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Halong Bay I ran across this in the Lonely Planet Vietnam guide and decided that I had to make a trip to Halong City and see what all the fuss was about. " The majority of food, accommodation and other life-support systems for Halong Bay are to be found in the sorry/dismal town of Halong City, the capital of Quang Ninh Province and Vietnam's latest sin city (The number of signs advertising 'Thai Massage' gives a good indication of the prostitution market). In recent years this once peaceful outpost has been developed into a pleasure den for package tourists (both domestic and foreign, with a large following of border hopping Chinese). All in all Halong City is, aside from some impressive views of the bay, well, yuck! Unless you plan to partake in the sleazy joys of this cheesy attempt at replicating Thailand’s Pattaya, there is no good reason to visit Halong City other than as a launch pad for boats." Pretty good recommendation for a monger, huh. Anyway I decided to go down for a few days and check it out for myself. The reason that you don't see more about the nightlife in Halong City is that most Caucasian tourists go there on a tour group and don't get to see much of the night life of the city. They all get herded around like a litter of puppy dogs, being herded on the tour buses going down there and then herded into the tour boats to go on their tour of the bay. I detest guides, touts, tours, etc. so I made the trip on my own and turned it into a nice little three day, two night adventure.
Above is a pic of Halong Bay I started my trip at the Kim Ma bus station in Hanoi. The bus was a modern bus with AC but at this time of year in Hanoi you sure don't need the AC although a heater might have come in handy. This wasn't a tourist bus and I was the only non-Vietnamese on the bus but I always enjoy traveling with the locals much more than a bunch of tourists. The fare was 35,000 dong ($2.33US) and the trip took four hours with a fifteen minute rest stop to use the rest room and get a little snack. Getting off the bus in Halong City I took a moto to look at the hotels that were available around town. There are many small hotels in Halong City with a great view of the bay for $12-15 dollars a night but I couldn't find one that had satellite TV other than the French channel so I opted for a room in the large government-run hotel Vuon Dao. The rooms were large and clean although the hotel is definitely past its prime and the rooms were $25 each and all had a nice view of the bay. The hotel, like most of the government-run hotels in Halong City, had an attached massage parlor where 'extras' were definitely on the menu and you could call and order a massage girl up to your room, just like ordering take-out pizza back in the States.
This is a view of Halong Bay from my hotel room Halong City is unlike any other city in Vietnam that I have visited, it is no problem taking girls back to your room. You also can't walk a block down the main street in town without being propositioned by one or more working girls. The going price for 'boom boom' is $20 and there are some fairly cute girls working the streets as well as the massage parlors. There is a casino in town and there is a steady flow of Chinese tourists being bussed in to do some gambling and get laid in the process. There is a building boom going on in town as well so the government's strategy to make this town a sin city of sorts must be paying off. I expected a small city with a hectic pace with the night life going on all hours of the night but what I got was a sleepy little beach resort where sex is available and plentiful and they role up the sidewalks at midnight.
Massage parlor at the hotel where I was staying You can see by the lettering on the sign for the massage parlor 'International Entertainment Club' that this massage parlor offers something more than your standard massage. My first day on in Halong City I went down to one of the massage parlors for a sauna and a massage to check and see what was available. Like most massage clubs in SE Asia, I was furnished a terrycloth robe and a pair of shorts to wear in the massage room. I knew something was going to be different when the massage girl ripped off my shorts and climbed up on the massage table with me. She was doing a hard sell for full service before she even got into the massage asking for $30 US and settling for $20, the cost of the massage was $10. I will have to say that she gave an outstanding performance, the only really good BJ that I had had since I left Cambodia. After that I tried one more massage parlor and one girl that I met on the street and they were all pretty good as far as performance goes, about sevens in looks.
Pic of the stage for an outdoor concert the day I arrived They were having an outdoor concert the day I arrived and this is a picture of the crew setting up the stage. You can see Halong Bay in the background. There were a row of beauty shops along the main road where you could get a massage with extras for $10 but the girls weren't as pretty as you would find in the regular massage parlors and working the streets so I didn't sample any of them. There are available girls everywhere in Halong City and it isn't a problem bringing them back to your room as in other parts of Vietnam but the people there are some of the most unfriendly that I found anywhere in Vietnam, they made Hanoi seem friendly by comparison and that is saying something. As for my other costs, I shared a tour boat with two Australian tourist and we paid $6 each for a six-hour tour. There were small restaurants all up and down the main drag but I found the food fairly unremarkable with most meals costing $2-3. For the trip back to Hanoi I paid the same $2.33 and I have to admit after my three-day, two-night trip to Halong City I was glad to be back to Hanoi. For me I enjoyed the southern parts of Vietnam, especially Nha Trang and Saigon, much better than the north. The people just didn't seem as friendly. In fact it seemed to me that the further north you go in Vietnam the prettier the girls are but the people get less friendly. Also I didn't find it as easy to hook up with regular girls in the north where in the south it was hard to avoid as long as you stayed away from the regular tourist haunts. At the tourist haunts all you will probably meet is a big-butted backpacker chick who chain smokes. I enjoyed seeing Halong City and Hanoi and while I plan on many more trips to Saigon and Nha Trang, I think that once will do it for Hanoi and North Vietnam. |
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