If you have booked a trip to Halong Bay or are seriously considering visiting this amazing place, I have to congratulate you. You have made an excellent choice. Put simply, it is a feast for the senses. If you have ever wanted to visit a place that engages on you on many different levels-intellectually, visually, audibly, among many others, you couldn’t have picked a better place. Halong Bay offers a majestic coastline that features many islands that seem to float off the water. The coastline also has great sand you can talk about for months after your trip. There are also sleepy coastal fishing villages that harken back to a long-lost era. All these sights, sounds, smells, and touch add up to a distinctly ethereal out of this world adventure. This isn’t your typical sun, surf, and sand water adventure. No. It goes much deeper and further. Visiting Halong Bay is like peering into one’s psyche-traces of the past, hints of the future, and a heaping dose of the unfolding mysteries of the present all rolled up into one exploration you won’t soon forget. If you want a truly luxurious Halong Bay stay, follow the tips below.
Luxury as simplicity
There are many ways to define ‘luxury.’ Indeed, the number of definitions seem to only depend on the number of people doing the defining. Still, the vast majority of definitions cluster around the idea of excess. There is this creeping idea that for something to be luxurious, it has to be more. Halong Bay turns this idea on its head. Real luxury is not about heaping servings or chewing on more than you can swallow or swimming in excess, Halong Bay’s luxury is more Buddhist in nature. The old Zen maxim of ‘less is more,’ is definitely in play when it comes to Halong Bay luxury. There is a certain richness you can’t find elsewhere in viewing mist roll in through Halong Bay and slowly swallow the tops of islands as you sit on the shore. There is an unmistakable sense of affluence that emanates from trekking up the side of a mountain and gazing down into a sea of green dotted by tall limestone islands. Luxury, is all about simplicity not excess. Real beauty, like that of a woman, doesn’t come from the rich gold, sapphire, emerald, and jade baubles she’s wearing. Real beauty comes from her imperfections-quirky smile, off kilter looks, awkward laugh. Enjoying Halong Bay and truly tapping into its very essence is the height of luxury. There is no need to prove anything to anyone at anytime. Things just are. And that is what is so beautiful and so rare about this place. It is as if nature itself gave the world a rare gift that few people have bothered to find out about.
The value of fragile memory
There is a fragile quality to Halong Bay. From its views to the experiences it provides. One second, you are climbing up a hill to see a better view of the coast. The next second, mist, rain, or something else happens and the view has changed. You are forced to live for the moment, and that is the true beauty. It offers a magical snapshot into your very being-one second at a time.
