Three days on Ha Long Bay on Rosy Cruise. This wasn't our Vietnam grand finale but definitely something we were really looking forward to! We booked through Vietsailtours.com, Whatsapp +84978999869. We had the BEST sales manager, Xoan Hoang, who got us a much cheaper price than Rosy Cruise quoted.
Ha Long Bay consists of thousands of small limestone mountains that fill the bay and is not far from the South China Sea. It is a popular tourist spot (for good reason) and another UNESCO World Heritage Site.
How did we get here? We were picked up at our hotel in Hanoi at 0800 by a Rosy Cruise shuttle and also returned to another hotel in Hanoi after the cruise. The ride to the Vietnam coast was about two hours with a "happy room" stop. We drove past endless rice fields and small towns. Once we got off the shuttle, we waited for a shuttle boat to take us out to our cruise ship anchored out in the bay.
On board the cruise ship: We splurged and had reserved the Honeymoon Suite. The suite was huge with incredible views of the bay and a large aft private balcony. After settling in we went up one deck to the dining room for a buffet lunch. They served meat dishes, seafood, fruit and vegetables. It was good but not much different than the breakfast buffets we get every morning at our hotels.
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| Welcome drink - hot tea |
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| Glass bathroom door with a pull down shade |
We cruised a short way, dropped anchor and had the option of kayaking and swimming. Swimming was not happening since it was overcast and cold. We elected to enjoy the beautiful scenery from the comfort of our suite -- which was also the only heated room on the ship!
A woman and child rowed a boat next to the ship. It was filled with Oreos, Pringles, Choco Pies, beer, wine, booze, smokes, you name it! Someone is always selling something! She saw us looking at her and started yelling at us to buy something. Every time we got close to the window, there she was, two decks below, yelling at us to buy something. She was mean looking! lolNext was happy hour! Buy two get one free and light hors d'oeuvre. At 1800, those who were interested, were taught how to make spring rolls. We didn't stand a chance making any rolls and enjoyed watching the kids make them. We had a nice table by a window and enjoyed a five course meal and bottle of wine. After dinner was karaoke and squid fishing 🐙. We elected to enjoy the comfort (and heat) in our suite.
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| Light Hors D'oeuvres |
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| Spring Roll Class |
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| Seafood Soup |
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| Green Mango Salad with Shrimp |
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| Steamed Shrimp and Squid Cake |
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| Grilled Seabass with Passion Fruit Sauce |
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| Banana and Sweet Cake |
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| Squid Fishing |
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| Is that Squid 🐙 or jellyfish? |
Day two. 0600 reveille. Ugh. 0630 breakfast than 0830 move to the 'day boat' to get shuttled to Cat Ba Island for a five km bike ride to Hai Village and Cat Ba National Park. The sun was out!! And it was semi-warm! This was a nice bike ride past rice fields, grazing cattle and beautiful scenery. It would be a really peaceful place to live. Sharon and I did a little hiking in the park and then bicycled back to the day boat for lunch.
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| Day Boat |
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| Fish Food |
Lunch time! Then kayaking and swimming. This time we went kayaking and went through two cave tunnels and paddled around the bay. The limestone cliffs and small beaches were beautiful and reminded us a bit of Thailand. After returning to the day boat, some of the 'crazy kids' enjoyed jumping off the second deck into the freezing water below. They were having so much fun!
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