Ha Long Bay

 December 3^rd, 2024 

One of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam is the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ha Long Bay, with it’s limestone karsts and islets.  Karsts are topographical formations, in this case tall, steep, rounded hills that jut out of the ocean.  They are created by the dissolution of soluble carbonate rocks.  You don’t need to know the science behind it, you just need to know that it makes for jaw dropping scenery!

 

On December 2^nd, we headed back for one night to Hanoi from Ninh Binh.  We stayed at the Oriental Jade Hotel, which was only a short walk from the previous place we stayed at in Hanoi, but it had a much nicer rooftop pool and bar.  After a quick run to an ATM, we spent the remainder of afternoon and some of the evening enjoying the view of the Ho Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter of Hanoi.

Naomi enjoying the rooftop infinity pool at the Oriental Jade Hotel.

It was a lovely spot to hang out...

...and have a drink and an appy.

A small bus picked us up early from the hotel and it was an hour and a half drive to Ha Long Bay.  We were dropped off at a cruise terminal and after a short wait, we were escorted to a tender which would take us on a 25-minute ride to our ship, the Orchid Classic.  Our ship, along with 10-15 others, were anchored in a bay surrounded by the rounded, steep hills.  It was gorgeous scenery already, and the cruise hadn’t even started!

On the bus ride, as we got close to Ha Long Bay, there were hundreds of dumptrucks and some excavators parked in a field...not sure what that was about.

Someone's excited for the cruise!

About to board our tender.

A very modern looking ship that you could cruise on...but this is definitely not Naomi's taste.

This is more her style...and this is our boat, the Orchid Classic, with only 14 cabins.

Walking on to the boat, we were warmly greeted by some of the crew.  As we walked up a staircase, rose petals were being dropped down by a female crew, who turned out to be our main server, Laura.  We were ushered into the main dining area where we were given a welcome drink and a refreshing towel (read: cold, wet and scented facecloth).  After a brief introduction by the tour guide Lily, we were shown to our rooms.

Getting onboard.

Some of our crew giving us a welcome briefing.

Naomi and I lucked out and by chance we were given one of the two “Orchid Exclusive Suites” at the back of the boat.  It was a larger room than the “Suite Balcony Cabins” but was also at the back of the boat so our balcony was more private.  Another kind of bonus was having a swanky, Playboy-esque round bed…all that was missing was the mirror on the ceiling!  Turns out it wasn’t necessarily that much of a perk as that night we found it uncomfortable, with some lumpy, hard bits.  However, those bumps were at the seam that connected the two halves together so once we rotated the bed so the join went down the middle between us, it was much more comfy.

Checking out our room...we lucked out and were given the "Orchid Exclusive Suite"...complete with a round bed!

Having a beer on our deck at the stern of the boat.

Back in the dining room, we enjoyed a buffet lunch as the ship cruised towards Lan Ha Bay, which is similar to Ha Long Bay, but isn’t quite as busy with tourist boats.  This is the first “cruise” that I’ve ever been on, and even though it’s only for one night, I couldn’t help but feel a bit spoiled.

Fancy lunchtime.

Little Miss Cruise Princess!

Naomi meeting the captain...or "driver" as she told me.

We lucked out with the weather...it was a gorgeous afternoon.

The foredeck.

Yup, cruising can be tough...

The jacuzzi on the foredeck.

After lunch, we had the option to go kayaking which we took.  There were only two other guests who joined us on the tender which took us to a floating dock about ten minutes away from the ship.  We were outfitted with lifejackets, paddles and a double kayak and were on our way.  We had 45 minutes to make our way to a natural tunnel, explore around and come back.

Starting out on our paddle.

There were quite a few other kayaks and also these “bamboo boats” for tourists who didn’t want to paddle or get their butts wet.  Those boats were rowed by a local.  As we approached the tunnel, which was about 100 feet long and 10-15 feet high, the tide was going out, so we were fighting a current to get through it.  The more challenging thing was the number of kayaks also trying to pass through it at the same time.  Some paddlers weren’t controlling their boats well, so they were turning slightly sideways and colliding with others.  There were a few moments where I couldn’t put my paddle in the water due to a boat being in the way, so we just had to drift back and try to get some separation.  In the end, not a big deal, we eventually had some clearance, got some speed going and made our way through the tunnel.

Heading upstream into the tunnel.

It was a bit of a shit show...some people didn't really know how to paddle and were getting turned sideways.  We got so close to other kayaks that it was hard to get any momentum going since there was hardly any room to put the blade of the oar in the water.  We eventually got through.

