were little more than ghostly shadows. The slow cruising speed of Diamond Princess added to that ethereal calm feeling that the views imbued upon us. It’s arguable as to whether what we saw would have been more impressive had the sun been shining.

You can get a feel for the gentle speed our cruise ship was undertaking in this short bit of video (temporarily removed) taken from our balcony. You’ll also be able to hear the ship’s horn sounding and echoing back off those gorgeous islets in Ha Long Bay.

Something that surprised us was the number of other ships in the area. While we were the only cruise ship approaching Ha Long this turned out to be a busy stretch of water for cargo vessels; the region has traditionally mined a lot of coal although the economy is shifting towards tourism. We’d discover once we got to land that the water in and around the bay wasn’t particularly clean at all with evidence of both the past and present big industries at fault and it’s a place that in our opinion could really do with some tender loving care.

So while we wouldn’t want to swim in the waters around Ha Long Bay we could still enjoy the pleasing sights of the many islands and their many forms – small, tall, short, long – and it’s certainly worth visiting this part of Vietnam for that alone. Even better, as hoped, the heavier clouds started to thin noticeably as the populated land of the bay started to come more into view and the rain eased off first to a light spitting before stopping altogether.

Closer to shore it was the smaller boats and local fishing vessels in particular that became more apparent. For the most part they seemed indifferent to the approach of our huge cruise ship, even to the point of one of them needing a friendly blast of the ship’s horn as it made little attempt to move more than a few metres away from the advancing prow of Diamond Princess.

Visibility increased with the brightening sky and lack of rain and we began to see the various structures along Ha Long Bay. If you take a look at a map of Ha Long you’ll see that the mainland is split into two areas: West Ha Long (Bãi Cháy) connects to East Ha Long (Hong Gai) by a cable-stayed bridge. The bridge as well as the cable car and large wheel that formed part of the Dragon Park theme park were very obvious draws for the eyes. It is worth noting as you look at the following photos that the land mass on the right of the photos, East Ha Long, is where most things of interest for the casual visitor are located but it’s West Ha Long where the tender boats from the ship drop passengers ashore. A free shuttle bus crossing the bridge was provided by Princess Cruises.

We finally felt the gentle rumble as the anchor dropped and Diamond Princess came to a stop in Ha Long Bay. There then proceeded a short wait while very little happened – at least from what we could see from the starboard side of the ship where our balcony was located – and we spent the time simply observing the other ships at rest in the bay or setting out from the mainland on some business, tourist-based or otherwise. We also spotted a large white structure in the distance between some of the islets that we at first thought was another cruise ship or possibly some kind of super-expensive yacht. We’d later discover it was nothing of the sort.

The wait was for Vietnamese immigration officials to make their way onboard.

With the officials on the ship and everything set up to let people start leaving we then spotted a number of small, local boats making for midships along the starboard side of the ship. There was obviously some coordination between them as they seemed to be moving in formation at first but the resulting squeeze as they all came together alongside us was almost comical with its near-frantic pushing and jostling for position. We hadn’t been certain what the boats were initially but we soon guessed they must be for organised excursions around the islands.

We wouldn’t be boarding any of those boats, instead planning to go ashore by tender boat to do our own thing, and that is covered in the next post from Vietnam and Ha Long Bay.

The other thing you have to figure into your estimations when wondering when the best time to head for a tender boat is just how many Elite passengers are on a Princess ship and how likely are they going to be to want to get off the ship quickly. Once you’ve accrued 150 days aboard or completed 15 cruises you reach Elite level loyalty on Princess, one of the perks of which is that you can queue-jump for tender boats. You can see in the information from the ship’s Princess Patter below that Elite guests were informed to head to the library while the rest of us picked up tickets and waited in one of the dining rooms; whenever a boat would be ready to accept passengers Elite members got first priority and however much space was left was taken from the remainder waiting with their tickets.

After waiting for the first couple of boats to head to land we gathered our things together for the day and made for the dining room with Vietnamese landing cards to hand, picked up our tickets, and sat down for probably no more than ten minutes before we were called to head downstairs and off the ship.

Tender boats tend to have some seating on top while most passengers are inside the vessel. It’s the luck of where you are in the queue and what preferences the people in front of you have as to whether you can get up on top but as someone who always travels with my camera in hand I will always choose an outside view from the tender boat journey if it’s available and luck was on our side at Ha Long Bay. It can be cold if you’re outside even if the ambient temperature is high but the benefits of uninterrupted photo opportunities plus getting to disembark the boat first once you reach your destination are worth it.

