Halong Bay = Disneyland

The government of Vietnam has mounted a campaign to promote tourism to Halong Bay. The campaign includes omnipresent advertising at major tourist spots, heavy coverage of the campaign in local media and an effort to get the place elected to be one of the new seven wonders of the world. To help the election along, a government-owned Vietnamese agency has launched a national roadshow offering Vietnamese an e-mail address if they vote for Halong Bay. (We were told on our trip that this e-mail address often is used for a single purpose only: casting the vote.)

Halong Bay is a gorgeous place in the north east of Vietnam. Legend has it that the bay with rugged cliffs searing up from the ocean was created by a dragon defending the country of the Viets. It is a magnificent place to cruise through. However, the Vietnamese have worked hard to turn it into a badly run Disneyland.

Widespread promotion of Halong Bay as a tourist destination saw 130,500 foreigners make their way to the site in June alone, according to a recent Viet Nam News report. That's excluding the domestic visitors.

All the tourists start their trip at a badly run, overcrowded port in the town of Halong where they try to squeeze onto one of hundreds of boats, called junks. All these junks subsequently fire up diesel-belching engines and head to the same cave where the tourists are off-loaded. After a walk through the beautiful, but overcrowded cave the tourist hordes are directed to reboard the ships which motor on to a tiny, polluted beach. At the beach the crowds are once again brought ashore to bathe with all the other tourists. Also offered on the beach are para sailing trips, banana rides and jet ski rentals.

Those lucky tourists (on about 100 boats) who get to spend the night in the bay will be spending the night anchored within earshot of other junks. Many of the other junks will head back to port at the end of the day to drop off day visitors.

Mind you, we were there in the off-season, in July. During the winter (October-March) there are many more tourists on the boats and many more boats on the bay. As a result, I'd not recommend a cruise on Halong Bay to anyone who, like me, prefers a quaint cruise experience, solitude on the water, or some true relaxation away from the masses. (Which is what I was expecting from Halong Bay.)

My suggestion to the tour operators (including the friendly folks at Exotissimo who organized my trip), the Halong Bay management and the Vietnamese government is to take a close look at how Ecuador manages the boats in the Galapagos. There are major lessons that can be learned.

If there isn't any change, tourists may well stay away from Halong Bay and it won't be a natural wonder by any means. An alternative is to set the right expectations with the tourists, so they know that this won't be a relaxing cruise, taking them away from the hustle and bustle of the mainland.