Halong Bay
Happy Monday!
I hope you had a great weekend and are ready to take on the week ahead :) I had a nice relaxing weekend but I think Tj is still having vacation withdrawals from Vietnam. It was such a good trip! He is really missing all the delicious food.
Today I’m going to write about our time in Halong Bay.
This passage is from a Lonely Planet book that my colleague lent me and it got me totally excited for Halong Bay! Made me feel like I was in Game of Thrones haha.
Halong translates as 'descending dragons', which alludes to a Vietnamese legend that accounts for the unique topography of Halong Bay's coastline. According to this myth, the islands of the bay were formed by a family of great dragons that came down from the heavens, spitting up rock and gouging out valleys to ward off an invading navy. The dragons were apparently enamoured with the natural beauty of Halong Bay and decided to stay rather than return to heaven.
After Ho Chi Minh City, we flew to Hanoi for a few days before going on an overnight cruise in Halong Bay. Tj arranged it all through our hotel, and the service was impeccable.
Where we stayed
The cruise we did was O’Gallery Cruises.
There are 2 packages - 2 days, 1 night, or 3 days, 2 nights. We chose 2 days, 1 night (this was a tip from another colleague - if you do the 2 night option, on the second day you do an excursion on a smaller boat for most of the day. If you stay on the big boat, you spend your day going back to drop off and pick up new passengers).
To get there, a luxury van picked us up early in the morning. It had leather seats, strong air conditioning (necessary), bottled water, and wifi. They had even arranged for us to have the best seats. We stored our big luggage at the hotel and we just brought an overnight bag.
We had a few stops to pick up other passengers. From Hanoi to Halong Bay was a 2.5-hour drive. We were brought to a waiting area and after about half an hour we boarded a transfer boat that brought us to the big boat.
I think our boat was the prettiest of all the ones we saw on the bay! The staff greeted us wearing traditional outfits and there was a large drum. The dining room was luxurious and the upper deck had lots of lounge chairs.
Our room was so nice - it had floor to ceiling windows (even in the shower!) and a little balcony.
What we did
There was an itinerary of all the activities in our room. After lunch we got settled in our room and then took the little boat to an area to go kayaking in the Dark and Bright Cave. Except we followed the wrong group so we missed the caves. Oops. Tj and I have never been kayaking together so that was an adventure. After kayaking, we went back to the big boat to go swimming. It was so refreshing to finally get in the water! Some of the crew swam with us. They dove in and stayed underwater for a long time. They laughed so hard at some of the passengers who tried to copy them but ended up doing big belly flops lol.
Then it was time to get ready for happy hour. During happy hour there was a cooking demo where we learned to make Vietnamese pancake. They said my technique was the best (all those baking lessons paid off — it was the similar technique to making crepes).
The sunset was stunning. And at night it was so pretty because of the lights of the boats parked nearby.
The next morning we woke up early for meditation except we were about ten minutes too late, so we just hung out and enjoyed the sunrise.
Later that morning we did another kayak and swimming excursion in the Tra Bau area. Then it was time to get ready to head back to Hanoi.
What we ate
The food on the cruise was delicious! The overnight package included lunch, dinner, breakfast buffet, and brunch. Drinks weren't included. They fully accommodated my vegetarianism and every meal (correction every course) was so good. Lunch and dinner had a soup, salad, main course and dessert. The soups were so good, especially since I was just starting to get my cold. There crew even performed during dinner. Some of them had the giggles, but then they turned out the lights and did a dance with lanterns which was really cool.
We were only gone for just over 24 hours, but it felt like days of relaxation. I wish we had more time to spend just hanging out on that beautiful cruise boat or enjoying the balcony in our room.
Take me back!