Good evening, or morning, afternoon wherever you’re at :)
From Sapa we got the night bus to Hanoi on Monday night, 23 November, and arrived in to Hanoi at 3am!! Needless to say nowhere was open in terms of guesthouses, b&b’s and the hotel we arranged our day bus to Halong Bay with was no exception. So we waited for a little bit outside the door and decided we would try the bell. Thankfully it worked and the shutter began to open. A lady sleepily greeted us at the reception desk and she offered us a room for 3USD/each for a short sleep & shower before our bus to H.B. at 8am. We took it, not sure if it was worth it though!
We were collected at 8am however did not leave Hanoi until 9am by the time we had collected everybody. We arrived in H.B. at 12.30pm. Some passengers were starting a cruise that day however we had booked a room in a hotel about 3km up the road from the Bai Chay pier where all the cruises depart from. The hotel we had booked was called The Light. The hotel was really lovely with quite a modern interior and lovely stylish rooms. We booked a double room, it had air conditioning, private bathroom, toiletries, hair dryer, flat screen TV, seating area, kettle and a fridge and for just 10USD/night. At this point we had not booked a tour yet so decided to enquire about same at the reception desk. We booked a tour with Golden Bay Cruises via the hotel for just 100USD/each which we thought was quite reasonable as we had decided we were willing to pay as much as 150USD, as we considered this a once in a lifetime opportunity! The price advertised was 135USD however this included a transfer from Hanoi, which we did not need. We asked them to factor this in and they offered us the tour for 100USD which we were very pleased with as it also included transfer back to Hanoi on our Friday, 27 November. Therefore we booked the tour for Wednesday, 25 November, for 3 days/2 nights.
We were collected on Wednesday at 12.15pm and brought back to Bai Chay Pier and waited around 30 minutes before boarding our accommodation for the night, the 'Hai Au'. There were 14 tourists on board and three staff. We had lunch first, which was a selection of Vietnamese foods. We then checked in to our rooms. We had a lovely double room with en-suite bathroom. We were happy with our room as it was on the bottom deck which we hoped would mean reduced noises in terms of the engines etc! (Although it was anchored for the night, so there was no engine running!)
Our humble abode for the night....
For the afternoon we enjoyed cruising through Ha Long Bay which was quite exceptional, I think the pictures convey the scenery a lot better than I ever could! We visited a cave also called Thien Cung Cave; extremely large cave with superb coloured lighting inside. Well worth the visit. The weather was poor unfortunately, quite overcast and it even started to rain a little. We anchored just off Cat Ba Island which was our stop for the night. It was beautiful and we had the option to swim if we wanted to. Not everyone was keen, another couple decided to venture in so we followed suit. The water was so warm, unlike Ireland, it was however cold when we got back out of the water. It was so worth it though plus we can now say ‘We swam in Halong Bay’. Fantastic! Dinner was served at 7pm and we finished the evening off with some beer and card games! All in all a, great day was had.
Our boat docked for visiting the cave.
Cave interior, superb lighting...
Breakfast was served at 7am! (early start) and we went kayaking then from about 7.30am until 8.15am. Quick shower and checked out of our rooms at 9am. Of the 14 tourists on board, myself, Jamie and another German lady were the only ones leaving the boat to actually visit and stay in Cat Ba Island. It was a little sad saying bye to everyone as we had a good night the day before.
Enjoying some free time on the deck of the cruise.
We were taken by bus along with another group to Cat Ba National Park and we trekked for about 2 hours in total, to the top of a little hill/mountain to a fabulous viewing point. The trek was quite difficult as there was a lot of steps and I didn’t have the sturdiest pair of shoes on me. I wasn’t the only one feeling it though; there was plenty puffing and panting going on around me. The view was exceptional though and well, well worth it. We carried on and reached our hotel then; Cat Ba Palace Hotel around 1pm and had lunch at 1.30pm. We had the option at 2.30pm to visit Monkey Island for the afternoon however we decided not to as we’re not too keen on monkeys to begin with plus we were very tired so decided to go for a quick snooze!
We had dinner at 6.30pm and the rest of the evening was free for people to do as they please so I am catching up on some writing and backing up my photos! Nice & relaxing!