Halong Bay - Sea Sickness?
 

We want to go on one of the luxury 'junks' boats for an overnight on Halong Bay at the end of December. My question is: I easily get sea sick is it a very mild current (water barely moving) or is there a possibility of sea sickness on Halong Bay?

If you get seasick in a "water barely moving" current, I would think that any boat ride would make you seasick.

I get severe motion sickness/sea sickness, however, did not get seasick on Halong Bay..it is a very mild current..

Am thinking of bring my wife and kids over in Dec as well. Would a day trip from Hanoi be too tiring or it's an overnight stay at on tof the luxury boats a must do? My concern is that my kids can get easily bored.
How much would a reasonable overnight trip cost for 2 adults and 2 kids (11 yrs and 9 yrs)?

If it is very very calm on the water I will do okay. Otherwise, I have tried all remedies and they have failed for my motion sickness. I think taking vertigo pills have helped a little bit. I have even use the wristband with electrical shocks.

It is good to hear from one person saying that they easily get sea sick, but they did not on the Halong Bay excursion.

On the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea I did okay. That was a very calm river.

Is there anyone else who can reassure me about the sea sickness issue?

My mother-in-law is also extremely prone to seasickness and had no issues whatsoever on Halong last November.

I would suspect it really boils down to sea conditions and how sensitive you are.

But from my perspective, Halong is like swimming pool.

Travelmemories,

I am very sensitive on boats, cars, planes. I used to live in Hanoi and went to Halong Bay 7 times. I never had a problem on the boat ride, as there is almost no current and the boats are mostly flat bottomed junks. However, without motion sickness medicine I do get carsick on the drive out--it is a 3-3.5 hour drive and sometime a white knuckle ride with lots of swooping around potholes, bicyclists, animals, and crazy passing around trucks. If you have a good motion sickness medicine, take it before the ride out.

If you are up for experimenting, I started using Cinnarizine (sp?) which a doctor recommended in Vietnam and it's been a god send for me. You should be able to find it in any pharmacy (Hieu Thuoc--you can ask your hotel to direct you). There is an imported brand made by Sturgeon (a Hungarian company?) and a locally made variety. Both work for me and both are cheap--can't remember the imported price but I think one sheet of the local Cinnarizine (10mg pills) is less than US$1. I use 10mg when I know it's going to be rough; sometimes when I'm not sure, I take a precautionary half pill. I experience no side effects whatsoever, but you can research online for more information. I think in Europe/Canada, high doses of Cinnarizine are used as an anti-epileptic. It is not yet FDA approved in the US. Hope that helps.

I, too, am very subject to motion sickness, particularly seasickness, and did not have a problem at all on Halong Bay. In fact, sleeping on the boat there was one of the best night's sleep I have ever enjoyed in my life! I definitely recommend overnight on the boat.

Thank you all for responding. I will also remember to take medicine before we travel on the road to Halong Bay. I get sick on windly roads.
I will read up and ask my doctor about the medication beijingkitchen recommended.

We were on a luxury junk in Halong Bay a couple of months ago and, as a person prone to motion sickness, I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't even start to feel icky.

In fact, we were late arriving and had to tender out to the boat and even on the small boat I was okay-- we were on foggy, somewhat choppy waters for over an hour (why they kept on moving the junk was a puzzle--supposedly it works like a cruise ship: certain times, certain places.) The amusing thing about this adventure that I was thinking that all this water around us is a deep sea but when someone asked about the depth the following day, the answer was 15 feet(really).

I did have a rummy tummy on the coach ride through the moutain pass, but it wasn't too bad, or too long--just closed my eyes and snoozed a little. There was a stop for pictures, and the outside air helped.

Enjoy your excursion. We would have liked more time because the accommodations were really luxurious and the crusing around was relaxing.