Ha Long Tourist Traps

by bpacker
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Tourists at a sweat shop

On your journey midway to Ha Long Bay, your tour bus will stop at a sweat shop full of dainty vietnamese girls. They claim that all goods sold here are for charity but i doubt it, prices are more double ( trifold? ) than the ones in town!

Just get your coffee and go to the loo..


	CatBa Island	Tip Rating:

Updated By bpacker

on January 17, 2005

by bpacker
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Catba, the sleazy little isle

The whole of CatBa Island is a tourist trap! I ventured out at night only to find sleazy karaoke bars, nightclubs and other trappings. No point staying here unless you're just camping in a hotel here for the night

Well, if you're stuck here, you might want to consider going for a nice massage like I did. I paid US$7 for a soothing rub after a 10km trek. It was good and it saved my sanity since my legs were screaming for attention.

Where to get it
Princes Hotel has good masseuse who are skilled in "Hong Kong" style massage. Don't know what kind of style that is? I don't know either, all I know was that it felt good. Generally, I don't give a damm as long as the masseuse DO NOT walk all over me!


	Life Jacket

By vuzu

on August 26, 2006

by vuzu,
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Beware that life jacket which they provide might not be FREE. Do check with them before you do your kayaking in Ha Long.


	Tour Package Sham

By wiskiz

on October 27, 2006

If you must book a day tour, forget about the "upgrades" to fancy smaller group or better food. Just go for the cheapest - coz you'll end up with the same deal as everyone else.

When we took the tour, we were assured of a small group and paid a higher price. While on the tour, we spoke to other tourist and realised that some of them paid much more to have a small group, good food upgrade (almost twice of what we paid) but some others paid for large group and mediocre food. We all end up in the same group and same food...

Go for a reliable tour operator if you must travel with a group. Read the itinerary carefully and read reviews from satisfied customers... do not jump into the bandwagon and realised that you're conned later!

Warning.. do not travel with AST Travel... our boat nearly 'sank' coz it rammed into another boat during a storm in the middle of the night! By the way... our captain jumped boat too... it was one hell of an experience!


	Little Con Artists

Updated By Ewingjr98

on April 25, 2004

by Ewingjr98
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Many of the kids in Cat Ba Town are con artists looking to make a quick dollar from the rich tourists. They sell postcards, hackey sacks, boat rides, virgin sisters, you name it.

My favorite was the girl who said she collected coins from other countries. I gave her a nickel from the US and she said I was cheap -- she wanted a quarter! To be fair, a quarter to us is pocket change, to them it is a few hours pay.


	Check cruise package

By JHyun

on March 19, 2006

May be we should not be expecting too much from the boat cruise package to Halong bay. We thought we had a good deal for a 2 days, 1 nite (on the boat stay) for about USD23. The travel agent told us that this package comes with seafood lunch and dinner. Yup, really SEAFOOD!!

But their seafood dishes definition and ours was totally different....
Theirs were one fish for lunch (with 3 other vegetables like fried) and a dish of shrimp fried with vegetable for dinner. Other dishes for dinner were like fried peanuts, egg, and vege. The portion was quite small too and we have to share with 6 people...


	Live seafood restaurants

By aukahkay

on March 5, 2006

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These restaurants are tourist
traps!

Not far from the tourist boat jetty and night market is a row of live seafood restaurants displaying live prawn, crab and shellfish in tanks. With my live seafood experience in Hong Kong still fresh in mind, I went into one of these restaurants. The lady spoke Mandarin, thinking that we were from China. I ordered a live 3 kg crab, stir fried beef, fried rice, fried pho and stir fried vegetables.
In short, the food looked better than its taste. The standard of cooking was below expectations and certainly not what I would have expected from a restaurant specialising in live seafood. The price was not cheap either - at 320000 VND, we could have had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant instead of this dingy, small family-run restaurant.

Avoid patronising these live seafood restaurants opposite the night market.

Seafood lunch will be served on board your boat, so you don't have to spend extra money at these seafood restaurants.


	Check your Itinerary of the Package Tour.

By myspices

on February 11, 2006

by myspices
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Go through the trip
itinerary with your agent

Some tour agents do not explain in details what is being covered in the package. There were a couple of tourists who were furious that the boatman did not take them to 2 caves as they have assumed. Usually, the package will only cover one cave visit and not 2. Another tourist who was travelling alone, was not informed that she had to share cabin as all cabins are twin-sharing. The boat has only 8 cabins and there were 16 of us. As such she has to share cabin with another man. Anyway, both of them did not sleep in the cabin but instead slept in the hall or deck with some other passengers.

Understand that the boatman has his own route of the itinerary and arrangement of the cabins. The most you can do is to bring this "unbearable situation" back to your tour agent - make a complaint or get a compensation.

Make sure you know what you have paid for. Have the tour agent make a printout of the itinerary to be covered.


	Thien Cung Grotto (Heavenly Cave)

By Starsa

on March 28, 2008

by Starsa
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Thien Cung Grotto was a pretty big cave, but there were lights that they put in the cave that made it look like a tourist exhibit. Nothing exciting.


	Sea vendors

By hydronetta

on April 5, 2007