So we set off on our little rented scooter to traverse 200+ odd km to travel to Halong Bay (which was explicitly forbidden by the scooter rental lady but who obeys the rules anyway?). First couple of hours were spent quite happily travelling along, then we were even greeted by large rock formations sticking out of the ground everywhere in some town we were passing through – just like in the pictures. But after asking a few people where in fact was Halong Bay (or Hon Gai city that is around Halong Bay area) we got either blank stars or waving of hands in the direction we just came from. Back on the main road one person showed one way, another person showed another way… that is provided they understood what we were asking and were kind enough to help as most people just stared blankly at a couple of tourists on a scooter. That coupled with a complete lack of any signs indicating which way Halong Bay or Bai Chai or Hon Gai were AND it getting dark on top of it all had really started instilling doubts and worries in our minds. Following the direction of where MOST people seem to be pointing to we got to a water crossing by ferry, frantically read through Lonely Planet’s Halong Bay description looking for any clues as to our whereabouts or any note of ferry crossing – nothing. Stopping to ask every 5-10 minutes just to confirm that we are in fact on the right track we proceeded riding for another couple of hours in the dark after crossing on the ferry through towns which did not appear on our maps and uninhabited rice fields here and there. The finally, alleluia!, about 25 km from Bai Chai we finally saw a rock with “Bai Chai 25km” written on it. We rode into town and stopped at the second hotel we found (will never stop anywhere without internet) and finished the day off with a Pho in a local restaurant. Noone was speaking English but a leaving customer who did speak it was kind enough to order for us.

The next morning it turned out that the town we rode into was not in fact the town yet at all (as we couldn’t find any of the hotels we read about online) and some time later looking on Google Earth and riding around the place going from one dead end to another we finally found the city of Halong Bay (Bai Chai) and the Halong Bay tourist wharf from which all explorer boats go. For something that is meant to be such a large tourist attraction they certainly do keep it well and truly hidden – or we should have just taken the bus…