Back from our 3 Day Cruise on Ha Long Bay :-)

We've just checked back into our hotel in Hanoi after a 3-day cruise of Ha Long Bay, which is about 3-3 1/2 hours by bus from Hanoi. The cruise was amazing. It was my first cruise, so I went in with few expectations. The boat, a junk, was an old wooden ship that looked like a pirate ship. The boat holds eight passengers, but we were the only people on it. We had our own private cruise!

Our guide was a little cheesy. His English was sometimes hard to understand, and he tried to crack a lot of jokes. But it often took us a long time to figure out what he was saying, and then we all had a good chuckle. After introducing himself, he said, "I'm sorry. We don't have any nice rooms; we only have beautiful rooms." It took us about 5 minutes to even figure out what he was saying, but then we all laughed, and he showed us around the cabin.

The food was amazing! Han, our cook, was superb. We began with a fruity welcome drink, and then we were served lunch on the deck as we began cruising through the limestone karsks. We began with spicy seafood soup, followed by a tomato and cucumber salad. The Tropical Sails Company was very accommodating with all of my dietary restrictions, which was wonderful. We then had prawns, steamed crabs, squid with mixed vegetables, beef with lemongrass and peanuts, steamed clams with chili pepper and lemongrass, fish, steamed white rice, a green (spinach-like) vegetable, and fruit (cantaloupe, banana, pineapple, and watermelon) for dessert. We were stuffed by the end of lunch!

We continued cruising around the bay and then took a small boat through the bay to a peaceful, hidden lagoon. We saw tourists kayaking everywhere. After that our boat guide took us to one of the karsts, where we climbed over 425 steps up to a spectacular view. We were exhausted by the end of that! When we returned to our boat, the guide convinced us to jump 6 meters off the top of the boat and into the bay, which he told us was 20 meters deep. Jason went first, followed by Ted. Rachel and I almost couldn't do it, but we finally plunged into the warm waters. It wasn't too dirty near the boat that day. There is quite a bit of trash and motor oil near the coast, and garbage seems to come in with the tides. It's kind of sad because the bay itself is incredibly beautiful. The guide, the jokester that he was, tried to scare Jason. He told us, "We have a lot of sharks. No small sharks; only big sharks." Jason swam out of the water as fast as he could, while Ted swam a lap or two around the boat.


We hung out on the deck of the boat playing cards that we borrowed from the boat crew until dinner. Our guide came up to get us and told us they had a big surprise for us. He had us close our eyes when we went back down into the cabin. They had the lights turned off, and then had us open our eyes and turned on the lights. It was such a beautiful presentation. They had cut animals and flowers out of the fruits and vegetables and laid out much of the food on the table. There was a glowing carved pumpkin with a candle in it, a hollowed out boat made of fruit with a carved traditional person sitting in it, etc. The cook was preparing "hot pot." We had steamed fish, squid, more prawns, tofu, a different type of clams, chicken, beef, stir fried cashews and onions in a sauce, pork and noodle soup, and vegetable noodle soup. They also gave me a full plate of vegetables on the side. We ended with some more fruit, Asian pear, pineapple, dragon fruit, and cantaloupe. I think I've probably gained 15 pounds!

The second day we woke up a little later and had breakfast. Breakfast was less spectacular, but still very good. We were served toast, rolls, danishes, butter, jam, ham, and fruit (guava, papaya, banana, and dragon fruit). The cook also made Rachel and Jason eggs by request.

The first part of the morning was spent kayaking in two person kayaks. It was kind of hard core. My arms were tired after the first 10 minutes, and we went kayaking for about an hour and a half. I can't say I love kayaking, but maybe if it was a little more relaxing, I may try it again. Our guide never gave us a rest. We just kept paddling. Ted was in the back of the kayak and controlling the rudder.

We finally ended up at this small cave in the rock, where the guide was having us hike up slippery stones in sandals. Jason had also noticed he lost his glasses, and we all spent some time looking. By pure luck, I finally discovered them buried in the sand. Yay! When we returned to the boat, the guide gave me a free beer for finding the glasses, which I gave to Jason since I don't drink beer.

We took the small boat in the afternoon to a deserted beach, where the cook barbecued our lunch. It was awesome! The crew set up a table in the sand on the beach. We started with a peanut and vegetable salad. Then we had grilled prawns on skewers, grilled squid, grilled pork kabobs (and I had another grilled prawn), grilled fish, chicken wings, and fried rice. The cook even prepared two different fried rice dishes, one with eggs for Ted, Jason, and Rachel and one without egg for me. We had fresh fruit (banana, pineapple, and cantaloupe) for dessert. Unfortunately this was our last meal with the cook, but we didn't know it at the time.

After eating, we spent about an hour on the beach swimming, lounging, and Ted and I collected quite a few seashells. The trash and glass eventually began to roll in with the tide, and Ted even a saw a needle on one part of the beach. There were also bubbles all over the water, and it looked like foam from oil or something. After Rachel cut her foot on a rock, we were ready to leave.

The guide said that we would have to wait because the big boat was gone and wouldn't be back yet. They had brought some kayaks for us, but after walking around the beach a bit more, they agreed to take us back to our big boat by the smaller one. We seemed to be going for quite some time when it appeared that we were lost. The guide was looking around for our boat, which was nowhere in sight. He finally saw another boat by the same company and flagged them down. We temporarily boarded that ship with some other Americans we met while our guide called our boat with his cell phone. It appeared that the cook was hurt. There was some miscommunication, and at the time we thought he had been burned during lunch. We later found out the cook had an appendicitis and had to return to the mainland for surgery.

The crew returned with a new cook, who was much less impressive. His food was really oily and often undercooked. I thought the fish was undercooked and in weird sauces. He made a "fruit salad" with dragon fruit, pineapple, cashews, and mayonnaise; I couldn't bear to even try it.

Rachel and Jason had smuggled a 5 liter jug of boxed wine on the boat, so we had some wine after dinner in our rooms. All of our food was included but drinks were not, and they were really expensive!

This morning I felt really sick after breakfast, so unfortunately I missed seeing the cave that Rachel, Jason, and Ted explored with our guide. Ted took some great pictures, though, and after laying down, I felt much better. Today we checked out early and then had one last lunch, with beautifully cut fruit and vegetables and mediocre (at best) food.

I'm really glad we went on the cruise. It was really relaxing and beautiful! Tonight we'll see water puppets after dinner. :-)