13 Oct 2019 - Hanoi Day 2: Titop Island

The second stop of our Ha Long Bay day tour is Titop Island, which sits at the heart of Halong Bay.  Formerly called Cat Nang Island, it is now named after the Russian Cosmonaut Gherman Titov, who, in 1961 boarded the spaceship Vostok 2 and became the second man to orbit the Earth.  Titov visited Halong Bay some months later in 1962 and toured the area with Vietnam’s revered leader Ho Chi Minh. Uncle Ho consulted with the people on the island and, in a gesture of friendship between Vietnam and Russia, named the island in honour of the brave cosmonaut.

After dismounting from our cruise, we arrived at a nice little beach where tourists were engaged in various beach activities.

Other than the beach, Titop Island offers breathtaking landscapes, which can be viewed from a vantage point high up in the centre of the island.  However, in order to reach the vantage point, one would need to climb up 425 steps (Javier had counted) to the gazebo at the top.  There is a lookout point half way through the climb which presented quite an awesome view of Ha Long Bay.

Jerlene and myself continued our climb to the top while Tracy and Javier followed behind at their own pace.  The view of Ha Long Bay at the top of the island was simply spectacular.

About 10 minutes later, Tracy and Javier finally made it to the top.  Well done everyone!  The place was crowded with people and after a short rest, we descended the hill and walked back to our cruise.

Our third and final activity of our day tour was to take the bamboo boat or kayak to Luon Cave.  Stay tune for my next post.

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