Halong Bay

Every travel agent booking a boat tour of Halong Bay starts by pointing out that it has been shortlisted for the 7 Natural World Wonders. And indeed, the green rocks jutting out of the sea are every bit as spectacular as any pictures in the travel brochures.

Problem is, like everywhere else in Vietnam today, beauty has to be turned into $ - as many and as fast as possible.

So every morning busloads of tourists are brought to the same narrow boarding area, crammed onto “junks” that sail in a compact line to the same little bay, where hundreds queue to see the same cave before all the junks anchor together in the same lagoon to spend the night.

You have a moment to take in the spirit of the place, the formidable geology, the sound of the sea and the starry sky before the first boat turns up the music, followed by another, then another.

It’s mass tourism at its worst, trapped on a boat in the middle of the South China Sea.