Halong Bay – Where to, Gumshoe?

Halong Bay/Hanoi (Day 114): Back to Reality

June 22, 2016

It was our last morning on the boat and we were making our way back to the mainland. No one wanted to do tai chi in the morning so we got to sleep in a bit and have breakfast a tad later than yesterday. Breakfast was the same as yesterday except we also had some fried noodles which were really good. We wouldn’t be eating until we got back to Hanoi so we knew to eat a bit more.

After breakfast and chatting to the Aussies for a while, we all headed back to our rooms to pack up. Our two nights here flew by! We had a great time on the cruise and were really happy we opted for a smaller ship. Everything was very personable and we got to meet a lovely family along the way. The cruise was my favourite part of Vietnam so far.

When we got to shore, we said our goodbyes to our new friends and went into our separate shuttles back to Hanoi. We didn’t book or pay for a private car but our shuttle bus ended up being private (lucky us)!

We got back to our hotel in Hanoi (same hotel as before) at around 2pm. We checked in and then headed down the street for lunch. Tim wanted a banh mi that wasn’t Banh Mi 25. We walked two blocks down from our hotel and found a place that served banh mi but it seemed more like a meat shop. We ordered a pate and ham & pate banh mi. It was basically just the meat in the baguette – no veggies and no frills. They weren’t cheap either, it was 45,000 VND each = $2.58 (okay, it’s not that expensive, but expensive for Vietnam). The meat was actually refrigerated like a deli (which was good) and very good. I just wished they had pickled vegetables in it – would’ve been perfect. Tim really liked the pate, said it was the best one yet in Vietnam.

After lunch we grabbed an egg coffee (Hanoi speciality) at a nearby cafe. We sat and enjoyed our first one. It was like a thick egg nog with espresso. It was tasty and was the first hot coffee I’ve had in Vietnam.

We went back to the hotel, caught up on our blog, and chilled out for a bit. We’re leaving for Laos tomorrow and are running low on our sunscreen supply so our errand for today was to get more sunscreen and mosquito repellent. There aren’t many London Drug type stores at all in Vietnam so we knew it would be a bit difficult to find sunscreen and mosquito repellent. I saw a pharmacy earlier in the day so we went there but they basically only have prescriptions and nothing else. We continued on and went back to the supermarket by Hoan Kiem Lake and ended up finding everything we needed on their 2nd level. The sunscreen selection is pretty small. The options are expensive and the bottles are small. We bought the biggest bottle they had (70g) and the only mosquito spray they had. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.

For our last dinner in Hanoi, we decided to go for Pho since we hadn’t had it yet here. We decided to try Pho 10, which was across the street from our lunch banh mi restaurant. Pho 10 is a no frills pho restaurant with disinterested staff and service. Pho was good though. The beef I had was pretty tender.

As much as we’re both enjoying all the food we’ve been eating in Asia, it’s also reconfirmed what we already know – Vancouver’s Asian food is really good. I don’t think we’ve had something in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Singapore, or Vietnam that I thought blew our minds and was way better than at home. The main difference is the food in Asia is cheaper (sometimes a lot cheaper).

After dinner, we went to a smoothie place down the street from our hotel that we passed by each day. We ordered smoothies (sinh to) and sat under the fans for a bit. The family who ran the smoothie shop was eating dinner while we were there. I would be happy to go again tomorrow before we leave for Laos.

Steps today: 5,500

Halong Bay (Day 113): Activity Day

June 21, 2016

Our first night on the boat was very comfortable. We both slept in and didn’t make it to 6:30am tai chi. We got changed and went up to the dining room for breakfast. We got there after the Aussies and saw their table full of food… too much food. We sat down and Chris asked us what kind of eggs we wanted. They brought out eggs, bacon, sausage, croissants, and 6 slices of bread! I hope they didn’t waste all the food they prepared for us, we barely made a dent in it.

After breakfast, we had some free time before going to see a Halong Bay fishing village. Tim and I went up to the roof deck to lie around and read until it got too hot, and then we took refuge in our air conditioned room. Here are some of the beautiful sights we saw today. We didn’t get bored of the scenery.

