Halong Bay

A post with nothing much to say in words, so pictures will just have to do! We did end up going with Halong Emotion Cruise. While everyone says being on a junk boat is the true experience, I beg to differ. In my opinion, at the end of the day, it's how comfortable you would like to be during your stay :). Hence our choice.

Was pretty drowsy after taking my anti emetics for the car travel, so I slept all the way from Hanoi till a handicraft centre, and then again from there till the bay. Hence, the nameless centre :P.

It was a pretty impressive centre I have to say. Firstly, it was huge. Secondly, the work were really good! If only I have a place of my own.. I would have bought some!! *sigh*

They're pretty good!

Oh, they also do international deliveries for big or multi purchases. It's not hard to imagine why. There were heaps of huge paintings and cravings! If anyone's looking for simple and cheap decos for their house or shops, it's a great place to be in!

Some of the paintings

My favourite piece *The white base are actually white painted eggshells!*

Continued on our road trip (while I was happily dozing away :P), we finally arrived at Halong Bay Tourist Wharf. Heaps of tourist I have to say! The whole place was just congested! Thank god we had pick up service. Otherwise, it would hve been a challenge trying to find our 'boat people'.

@ Halong Bay Tourist Wharf

Had a little bit of an unpleasant incident here. While we were crossing the gates to get to our boat, we were stopped by the lady-in-charge there. Immediately placing her arms out and cut in between the other passenger and myself. I don't know if it's because we looked young, or asian or if they thought we were Vietnamese. Or simply that we didn't look 'caucasian' enough to board the boat. And I was 'tested' on what my name was, and what boat I was boarding to. Hello??? Your guy picked me up from Hanoi.... Anyway, not impressed at all. Thankfully, that was the end of the bad experience. I think he was ready to crack it if it was to happen again.

Anyway, soon enough we were on our way to our stay for the night :).

Halong Emotion Cruise Boat :D

We had a pretty good welcoming experience and a short briefing session. Soon enough, we were showed our room before lunch. And boy, do I love the big windows in the rooms :D.

Our room

Lunch wasn't a disappointment too! :D Most of the dishes were fresh seafood, which was a delight. I absolutely love them. Managed to take pictures of some of them :).

Pipis!! My favourites! :D

Deep Fried Prawns

This must be some sort of traditional Vietnamese soup
*we had it at almost every meal, every day*

Stirfried vegetables

The boat started cruising at about the same time lunch started, and with the large windows at the dining area, we didn't miss much of the sights.

Top of the deck

And photos of the famous limestones of Halong Bay :

*Tom : This is just for you!*

Mobile supermarket right outside our room

Loving how the junk boat sails look against the limestome backdrop :)

Our first stop of the day was Sung Sot Cave, which is also known as the Cave of Surprise, a famous limestone cave in Halong. A must go place in Halong Bay, the place was absolutely packed with tourist.

I wasn't particularly fascinated with the cave, I have to admit. What I liked about the place is the scenery of Halong Bay that it provides. Not the cave itself.

View from lookout point no 1

Inside Surprise Cave

There is a 'national icon' in the cave. A piece of stone that resembled a tortoise. It really did. It was tradition to rub the tortoise's head for good luck. Unfortunately, our tour guide wasn't particularly informative so we had to eavesdrop on other tour groups' guide talk whenever the opportunity arised :P.

View from look out point 2
*gorgeous isnt it?*

On our way back

:D

We had about 30 minutes rest on the boat before making our journey to Titop Beach. Most of the Sydneysiders went on for a swim at the beach, but there was no way the two of us were doing that. Firstly, the weather wasn't the warmest and secondly, the water was freezing!!!

Titop Beach

The beach actually had a check point for tickets!
*I never had to pay to visit a beach :S*

View from the beach

We didn't spend that much a time there. It was a quick swim for most of them, 20 minutes perhaps?, and we headed back to the boat for another quick rest before dinner. And again, I was impressed with dinner :D

Our table

We sat with the same people mostly throughout the trip. Not that we minded. I think our table was the youngest among the others which was absolutely fine with me. I'm not sure if it's just this boat, but most of the passengers on our boat were elderly. Perhaps if we stayed at a midrange junk we would have seen younger people? Anyway.....

Dinner!!

There was some real effort in making the dishes pretty and presentable, which was really nice. And the food was really quite good too, which is an additional bonus.

Yummssss

There was other activities for the night, such as the squid fishing activity, but we weren't too interested in it, so we didn't join in. Spent the night reading a book while cruising along was pretty good :). Oh, we did go up to the top deck during the night, and the bay looked really pretty too with lights from other boats.

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Waking up to this :)

View during breakfast

The boat does organize a Tai Chi session at about 630 a.m. for those who would like to join, and also to enjoy the sunrise during that time. We were obviously too lazy to attend, so we slept for that extra 30 minutes.

Fishing Village

We started our day with a visit to one of the fishing villages in Halong Bay via bamboo boats. A truly enjoyable experience.

All the boat 'operators' were ladies as most of the men in the village has gone fishing at the outer bays. They all had a license badge attached and were really friendly. It was also good to observe that they were environmental friendly as they scooped rubbish out of the waters whenever they could.

And we were all given traditional rattan? hats to put on. The girls had a pointed hat, whereas boys had the round ones :D.

Us with the hats :)

Our friendly boat operator

There is a total of 7 fishing villages in Halong Bay, with a total of 1300 inhabitants. The village that we visited was among one of the bigger ones, with 107 floating houses housing about 300 villagers.

Village houses

The village shrine

The village's school
*Difficult to play truant, don't you think?*
Hehehe

Isn't she just the cutest?!? :)

And soon, we were on our way home.

:)

Back at the tourist wharf

Our cruise included a lunch at Halong City, which I didn't really mind. The whole cruise, while it provided a great opportunity to take in the sceneries of the famous bay, was a little slow for the two of us. But I suppose that's because we're used to doing things at a faster pace. Still, it's a beautiful place to visit. Definitely worth a visit, though I probably wouldn't return for another in 30 years, and definitely not a great place for kids, as they might get bored.

Lunch in the city

Lunch menu

After that, the trip officially ended and we were sent back to Hanoi with the company's van. Along the way, we did stop at another arts and crafts place, but it wasn't anything like the previous one. But a good break from being in the car I suppose.

We booked our trip directly with the company's official website, which was good as the prices weren't that much more, and they included the transfer from Hanoi to Halong, which wasn't provided by some of the other operators or agents.