Part way through.

Finally making it through the tunnel.

On the other side, it was an enclosed area with steep hills all around.  We circumnavigated most of the area and then headed back through the tunnel, which was much easier going with the current, and then headed back to the dock.

Back on the ship, we headed to the jacuzzi on the foredeck.  We met an Australian family, mother Kylie, who we later found out was celebrating her 41^st birthday, her teenage kids Taj, Molly and Tate and sitting near the jacuzzi, Kylie’s mom Helen.  After Kylie and Naomi left the hot tub, I had a fun conversation with the teenage kids about many different topics from their future aspirations to the latest marvels of SpaceX.

Ships parked in Lan Ha Bay in preparation for sunset and the night.

Naomi and I enjoyed sunset on the top deck at the stern of the boat before returning to our room to get ready for dinner.

Many boats are parked up for the night.

Naomi enjoying a cocktail with the sunset.

These three Aussie ladies are wearing shirts that say "This Senorita Needs Margarita"!  They were the wild bunch of the evening and had a good time.

Lovely views...

Returning to the dining room, our seats were assigned, and we were matched with a family of four also from Australia.  There was dad Chris, mom Charmaine and their teenage kids Christopher and Marcelle.  During dinner, the men were fairly quiet as they were recovering from a cold, but we had a nice chat with Charmaine and Marcelle.

Ready for a fancy five course dinner.

The presentation of soup!

Interesting way to keep your soup warm...light a candle underneath it.

The grand finale of the dinner...well, apart from the dessert.

The action was happening on the far side of the room, with some decorations and a presentation of a cake for Kylie’s birthday which was accompanied by the “partying senoritas”, the Aussie trio of forty-something year-old ladies.

The birthday celebrations.

After dinner, the birthday party moved to the upper deck for some dancing.  Naomi and I opted for a bit of peace and quiet on the foredeck before retiring to our room.

Cocktails on the deck after dinner.

We had the foredeck to ourselves for a bit as the rest were inside dancing.

In the morning at 7:15 am, there was another optional activity which was to visit a cave.  We decided to sleep-in and enjoy our deluxe suite as we would be leaving the boat around lunchtime.  We are glad we did, as later we heard of some other tourists who went on a Ha Long Bay cruise and said they waited in a big line up to go through the cave.

Good Morning Vietnam!

Enjoying some peace on our back deck.

After brunch, we said goodbye to the crew.  Our server Laura was awesome, we also liked a guy named Royal and the trip director Lily was excellent.  During our short time on the boat, Laura and Royal were challenging us to learn how to say “Thank you very much” in Vietnamese and it almost became a bit of a running joke as we struggled with it.  “Cam un ban neo!”

Our awesome server Laura.

Waiting to get off the ship...unfortunately the bar was closed.

Colourful fishing boat passing by.

We hopped on the tender and half an hour later we were back at the terminal.  We were told to wait at the same area where we were the day before to get on the boat.  I left our luggage with some other suitcases that had the same white tags as ours, which I assumed were from our group, and we sat down about 20 feet away.  Twenty minutes later, most of the guests on our boat had left as their buses had already arrived.  I happened to look up to check that our luggage was still where I left it, and it wasn’t!  We quickly went to the desk to inquire about them.  It turned out that they had put it back on the tender, the staff thinking that it was luggage for the new guests that had arrived.  Whoops.  Luckily the boat hadn’t left yet and we got the gear back before it went for a second cruise without us!

The bus eventually arrived and within a few hours we were back in Hanoi, killing a few hours before our flight that evening to Hue, almost 700 kilometres to the south.  We were dropped off at Rose’s Travel Agency, the company that Naomi had used for a few of our trips in the north.  We grabbed some lunch, found an ATM and then got a taxi arranged by Rose.  She was super nice and generous and insisted that we both have a gift, which was a package of Vietnamese coffee.  I told her that I didn’t drink coffee, but she suggested that I give it to family back home.  I couldn’t say no without being impolite, even though I knew that first off, I didn’t want to carry it around for the next 2 months and secondly, it wouldn’t fit in my 40-litre backpack.  Naomi and I brainstormed on how to get rid of at the airport.  We could either just throw it out, or perhaps offer it to the check-in staff member.  We decided on the second option and amazingly the woman accepted the gift.

 

That concluded our visit to north Vietnam, which we both loved.  We were both surprised how much we liked Hanoi, especially since I don’t normally like big cities.  Okay, it’s time to check out the central part of this country…