Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

National Day long weekend, and I went to visit North Vietnam with Sachini. The trip was awesome, we met lots of people and now I miss the trip already. We booked the tour from First Choice Travel as we planned to visit some of the remote areas in North Vietnam. We took 2D1N trip to Halong Bay and 3D2N trip to Sapa.

5 Aug
We took flight to Hanoi by Tiger Airways and it was delayed for one hour. When we landed in Hanoi, it is 10 pm plus already and after Sachini's visa procedure is done, the airport pickup driver was waiting for us at the gate. We stayed in Hanoi Boutique Hotel 2. The hotel is good, it's clean and nice, better than we expected before.

Hanoi Boutique Hotel 2 Room

6 Aug
After having Vietnamese noodle or pho as breakfast, we were picked up for transfer to Ha Long Bay. The journey took like 4 hours and we reached the boat by lunch time. We stayed on Ha Long Dragon Cruise 18, the room on the boat is good, smaller than then hotel in Hanoi, but still better than I expected before. There are 15 people on the boat. I feel a bit cheated by the travel agent in the sense, they provided meals during the tour in Ha Long Bay, but they did not provide any drink, we had to buy mineral water at inflated price of VND20000 for 600 ml, which is sold for VND8000 in city. The tour guide is not a type of person suitable to be tour guide, he's not friendly at all and keeps rushing people all the way.

Halong Dragon Cruise

Room on the Cruise

Lunch was shared for 5 people in a table, we have an American lady and a Dutch couple sharing with us. After lunch, we went for a 45-minute-kayaking trip, and it was disaster for Sachini and me as we don't know how to do kayaking. In the end we gave up and didn't follow the kayaking group. The next stop after kayaking was a huge cave. At the entrance of the cave, we could see a very beautiful view of Ha Long Bay.

Halong Bay from the Cave

The Cave

The last stop for the day was Titop Island, there is a mountain there where we can climb. Sachini and I climbed to the top of the mountain and an awesome view of Ha Long Bay is waiting for us there. We almost gave up half way, but the French guy in our tour group told us far or not is in our mind only, keep climbing and you will make it. The view worths the effort.

Halong Bay from Top of the Mountain

We had free time before dinner. Some people went swimming and we just lied on the long chair on the upper deck, enjoying the view and the breeze while having chit chat with other people in the group. Dinner was again shared on table. We had a good mix on dinner and nice chat over it.

7 Aug
The weather was a bit cloudy and it was drizzling a few times. Normal breakfast was served on the boat, to my disappointment that they didn't really serve authentic vietnamese food. We had a couple of hour sailing though before reaching back Ha Long City. A van picked us up to transfer us back to Hanoi. Hanoi Boutique Hotel 2 was very kind to lend us bathroom to take a good shower before heading to our next destination, Sapa.

Halong Bay