Ha Long Bay, the picturesque landscape of limestone karsks in turquoise water, is home to a thriving group of Vietnamese: those living in floating villages.
Tourists to Halong City or neighboring Cat Ba Island resorts flock to junk boat tours which advertise a trip through the bay and a stop at the floating villages. Most tourists embark on the 1-3 day boat ride full of questions and one or two assumptions:
How do these people make a living? What are their houses like? Who would choose to live here? They must be destitute outcasts.
The reality paints a picture of industrious, successful people who truly love their lives. In super colorful homes in the middle of paradise, no less.
Life on a Floating Village in Halong Bay
As you motor through Ha Long Bay you see a series of one-story wooden homes floating on wooden platforms on the water. The homes are typically painted in tropical colors with small families bustling around wooden square frames.
Seeing happy homes floating in emerald-green water surrounded by miniature islands makes you feel like those of us used to solid ground are the dumb ones. Why shouldn’t everyone float when you have such a view to wake up to?
Floating Fish Farms
The majority of Ha Long Bay floating homes make a living by farming fish. They build a one-room home and an extended floating frame of wood. The square wooden frame is covered with a deep net, buoyed by plastic oil drums, tired, and mats. They buy baby fish which they feed until adolescence, when another netted frame is added beside the original for a new batch of babies. The fish and their home continue to grow in this manner for years, until square sections of fish surround a home which has been built up to include bedrooms, bathrooms, kitchen, and living space.
Growing the fish is both hard and isolating work. It takes two adults half a day to feed their schools, which they do every other day. Nets are added to the tops of the square pens as the fish grow to keep the fish in and the birds out. A dog will often accompany his master on their rounds, daring any unhappy fish to stray.
Homes can be either secluded to their own spot on the water or attached to others. While residents often boat down the bay to visit one another, it can still be an isolated lifestyle. The closest towns are an hour away by boat, meaning someone sacrifices time and money to scoot in for groceries, shopping, or school. For this reason the many children in the floating village stay in town all day- playing pick up games of soccer with friends beside the ferry terminal until the sun goes down.
Those rugged people willing to sacrifice a social life and dedicate themselves to having smelly hands are well rewarded for their perseverance. After raising fish for up to 3 years, their once-babies sell for 300,000 dong/ kilo (totaling 1 mil dong per large fish, or $42 USD). Their homes can grow to a comfortable size and eventually include solar roof panels for electricity, hot water, wifi, and TV.
Tourism on the Floating Village
This is so interesting! And love how colorful the houses are… I went to the Philippines years ago and this made me think of there. Some of the houses were above water on poles, they didn’t float, but it still reminded me of it.
This is one of the most interesting reads ever. I never knew this existed. I love how you were able to bump up to other people’s porches. What an interesting way of life. How do they keep their children from falling into the water? And what about medical emergencies? Wow, so many questions. And a fish farm! Who knew?
What an amazing way to live and work! I would love to see this scenery every day.
Wow! This is so amazing! And to see those floating villages in reality that would be great experience!
Wow! I would love to experience something like this!
Although I have enjoyed visiting Vietnam on holiday before, I never made it to Halong Bay. It just looks so gorgeous and somewhere I would love to go back and experience. Reading this post was really interesting to get some background on the people and their families that live and work there.
Wow! What an interesting way of life–it’s so different from how we live. Thank you for broadening my horizons!
I wish to visit Vietnam one day. Majestic place with a colorful history, rich culture, and unique adventures to offer. Thanks for covering the Halong Bay in your blog. I never heard of it until now.
I have just went to Hanoi Halong Bay in last March but didnt go as details as yours trip. Didn’t manage to explore the floating fish farms. Your experience in Halong Bay should be an indepth learning about life there. Great exploring.
This is amazing, I didn’t even know floating villages existed! Very fascinating. Thank you for sharing!
This looks pretty awesome. I would love to spend a week here and live amongst the locals.
I never really thought about going to Vietnam before, it looks beautiful though. May need to add it to my want to do list.
This floating village looks so interesting! So unusual and the stuff they do there must be super interesting to witness! I would so travel there!
This is so cool! I’ve actually seen these type of setups in video games at a very young age and thought they were fascinating in games, its amazing to see them in real life!
What a fun adventure for your family. I really enjoy trips where you immerse yourself into the culture too you learn so much about how others live. I could not imagine living on the water like that, it is so different.
Wow! This is such an interesting way of living! Would love to see and try it.
Wow, I’ve never heard of the Floating Village before but this is so interesting. I bet this was such an amazing experience to witness.
Wow. That is so surreal. I can’t imagine living on a floating house. This is fascinating 🙂
Mr. Zoom definitely seems like an impressive guy! What a cool AirBnB spot!
The scenery is so surreal! I’m loving every pictures of this village. Beautiful, vibrant and colorful. I’m impressed with their lifestyle of living not on land but on water. Awesome!
I had no idea these existed! What gorgeous photographs. Thank you for a peek into another part of the world!
We also have floating villages here in the Philippines, but I’ve never seen them up close the way you guys did. What an adventure, especially for your son. 🙂
These photos are stunning! I love seeing and learning about lifestyles that are so different from my own.
Gorgeous photographs! I had no idea that is how they built upon their homes nor that fish farming was so isolating in these villages.
First time to hear about this place and definitely impressed with their lifestyles and their living. Such a nice place to visit, it so beautiful!
Our Planet Earth is amazing!
What an amazing experience and such a lovely insight as to how life is at Halong Bay. Beautiful captures too!
that is amazing, what a neat experience. I love the fact that your tour guide has plans to turn the house into an AirBnB that would be such a cool thing to do. My family would love it.
Okay this is SO cool. Made me think of Crosby on Parenthood lol but obviously it doesn’t compare! Thanks for sharing about this. It was so interesting!
These are my kind of articles! I love reading such experiences. Looks like you had a good time!
The mountainsides right next to the water are beautiful. Living in a floating house would be amazing, there are quite a few options to live right on the water in Vancouver but not so much here in Kelowna.
I’m kind of blown away by this. My mind is racing about all the “potential” issues that can arise. But, that’s my personality. Obviously, it’s working. Which makes me want to visit to answer all the questions I now have about this. Thanks for sharing. This was one of the most interesting things I’ve read this week.