Day 2 & 3 - Halong Bay & Hanoi

We started Day 2 really early because the Columbus cruise was coming to pick us up for our 2 Days 2 Night tour to Halong Bay. We booked with them after reading many horror stories on TripAdvisor about the much cheaper tours and resulting in being treated like refugees! So we splurged on a US$85 per person, which is already a summer promotion price and opted for the standard junk - Pinta Cruise as oppose to Pinta Gold which is US$99 per person.

So anyway, back to breakfast at Hanoi Cozy Hotel. I did not want eggs with toast and asked if we could have Pho for breakfast instead and the hotel kindly obliged! So I had Pho Bo (beef) and LR had Pho Ga (Chicken)

While we were eating and checking out, the tour guide arrived and he actually patiently waited for us, in fact the whole bus waited for us! But thank God, there was only a driver and another tour guide that was there *whew*

Off to a almost 3 hour bus ride to Halong Bay...


On the way some nice scenery of the Red River...
And very luscious green rice paddy fields...

And half way through a much needed toilet break to stretch our legs and be reminded that we are tourist!

Being surrounded by the sea of tourist, I got caught doing very silly and tourist pose shots to keep myself entertained in the souvenir shops!

Also bought the best thing you could buy there- Ice cream!!! For only 10,000 VND which comes out to less than S$1, this chocolate ice cream on a stick was dark and does not resemble those cheap chocolate milk type of ice-cream. What a find!

So anyway, after another hour or so, we arrived at the dock where the number of junks exceeded the number of tourists there. The other thing was all the junks looked the same! So inevitably, I began to wonder if paying a premium on the cruise was worth it at all.
But thankfully, our guide told us that our junk cannot dock here because it is bigger did reassure me somewhat that I could have made a right decision. So we had to wait for a smaller boat to take us to our junk.
Waiting.... they gave priority to the Pinta Gold to board their junk first. Not unreasonable :)

Then ours came and to our surprise there were only 2 of us and our guide. And then when we got unto the junk, we realised too that we would have the entire junk to ourselves till evening when the people that opted for a 3 Days 2 Nights tour would rejoin us from Cat Ba Island to finish up their 3rd day. What a nice surprise!

This is our tour guide, Khanh whom was very interested in the Bible and even sat on the deck with us that afternoon to hear LR share Christ and though he did not pray to receive Christ but we wanted to borrow our Bible after to read about the birth of Christ! Amazing how open he was.
So anyway, just the two of us, we began the lunch feast!


They kept serving us food! There were 3 starters (which we thought were mains) - Fruit salad, clams and prawns. Then came rice and 4 other dishes!! Goodness, there was tofu, vegetables, chicken, squid and this ended off with fruits as dessert. We were stuffed!! We then proceeded to our rooms to were given rooms that were furthest from the engines, so nice of Khanh :)

He told us that after resting, we would be making our way to SURPRISE cave. I love surprises!

The beautiful view while making our way to the cave...

We had to ride a smaller boat to the cave where once again we were re-united with hoards of tourist :) And a steep stair climb to the cave with views of Halong Bay...
And views inside the cave. The cave was HUGE. My photos definitely does no justice to the cave's beauty at all.

After the tour, we went back to the junk for some Rest and Relaxation on the deck.


I'm glad I had my crocs on to weather this sinking jetty!

We got pretty close to the rocks to find a secluded spot to anchor for the night.

So serene and peaceful. I read blog reviews about Halong Bay tours how they try to squeeze 40 people into 1 junk to save costs and what I've experienced is a total opposite! Pure bliss... well, at least till dinner time where 6 other people joined us, but still! The maximum capacity of the junk was for 16 people and half full was such a luxury. And then there's the eight course dinner!

They actually off the lights and presented us with the spring rolls stuck in a pineapple! After that huge meal, we hung out on the deck to enjoy the quietness of the night and gaze at stars... We head to bed early because we're going for some serious kayaking the next day!!!

We went round the fishing village....

It was a yawn, so I decided to put our arm muscles to the test and kayak round these rocks!

We got back super late and the tour guide wasn't too happy with us, but welll, at least I had fun! We went pass narrow gaps, lagoons and almost open seas. LR did get a little worried when each rock we passed didn't seem to be THE ONE where our junk is anchored at, but eventually...

Pinta Cruise!!!! So thankful :) So after lunch we said our farewells to Halong Bay.

Back to our newly booked hotel - Hanoi Boutique Hotel. So much nicer... BUT, I guess we weren't the only ones who thought so, therefore the hotel was fully booked and we were given room 602. The hotels in Hanoi do not have lifts, therefore we had to climb up 6 flights of stairs and upon reach the top, we're so hot and the room is HOT too, because it was mainly glass windows rather than walls and the heat just gets trapped in the room.

But at least the toilets were cooler...

So after being cooked in the room, I told LR we had to get out, have an early dinner and stay out till it gets dark and hopefully a little cooler..

Looks like some food court malay cuisine...

But we were served some luncheon meat dish as appertiser....

Then came the sauce that tasted like sweet diluited soya sauce.

Served with freshly made Chee Cheong Fun!!

After the dinner that felt more like an appertiser, I blame the Halong Bay cruise for feeding us an 8 course meal such that this somehow did not satisfy our bellies! So we decided to walk around the Old Quarters till we chanced upon....

Little Hanoi for desserts...

Cream caramel - wasn't overly sweet and had a lingering taste of burnt caramel in a yummy way! Next, the highlight of our unexpected find...

Warm apple tart with ice-cream. This was DE BOMB!! The thinly sliced apples was simply magical. We had to resist the urge the next few days into having seconds and thirds. After the very satisfying end to our two course meal, we decided to head for the weekend markets in Old Quarter that begins on Friday nights and end on Sunday nights. It almost seems the entire population of Hanoi gathers here!

And we ended our 2 hour walk around the markets with ...

Kebab with bread.