Millions of visitors at the same beach
These hot days, Ti-Top beach, located on Ha Long Bay 2 Journey, is always overloaded, making it even more painful.
Since early morning, the water area around Ti-Top Island has been crowded with tourist boats. Day tour boats (50 - 99 seats) try to rotate to get to the wharf, sometimes causing a large area of water to clink, and the smoke from the exhaust pipes of the departing boats is very difficult.
Occasionally, Tanmers and high-speed boats transporting passengers from overnight boats anchored far away due to inability to dock are bustling, turning around the waves to give tourists time to bathe.
This is the only beach in Ha Long Bay that is allowed for tourists to swim, while in Ha Long Bay there are nearly 200 beautiful sandbanks, which can be exploited as beaches, causing tens of thousands of tourists to flock to this beach every day.
Therefore, being able to go to the island and swim in Tetorup is a very arduous journey for tourists. Witnessing the scene of tourist boats jostling and hitting each other to pick up and drop off guests, while tourists sweat and jostle, waiting to get off to swim, many people stay on their boats, ignoring the island of Ti-Top.
It was already difficult to jostle each other on the beach, but when bathing, it was even more difficult because the number of customers was too large, the infrastructure could not meet the needs at the same time.
Mr. Nguyen Van Minh - a cruise ship owner - said that every time he takes tourists to Tetop Island, the captain is very hard-working, and the ship owner is heartbroken because the ship collides.
"The water is shallow because after a long time, the canals have not been dredged, the ships are packed big every day, just a few 99-seat ships needing to enter the wharf at the same time, there is almost no space for other ships to enter" - Mr. Minh shared.
Opening Soi Sim soon
Recently, Ti-top beach has been under further pressure when many cruise ships have abandoned other routes because those routes do not have beaches, to switch to the route with this beach as requested by tourists.
Meanwhile, not far away, the beautiful and spacious Soi Sim island beach is abandoned, even though Soi Sim island is on the tourist itinerary.
This not only puts pressure on Ti-Top beach, but also deprives tourists of their rights, because tourists who buy tickets for Ha Long 2 Bay Journey, including the following locations: Soi Sim Island, Ti-Top Island, Sung Soat Cave, Bo nau Cave, Luon Cave, Ho Dong Tien Cave, Trong Cave, Trinh Nu Cave, Me Cung Cave, but have never been to Soi Sim Island.
Soi Sim Island has been assigned to a business to provide tourism services, but it has not been able to be put into operation yet even though the infrastructure has been completed by the business for a long time due to problems with procedures and regulations.
The Ha Long Tourist Boat Association, the Quang Ninh Provincial Tourism Association, and travel companies have proposed opening more beaches on tourist routes on Ha Long Bay for many years, and the authorities, including the Ha Long Bay Management Board, have also planned to open more beaches, but all are just for discuss and then left.
According to cruise ship owners and representatives of tourism companies, Soi Sim beach should be opened soon to serve tourists this summer to reduce pressure on Ti-Top beach and make it less difficult for tourists.
At the same time, calculate to open other beaches on other sightseeing routes, so that visitors on any route have the opportunity to swim.
Ha Long Bay currently has 8 sightseeing routes, but 2 beaches are allowed to operate again. Ha Long Bay 2 has beaches.
Meanwhile, according to regulations, a ship can only travel on that route; if it wants to go on a cruise, passengers must return to shore to buy tickets and re-do the procedures. Therefore, even Quang Ninh, if determined to open Soi Sim beach, will only partly reduce the burden on Ti-Top beach, but will not solve the need for swimming experience for tourists on other cruises.
