Ha Long Bay

We were looking forward to the cruise on Ha Long Bay for a while. It is comprised of 1,969 islets, most of which are limestone karst. We’d hoped for a luxury cruise, and the bus we boarded early in the morning suggested that we’d lucked out. The journey took about 3 hours, with one stop in the middle.

We had packed our small backpacks, and left the big ones at the hotel in Hanoi. We arrived, boarded, and immediately sat down for lunch as the boat took off for the islands.

Now here’s just a bunch of photos –

At our first stop, they put us on a tender in to steps for the entrance to a cave. There were 300 steps up, so we took a pass.

You can see where the people come out of the cave.

Next stop we could either kayak or take a boat in. We opted for the easy way. We entered through an opening, into what must have once been a crater. It was tunning.

Our group. The two in the foreground were neighbors of ours during dinner. They were frojm Bangalore. The second row in the middles were a Texan and his Brazilian wife. On the outsides were a niece and uncle from the Philippines. He had an amazing voice during Karaoke.

Back to our boat for rest time. Then happy hour with cooking class (spring rolls), dinner, and Karaoke.

Boats would come around to sell us stuff cheaper than on the ship.

Day Two

Turns out there were single-night and two-night passengers on our ship. They sent to single-nighters off to Titop Island where we were anchored. We were sent to a smaller ship for the day.

The new ship was the newest on the Ha Long waters with a seasoned guide. We went to Lan Ha Bay, which is dramatically less traveled, and to an island called Virgin Island. It had a cave that went through it, opening to a beautiful beach.

Our tender taking the one-nighters to Titop Island.

Next stop was swimming. Only a French dad and son did it, partly because they could jump off of the upper deck.

Next stop was the largest pearl farm in the area.

We returned to the boat for more rest, happy hour, cooking class (same as previous night), dinner (a little odd, as we had a different menu, but the new group of one-nighters had the same menu as we had had the previous evening), and karaoke or squid fishing. I opted for the latter, for about 10 minutes. Boring…

Day 3

They had us get up at 6:45 again if we wanted breakfast. We chose to sleep in. Lunch was at 9:45, as they wanted us to check out so they could clean the rooms for the next group. We ate as we cruised back to port.

There were a few new “ultra” modern ships. They command a premium price, but I think they detract from the classic look of the other boats.

It was back to Hanoi in the same bus as we’d come in. Tommy asked us to give up our “premium” room for a guy who was really sick and needed to stay on another day. We were happy to oblige.

I had been having trouble with connecting to the internet, which makes posting on the blog quite difficult. Finally figured that out. If you look on u tube for Ha Long Bay, the pictures look like a sunny paradise! This was beautiful, but cold and foggy.

Next, two days in Hanoi.

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