We were then on our way, very slowly at first until clear of Diamond Princess, then a little faster on the way to land. It was still overcast but the prospect of rain seemed to have completely vanished and we could feel the gathering warmth. There were a number of different types of small vessels out on that stretch of water with us but it’s always hard not to be most impressed by the cruise ship herself especially when you get that prow-first three-quarters view.

Our short journey ashore took us alongside a long pier. We couldn’t work out if that was just used by ships that could get in a little closer to shore, perhaps those smaller than Diamond Princess, or whether it was in the process of being built to eventually supplant the need for tourist ships to use tender boats at all. You can see it in the photo below and in the short video clip of us using the tender boat.

The tender boat from the cruise ship took us to West Ha Long (Bãi Cháy), passing under the cable car that forms part of the Dragon Park theme park in the city. Taking a free shuttle bus provided by Princess Cruises, the prominent cable-stayed bridge would be the route by which we’d take the short trip across to East Ha Long (Hong Gai) in order to take in some of the sights on foot and that will be covered in the next post.

Our wandering-without-real-purpose led us eastwards along the main road that borders that part of the Vietnamese mainland and my main interest to this point had been directed out to sea and those incredible islets for which Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay is most famous. In steep contrast to our rainy approach to Ha Long earlier in the day the clouds had mostly given way to strong sunshine and a rapidly rising heat to go alongside that ever-present humidity so our pace was slow in order to preserve our energy and not force us to rely on the water we’d brought along too early. Taking yet another short breather to stand by the promenade’s railings and scan the area through my camera viewfinder in search of interesting shots I spotted a flash of very bright white ahead of us and close to one of the rocky formations by the shore. A wedding shoot was taking place!

It’s becoming not entirely unusual for us to happen upon wedding photography when we travel now although we’ve never been able to tell whether the brides and grooms are genuinely posing for their own upcoming nuptials or whether they are modelling for some service. Our suspicion is it’s mostly the latter reason simply because everyone we’ve seen has been ridiculously good-looking. I’m not saying that ridiculously good-looking people don’t marry one another but I don’t know any who have.

We took our time wandering past the couple being posed and photographed on the stone jetty jutting out into the water of the bay and entered into the shadow of the large, likely limestone formation nearby. This gave us some pleasurable respite from the sunshine but also provided me with a chance to get some photos with less risk of glare or ambient light affecting the camera’s shutter speed (I almost always take pictures in aperture priority mode to control light hitting the sensor so the speed can vary depending on the lighting conditions). This was when we saw a second couple in somewhat different wedding attire get dropped off by a car and make their way down to the same shooting location.

The contrast between the first wedding couple’s traditional clothing – the long, white dress and veil for her and the dark suit for him – and the second couple’s more modern take – less fabric for her and a fabulous blue-checked suit for him – was good to see. We also liked how the “groom” helped his “bride” get her shoes back on after she’d been forced to remove them in order to clamber down the slope to the jetty (a sensible move as it definitely wouldn’t have been something to attempt in heels).

We weren’t the only people taking photos of the wedding shoot – two other couples who’d been on the Princess Cruises-provided shuttle bus that had dropped us off in Ha Long were following in our wake and taking similar pictures of the events unfolding by the water’s edge – so we didn’t hang around for too much longer before continuing on our walk around the bay. We did search online for a little while after getting back, looking for wedding photo shoots in and around Ha Long Bay in Vietnam on all the usual photo sources just to see if we could find the professional pictures we’d witnessed being taken but to no avail. A shame, as I’d really love to see how they turned out with the sun at the backs of the models and no indication of flash in use.

We’d been in the position of not knowing where we’d be dropped off prior to actually arriving (the information provided by Princess Cruises the night before in our daily programme was vague). This is an area where cruise lines could be a bit more proactive and push that sort of information way ahead of travel so that passengers who want to do their own thing can plan a little better. I think we all can guess why they don’t. We didn’t know where we’d be, we knew we didn’t really fancy any of the organised trips for a change, but thought we’d be able to find plenty to see on our own regardless. During our cruise into Ha Long Bay we’d spotted a large, white thing in the distance in the gap between some islets and it had piqued our interest enough to set off in that direction.

We watched as the majority of fellow cruise passengers hopped off the shuttle bus and headed straight for the large building that housed numerous stores – each to their own – while we braved crossing the main road and made immediately for the promenade and its views: the nearest islands of Ha Long Bay and the many boats of locals anchored in something akin to floating islands themselves. There was no threat of rain but the angle of the sun was illuminating the thin veil of cloud like a horizon-to-horizon diffuse flash box and producing some challenging photo conditions.

