The first time we visited Ha Long Bay was in February of 1999. We took a motorized, wooden boat from Hon Gai City all the way south to Cat Ba Island. The nearly 4-hour cruise afforded us visits to well-known caves and beaches that were prepared for commercial tourism. We were absolutely impressed by Ha Long Bay's unique and natural composition of over a thousand islands and islets. Though we encountered some floating merchants, we didn't observe any pollution from tour operators, merchants, or tourists.

Recently in late December 2007, we had another opportunity to revisit Ha Long Bay. This time we decided to take just a one day excursion. The bus ride from Ha Noi to Hon Gai City was on better conditioned highways. However, the experience wasn't any better, due to an excessive number of automobiles, scooters, and just bad traffic in general. What I observed were too many tour operators, too many motored boats of all sizes, and especially too many tourists crunched into such a small welcoming area. Speaking of "welcoming," that was the feeling I least had when the bus dropped us off to board our boat. The feeling of pristine and wonder of nature was nowhere to be found until 5 minutes into the Ha Long Bay water. I was disappointed with the chaotic, unorganized, and unprofessional way of guiding visitors by the Ha Long Bay tour operators.

All in all, it wasn't the same good and memorable experience as it was 8 years ago :-(