Hanoi, Vietnam

It was unfortunate that the weather in Halong Bay when we were there plainly sucked. The fog was so thick we could barely see the limestone karsts that make Halong Bay so famous.

I mean, if we squinted really hard… we could sorta, almost, see them.

Many times I felt like reaching up and draw the low-hanging curtain of milky whiteness away.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Thankfully, my brother was just excited to be going on a cruise (it was his first time), and I was in one of those moods that allowed me to shrug the whole unfortunate weather situation off.

Our fellow passengers consisted of a Vietnamese couple who didn’t talk to anybody, a nice German couple, two Chinese friends who got into a fight and ended up not talking to each other before the 2 day trip was over, and a mom and son team from Malaysia.

Because of the shitty weather, we were all forced to stay inside the boat all the time. We got to know each other pretty well because of that.

Halong Bay

Not a long time ago, I’d have beaten myself up over the fact that we just spent $90 on an overnight stay on a junk boat in Halong Bay sans the Halong Bay. But if there’s one thing I had learned on our trip, it’s that things like weather don’t give a s**t about my carefully laid out plans and there’s not much I can do about it – so I could either whine about it, or I could whine about it for just a little bit then make the best of it.

And that’s what I did.

Besides, even with the less than perfect weather, I still got a glimpse of why, for many, Halong Bay is the highlight of their trip in Vietnam.

Is weather your best laid plan’s worst enemy?


Info box
Our Halong Bay “junk” was Alova Gold ($89) – it was a good boat with good food (always more than we can eat) and service. Can’t complaint.