We walked eastwards at a pace suitably low to try to eliminate the onset of sweating from every pore (a Sisyphean task) with plenty of stops along the palm-lined paved area to gaze out at the sights that nature provided. When we’ve travelled and come across views that to us are simply stunning like this we’ve often wondered if the people who reside in these sorts of places no longer realise how spectacular a place it is in which they live.

Despite the high heat and humidity there was quite a strong wind. It was not in the least bit cooling and obviously a regular occurrence due to the geography in this part of Vietnam as we spotted many of the palms had their leaves tied around the trunks of the trees to stop them being a nuisance to pedestrians or cyclists.

Most of the attractive sights were out towards the sea, of course, but there were still some things to be seen inland: an interesting gateway to a park, a mix of architectural styles in some of the buildings, and some of those fabulous limestone formations on land that pull in all the visitors.

Something we started to become aware of was the condition of the water in and around Ha Long Bay. We’d probably assumed that with such beautiful and natural views as far as the eye could see and the general climate of the area and the abundance of what was clearly a fishing-based industry for the locals that the water would be gleaming. It was far from that. It was very unpleasant to see. It wasn’t just that it was murky but that the exposed shore areas were completely littered with rubbish. In some cases there were signs that locals were possibly making tea then leaving broken crockery where it fell (although it could easily have had a ritualistic reason or have nothing to do with tea whatsoever; difficult to guess really) but we also saw what we had to assume was washed overboard cargo gathered up on the land. There just seemed to be no effort made to clean any of it up which was so sad to see. With a growing tourism industry Ha Long really needs to get on top of this situation.

With such bad conditions of the sea it was odd although also pleasant to see some wedding shoots taking place along the shoreline which are covered in this separate post: Ha Long Bay Wedding Shoot. It’s a strange thing to think of those beautiful pictures with the stunning backdrops yet know that a few metres away the water is lapping away filled with jetsam.

Very close to the wedding photography spot along Ha Long’s promenade we spotted a buddha head hanging from a young palm growing from limestone. It was equal parts amusing and creepy.

Hugging the coastline on our continuing walk we started to come into view of the large white structure we’d been in search of but first there were more of those natural formations to admire. There were a few in this area with wooden walkways around them leading us to wonder if it was possible to visit the places and explore them close up but we didn’t say any signs that there were people doing that or that it was actually allowed. The overall structures had the feel of James Bond villain lairs to them.

And so we came to the white thing, the structure that we’d seen from our balcony as the last of the morning’s drizzle had eased off and which we’d gone from suspecting was another cruise ship to some kind of super yacht to realising it couldn’t be either of those things and then needing to find out for ourselves. It was an Exhibition and Trade Centre. We were somewhat disappointed. Situated on the eastern side of an open square which likely gets used for events in the area there was no doubting the impressive architectural design of the building with its sweeping curves. The colours and shape felt very marine-like and fitting for a location close to the sea. However, there was nothing going on inside as far as we could see. The area was devoid of anyone else save one other couple who’d completed a similar walk to us and who were at this point posing for leaping photos for one another in the open spaces. We admired the shape of the building for a couple of minutes before making the decision to head back the way we’d come in search of something to eat.

As we’d neared the exhibition centre we’d passed a black glass building which had caught our eyes for a number of reasons: the modern, very square design was striking compared to what else we’d seen in our time visiting Vietnam; there was a café which had a prominent sign proclaiming the presence of beer (and we’re very fond of trying beers locally when we travel); there were a number of military artefacts outside. We knew this would be the place we’d stop for something to eat and drink but first to the objects of warfare. There weren’t many of them but if seeing aircraft or missiles or cannons up close is something that interests you then as a free, open-air activity if you’re nearby and likely to want to stop for lunch or dinner too then there’s certainly an appeal here. This was the second day in a row we’d been to a city in Vietnam and stumbled across military equipment for anyone to see with a larger display having been present outside the Imperial City at Huế too.

In addition to the weapons of war there were a few more cultural sights to see outside this building.

A quick nose at the memorabilia done we headed inside the My Way Café and ordered two locally-produced beers as well as two random elements from the menu. We didn’t find the service particularly friendly here but there was no faulting the food, whatever it was, and the drinks were so desperately needed by this point we were in the mood to forgive a lot. Something else quite exciting (definitions vary) happened here because there was no cutlery offered and I didn’t want to ask for some so had to endeavour to use the supplied chopsticks. Now, I’m sure a lot of people have no trouble with chopsticks but they’re an eating implement I’ve never been able to use properly. I’ve had people show me finger positions and how to use one finger as a spring between the sticks and how to hold them near the tip or near the base and it’s made not the slightest bit of difference to my inability to do anything but curse eastern culture for not embracing forks. However, somehow, magically, it just clicked in that café and I suddenly found a way to eat with them and really quite easily. Bizarrely, when comparing my eating style to that of my wife’s – who has no problem with them – it was completely different. Hey, whatever works, works.

