The trip to our three day boat adventure in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam, a UNESCO World Heritage site, starts in Hanoi. Our driver picks us up at 8:15 am to take us on a four hour ride to the dock, where we pick up the boat. We tried to catch some shut eye along the way but with road construction and bumpy roads it was a futile effort.
The driver made a couple “touristy” restroom stops along the way. One at stop with goods for sale by “handicap” workers and the second stop at a “pearl farm” and more junk for sale.
Once aboard we checked into our “honeymoon suite”. Tracey booked this room since it was the nicer accommodation on the boat. It looks like we have about 18 or so mates on the boat with us.
We pulled away from the dock and set sail into Ha Long Bay and the hundreds of massive rock formations jutting out all over this enormous bay. The formations are over 400 million years old, were covered totally by sea at one point, totally out of the sea during the ice age, and now, once again, much covered by sea.
We had a briefing from Hugh the guide on board for the next couple days, a brief intro to the others on the boat, followed by a hearty Vietnamese lunch. Our fellow mates are from the Netherlands, South Africa, Germany and Austria. We later had guests join from Spain, Croatia and Singapore!
We soon were exploring some absolutely enormous caves in one of the mountainous formations, the Sung Sot cave or “surprise cave”. It was a surprise as these exceeded expectations. Parts of the cave had heights of nearly 100 feet. Truly impressive!
After the cave exploration we boarded two person kayaks and paddles among the giant formations and dozens of tour boats like ours throughout the bay. A neat feeling to be padding in the awesome sea and unique geological formations.
We returned to the boat for hot showers, followed by a toast by our guide and another wonderful meal with our boat mates. It was a very relaxing evening that was lit with the many boats sharing the bay with us among the beautiful landscape.
Day Two Ha Long Bay
We woke at 6:15 am and made it to practice Tai Chi at 6:30 am! This was followed by chicken pho for breakfast at 7:00 am. Then, we were off to the island of Ti Top, to hike to one of the peaks of the limestone cliffs for pictures. Apparently 400 steep steps to the top and absolutely gorgeous views. Good exercise to work off the morning pho!
Ha Long Bay is incredible with nearly 2,000 limestone cliffs and mountains jutting from the sea. We stopped to do more kayaking through these incredible formations! It’s good to work something besides the leg muscles…I think, lol.
This of course worked up an appetite and we were served an outstanding lunch of baked fish, fish cake, satay, spring rolls, rice, prawns and fresh fruit for dessert. After lunch, a short cruise, swimming, a siesta and a visit to a pearl farm.
The floating pearl farm was actually pretty cool. Of course they work hard at the end of the little tour to sell you the pearls but it was interesting to see the process.
We had a nice relaxing evening back on the boat. The beautiful weather made for an awesome sunset. Another excellent dinner was served that we enjoyed with our shipmates from Holland, Charlotte and Hans.
We started our final day in Ha Long Bay with a bit more Tai Chi on the top deck, followed with more breakfast pho.
It was a beautiful morning to sit on the top deck and enjoy the sail back to be harbor. The cruise back included a cooking class to make “nem ran” or fresh spring rolls. And of course more food….lunch before disembarking.
We definitely recommend a trip to Ha Long Bay when visiting Vietnam. Galaxy Premium cruises and their staff did a nice job. Our guide, Hugh, was so warm, hospitable and worked so hard to make our tour most enjoyable…We didn’t want to say good bye.