We arrived at the fishing village and went on a row boat to see where the fishermen and their families live. The end destination of the row boat was a fishing museum. The museum showed the history of the people living in the area and how they survived.

After the fishing village we went back to the boat to rest for a bit before lunch was served. Lunch was another large meal, but it was good because we would be kayaking and climbing up 400 steps in the afternoon. We had about 2 hours to digest before we made it to the next stop. Tim stayed inside to read and I attempted to do some sun tanning on the roof. I lasted for like 5 minutes before going back downstairs. The plastic from the chairs smelt like it was literally burning and the sun was scorching. I quickly went back downstairs.

Kayaking was fun. We had double kayaks and we went under a cave into an enclosed area. We saw a lot of jellyfish around and I wanted to touch them with the paddle… It’s not safe to swim in deep waters right now because it’s jellyfish season and you could see them all around. I’ve never seen so many jellyfish in the wild before, so it was neat. After going through the enclosed area we went out into the open water and paddled around before going back to the boat.

I was in charge of the GoPro while Tim paddled. He said it was easier if he did it. — I was in charge of the GoPro while Tim paddled. He said it was easier if he did it himself and I didn’t argue.

Once we were all in the boat, we headed to the hill we were going to climb to get nice views of the bay and go swimming. When we arrived to the beach area, it was so packed with people who were on day boat tours. The beach looked pretty dirty and not that inviting. I think it’s basically the only beachy area in Halong Bay – likely man made for tourists. We started to climb the 400 stairs up to the top of the hill. We took breaks every 100 steps – Pippa was counting. The views from the top were really nice. We only brought our GoPro up so the pictures weren’t as great as we would’ve hoped for. Climbing back down the steps was more dangerous than going up. The stairs are pretty uneven and we were wearing flip flops, so we were being careful not to twist an ankle.

The view of Halong Bay after walking up 400 steps

Tim swimming in the slightly dirty water

When we got to the beach, I walked into the water and it was pretty warm – probably about 25 degrees. Tim and Pippa went right into the water while I watched. The beach wasn’t nearly as crowded as it was earlier which was good. Tim was sure not to stick his head into the water as it looked pretty dirty. After about 30 minutes or so hanging out we headed out of the water and back to the boat.

We washed up and went upstairs to the roof to see the last sunset. The roof deck is so much nicer at night. Tim and I got a drink and lay around relaxing upstairs. The Aussies joined us and we waited for dinner. Before our dinner tonight, the chef was going to show us now to make spring rolls. We all got to make spring rolls and he deep fried a combination of ones he made before and the ones we rolled ourselves for our appetizer.

Dinner tonight was served family style. Again, it was a lot of food that we didn’t come close to finishing. Everything was delicious and I enjoyed the chef’s cooking on the cruise. It was basically like home cooking, but plated nicely.

After dinner, Tim and I spent the evening laying on the chairs on the roof looking at the stars. It was still quite warm out but there was a nice refreshing breeze. I really enjoyed our time on the cruise and staring up at the stars from the boat was pretty magical.

We went back to our room and watched some TV that Tim had on his tablet and went to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be our last morning on the boat and then we’ll be heading back to Hanoi for the night.

Steps today: 2,000 (Tim: Again, seems low, likely because we were on a boat).

Halong Bay (Day 112): Bhaya Cruise

June 20, 2016

This morning we were going to be picked up shortly after 8:00am for our two night cruise in Halong Bay. We woke up a bit earlier to pack up, had breakfast, and checked out. We were both looking forward to getting out of the city and just relaxing.

We were picked up in a nice “van limo” filled with five British girls. The ride to the port was about 3.5 hours long… a pretty long ride. Luckily, there was pretty good WiFi in the van and the seats were very comfortable. When we got to the dock, we realized not all vans are the same – definitely lucked out! There was a 20 minute break about an hour in to the ride. It seemed like the same rest stop was used by all the other cruise companies. It was full of souvenirs and over priced snacks – luckily we had our goodies from Hanoi.