Rested, a little cooler, happy that we’d eaten and drunk locally, and ridiculously pleased that I’d taught myself to use chopsticks we departed and continued our walk back along the Ha Long Bay shoreline taking many of the same sort of photos that had been taken earlier but with the justifications that the sunlight was different and you can never take too many photos of views like these anyway.

It seemed that the Vietnamese locals didn’t share our disgust at the condition of the water off Ha Long as we spotted a group of swimmers at one point. We even got a wave from one of them just after I’d stopped to snap a shot.

Now, it might well be that the state of the water around Ha Long Bay was only bad in the small area we saw, a consequence of tidal patterns, perhaps. Certainly, when looking at other posts regarding visits to this part of Vietnam the waters appear turquoise and clear and it may be that simply opting to take a more untouristy tour of Ha Long Bay will leave you with better memories of your time here.

As we approached the area where the cruise-supplied shuttle bus would be the waters filled with those boats again, the bulk of them clearly for fishing only but others looking more like houses at sea.

We could have stayed a couple more hours had we wanted but the heat and humidity had got to us and we’d walked a fair distance so felt it made sense to get back onboard ship early for once and see if we could get some laundry done before everyone else returned and thought the same thing. We wandered through Vincom Plaza and did some shopping for bits and pieces – mainly food – as much to use up the local currency we’d brought along as anything else. Our timing on leaving was perfect as we walked out, straight onto a bus, and were off within minutes to head over the Bãi Cháy bridge to West Ha Long where a tender boat was already waiting.

Showered, changed, and laundromat used we contented ourselves with poking our heads out of the balcony every now and then to see the various excursion boats depositing passengers from their tours and other vessels in the area passing to and fro. Our expectation was that it wouldn’t be too long until we would up anchor and cruise out of Ha Long Bay and we were keen to see how it looked from the other direction. That expectation would not be met and that will be explained in the next post from this final stop in Vietnam on our Diamond Princess cruise.

The time for us to leave came and went and still we didn’t move. And then came those dreaded announcements asking if certain passengers were aboard and if so could they make themselves known. You hope in those situations that it’s simply a computer foul-up failing to record the passengers returning to the ship but after repeated requests for this we then had an announcement that there would be a delay departing; we really did have some people who were still someone on the mainland.

The Elite Lounge was open by this time so we headed up for a drink while we waited. One drink turned into two and the light started to fade from the sky.

We resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t get to see those spectacular islets as we left Ha Long Bay after all and returned to our room briefly. With darkness now fully descended we then discovered that the big wheel and cable car towers that made up the Dragon Park theme park as well as the Bãi Cháy bridge were all lit up at night in rotating patterns of colours. The near-silence of our surroundings and the probing, pulsing light show combined to totally relax us (not that we really needed it).

We headed down to Deck 7 to see what was going on in any of the lounges and to grab another pre-dinner drink. While we were there we heard an announcement that the last tender boat was finally on its way back with the late passengers. Whether they ran into traffic problems in Vietnam or got their times confused or just figured the ship would wait for them we don’t know but we do know that this wasn’t the only time we were late leaving a port on this cruise because of late passengers and we also know the ones who were late this time were the same ones who were late at another port because on the second occasion there were loud groans from everyone who recognised the names being called out.

We headed out onto the promenade deck to watch the last boat arrive. There were some jeers from some passengers but we did the British thing and merely tutted quietly to one another.

In the video below (temporarily removed) you will be able to see some of the peaceful light show shot from our balcony as well as the tender boat being raised into position after letting the final passengers aboard. If you look in the background during the boat-raising you’ll be able to see an illuminated cable car gliding over the channel between East and West Ha Long.

And so Diamond Princess eventually got away and cruised through Ha Long Bay in the dark leaving us with no final view of those limestone islands.

We’d booked specialty dining for that night. We usually always dine once at the Crown Grill on Princess ships but Diamond didn’t have one of those, instead having the very similar (in fact, so similar you wonder why it has a different name at all) Sterling Steakhouse experience. The food was very good but the venue wasn’t. Rather than a special location the Sterling Steakhouse is instead simply a set-aside area of the buffet. I understand the logistical reasoning behind that but it suffered from a lack of atmosphere created mainly by having no dimmed lights. The specialness of the specialty dining was disappointingly reduced but, again, the food was very good.

This concludes our stops at Vietnam on this cruise. The next day would be spent at sea as the ship made its way towards Hong Kong.