DID: Driver picked us up at 8.15 and we were off for Halong Bay, a four-hour drive from Hanoi. Alarm bells should have gone off when he seemed caught off guard by GnR, more on that later. Made a complete mess of the back seat with crumbs from pastries and bread, oops. Thankfully Jason loaded Gavin’s iPhone up with all his favorite CDs so passed the time singing 17 different versions of ‘Itsy Bitsy Spider’, etc.
Weather was kind of dicey the whole way and was getting worse as we approached the bay. My heart was sinking because this was the first time we’d seen even a hint of grey skies in Vietnam and this was a particularly inopportune time for it! An overnight cruise on a bay + associated activities would just not be the same in the rain. Fortunately the sun began to poke through as we waited to embark, by an hour into the cruise it was blazing.
Drive only covered a distance of about 160km but was really slow because it was mostly 2-lane country road the whole way. I think they should offer Blackhawk helicopter rides as an option, would be much preferable to bumping along at 30mph! But did give a good opportunity to see many rice paddies, palm groves, water lily/pink lotus ponds, water buffalo, and lots (and LOTS) of construction. Homes are kind of interesting – narrow 3-story stucco buildings with a glass pyramid/cupola at the center of the roof, fronts finished with balconies/pastel colors, sides windowless/unfinished – even if the nearest property is several lots away.
Driver brought us to a private dock only for passengers on one of four junk boats run by Indochina Cruises (the Violet, Ginger, Jasmine and Sunset). Ours was the Violet, the smallest (6 rooms) and newest of the fleet. Sunset is for day-trippers only, all the others do 1 and 2 night tours. All of them look pretty much the same, dark wood, 3-4 levels, orange fan sails.
Our booking was missing two small but important details – info on GnR. Was partially my fault because communications from the travel agency never addressed the 2 children. I did list them in the original booking request and there have been many places over the course of our trip which only needed info on the adults – so I didn’t think anything of it. Ended up having to pay $100 extra (only 1 child travels free according to ship policy) – paid directly to the boat (the travel agency wanted us to pay $150). Wasn’t a pleasant start to the cruise (we would have chosen a different/less expensive boat had we known about this up front. This was definitely crossing the line from splurge into excessive.) Anyway…
Anchors aweigh and we started with lunch. Mine delivered to the room because Rhys was in desperate need of a nap and was in no mood to sit nicely in the dining room! That was totally ok by me though, I sat out on our balcony and enjoyed the view.
Can’t really describe Halong Bay except to say that its hundreds of big lumpy towering rocks, some with vegetation, some not, spread across a bay. We’d read beforehand that the bay was really cluttered/congested with other tour boats but I didn’t think this was the case at all. Saw a few dotted here and there but couldn’t hear anything or feel disturbed by them. Maybe ours takes a different path than most of the operators? Not sure.
After lunch we stopped at a cave for a tour. Cave rented out by Indochina cruises so they have sole access, meaning private tour for us. Nice. Afterwards they took us over to a small fishing village. We were rowed around in a small boat by one of the villagers. Was ok but I’m not one for gawking at the locals (at least not so overtly – people-watching from a sidewalk café is one thing, this is another!) Village life is simple but apparently lucrative. Many of the villagers have two or more homes on the mainland but choose to stay here for its simplicity and sense of community.
Back on the Violet, happy hour drinks then cooking demo (rice paper wrapped shrimp and salad rolls). Kids were fed at 6 and then a very nice/much appreciated gesture from the cruise manager, babysitting service in our room while Jason and I enjoyed our dinner up on the sundeck. Got a great show of lightening off the port side deck, and eventually the moon came out. Unfortunately with the moon came lots of pesky flying ants so we didn’t really feel like lingering over coffee/dessert.
Surprisingly tired at only 9.30pm, put kids to bed and we were out. Early day tomorrow anyway, tai chi at 7.00!
ATE: Breakfast pastries from Paris Deli. Also a baguette this time, very cracker-y.
Welcome drink on board, some tropical juice concoction enjoyed by all.
Lunch on the boat. Pork and mushroom spring rolls, shrimp soup, green mango salad with king prawns, steamed sea bass with sweet and sour sauce, rice and vegetable medley, cheesecake. Some good, some not as good. Spring rolls to mushroom-y for me/too spicy for GnR. Gavin and I both really liked the soup – shocking because it was pretty gloopy. I liked the green mango salad, Jason thought it was meh. Sea bass was overcooked and the sweet and sour sauce not welcome. Liked the veg though. Cheesecake, blah.
Sunset margaritas followed by dinner. Spaghetti bolognese for the boys – they both slurped it up happily. Gavin opted for chopsticks, believe it or not. So funny! We had soup starters (chicken/corn and Thai spicy shrimp soup) then salad (papaya salad, lotus salad) then seafood mains (minced king prawn croquettes for me, Jason had some kind of seafood stew) both with vegetable medley. Fruit plate and chocolate cake for dessert. All was edible in a hotel-wedding food kind of way, nothing offensive but not exciting either.
SLEPT: Quite comfortably in our enormous suite. Wanted to sleep out on our balcony but the flying ants kind of killed that plan.
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