We finally arrived at the Bhaya Cruise terminal where we were greeted with iced tea and checked in by our cruise director, Chris (actual name is Tuan), who is a 24 year old Vietnamese guy with really good English. We waited about 30 minutes before we were boarded on to our boat. There were a lot of people in the waiting area. Lots of Vietnamese and Aussie tourists. We were happy that we decided to go for the “premium” (smaller) boat instead of the cruise with 20 cabins. Our only other cruise mates were a nice family of three from Melbourne. I was really happy they were our cruise mates!

Chris took us to our boat and showed us our rooms. The boat we were on only had 4 cabins for guests. Since there were only 5 of us, there were only 7 crew members (apparently there are usually 8). All the rooms on this boat had balconies and were on the same side of the boat. We had the room closest to the front of the boat and our new Aussie friends were in the room beside us. The room was quite nice, bigger than some hotel rooms we’ve stayed in on this trip.

After we got settled in, we headed to the dining room for lunch. We were served a wonderful and very filling 5 course meal. After we had lunch, it was clear that we were going to be treated and fed quite well on this cruise. I was also slightly relieved because we went higher end on this cruise to make sure we didn’t have a horrible experience out at sea (which is probably one of my fears – being at sea on a dirty boat, with bad food, with no escape). The regular price for this cruise is $319 USD per person, but we waited to book under 1 week so we got 20% off – $255 USD. The price for a 1 night cruise on Bhaya was more expensive per night than the 2 nighters, so we opted for the longer cruise. The itinerary for the 1 night and 2 night cruises are the same but the difference is that we get to have more free/relaxation time.

After lunch we went up to the roof and took lots of pictures while admiring the beautiful bay!

Our only activity for the afternoon was to visit a cave in Halong Bay. When we walked in, we thought it was a pretty narrow cave but as we kept walking we were pretty shocked at how big the cave was. There were a bunch of uplights inside to show off the various stalagmites and stalactites. It was nice inside and it almost felt like being on a set in a movie. Unlike in New Zealand, people were free to touch the rocks as they pleased.

After our little excursion, we headed back to the boat and went to a pearl farm. The guide there showed us how they farm pearls. They seed oysters with small beads made of oyster shell and implant those beads into other oysters along with a small piece of harvested oyster membrane. Whatever colour the interior of the shell was from the oyster whose membrane they harvested, is the colour of the pearl that will form. I wear pearls everyday and I actually had no idea that pearls were farmed in that way. Chris told us that the Vietnamese pearl farmers went to Japan to learn from them (probably at Mikimoto’s pearl farm). As expected, they had a show room at the end of our tour for us to browse and buy jewelry. No one from our boat bought anything. The ladies did give Pippa (the 6 year old on our boat) a ring for free though.

When we arrived back on the boat, we had free time before dinner. We spent a lot of our time on the roof deck admiring the scenery and trying to catch a sunset. It was really nice having so few of us on board, it felt like we chartered our own boat and the roof was basically ours. Most of the time, it was only Tim and I up there (especially during the day time). Chris came by to talk to us before dinner. He just started working for Bhaya about a year ago after graduating from tourism university. He said he learned English in school but improved it mostly from watching American TV shows and interacting with people on the cruise.

Dinner was served at 7:30pm in the kitchen and we were in for another wonderful 5 course dinner. We got to know the Melbourne family pretty well since we were the only ones on the boat. They were in Vietnam for the first time and were spending about 2 weeks here. We talked about our Australia portion of the trip and they told us how they were just in Vancouver visiting family – it was nice to talk about home. Before going on the boat, we knew our boat would be small so we were pretty lucky we were paired up with some great people.

After dinner, Chris gave us the option to go squid fishing. Tim, Pippa, and the Dad went to go try catching some squid. But Chris warned us that it wasn’t really high season for squid so it would probably be a challenge. It was cool, however, to actually see some squid and lots of jellyfish in the water. But unfortunately, no one caught anything.

As you probably could guess, there was no internet on the boat. At first I was a bit annoyed that there was no WiFi because I thought there was supposed to be. But at the same time it was nice to disconnect for a bit.

Steps today: 4,000 (Tim: though I think the apps I use for tracking steps had trouble when we were on the boat).