(Backup) LAN Ha Legend Cruise 3 days and 2 nights

Today we are off on a road trip from Hanoi to Halong Bay for 3 days and two nights on a small boat. We were picked up at the hotel and traveled north of Hanoi to Halong Bay for about 4 hours in a bus. Maneuvering through the narrow streets of Hanoi in  mid size  tour bus was incredible.   Today we woke up to pouring rain and +10. I am so glad I brought my down jacket, Marino wool hoody and my hikers. I don’t think I will be swimming in the Bay!  They tell us this is really cold even for North Vietnam at this time of year. Oh well hopefully the day will improve as we drive north.

We arrived in Halong Bay and were transported by speed  boat out to the Legacy Boat, which was anchored further out in the bay.  Our cabin was on the second floor in the middle of the boat.  The small windows at the front is the dining room/bar.

 There were 7 of us on board for the first night. A young couple from France, two girls from New Zealand but were originally from Ireland and England and a great fellow named Joe who was also from England. We got settled in our rooms and put multiple layers of clothing on to try and stay warm.  We sailed out of Halong Bay into LAN Ha Bay and Bai to long Bay. The next night 6 additional guests joined us.

                        It was freezing cold but extremely beautiful.

 

After lunch we took the small boat that was attached to the big one across a Bay to a floating kayak rental. We all jumped into the kayaks and Tooey our guide took us through caves and into lagoons which were surrounded by amazing rock formations. 

We maneuvered in and out of the rocks through caves and holes for 2 hours enjoying the tranquility and then made our way back to the boat. 

Joe had some kind of deal with his package for free wine but he didn’t drink wine so after a 3 hours of negotiations we had a bottle of red from Chile on the table to share for dinner.

We enjoyed a tasty dinner and then relaxed and got to know the other guests. We were still a little jet lagged so went bed early to try and get warm. Everyone slept in their cloths and coats because we were unaware the A/C also was a heater. We found this out the next night so it was much warmer in our cabins. 

We were up early the next day and enjoyed coffee out on the deck of the boat. Then we boarded a Day boat and sailed over to Cat Ba National park. We hopped onto bikes and road to a Viet hai village. The village was very primitive but believe it or not they had great free wifi and wonderful Vietnamese coffee. We biked back to the harbor and had lunch on our boat while it sailed to another kayak spot.

This time we kayaked around fish farms and to a great little beach, however it was too cold to go swimming so we just dipped our feet into the water. One of the party cruises sailed by with their load music playing and disrupted our peaceful space so before we got back into our kayaks Bill mooned  them!  I don’t think they even noticed. They were busy drinking and dancing missing the whole point of the beauty that was around them. By this time Bill and I had perfected our kayak skills and made it look easy as the old Canadians blew by all the young ens in the group. I think we even shocked the guide!  We boarded our day boat and headed back to “The Legend”.  Tonight we had another 7 people join the boat so we spent time having cocktails and getting to know them. 

At this point we found out that the boat did in fact have heat!  Yay we didn’t have to freeze our asses off and we could actually take off a layer of clothing. Three of the kids actually jumped off the boat and went swimming. Sarah was a petite little thing which was a shock as she had so many layers of clothes on you would have never guessed her size. They didn’t last too long due to the temperature, but got to cross it off their bucket list.

Our last morning on the boat we learned how to put out a fishing net and visited an oyster farm where they were culturing pearls. We didn’t catch any fish which was too bad. We had lunch on the boat on the way back into the harbor. It was a little warmer so Bill and I and Hazel went up to the top deck as the view was spectacular as we cruised back.  After a 4 hour bus ride we were back in Hanoi for two more nights.

Hanoi is a very big city with lots of traffic. Our hotel was located in the old quarter and was quite lovely. Hannah the front desk girl was friendly and offered us great advice. Derek our street food guide had emailed us the information and addresses of all the places we had visited so our mission was to locate our favorite ones and eat there again. Hannah provided a street map and I attempted to use 'maps.me' offline. As it turns out the old fashion paper map worked best for us and we found the street vendor we were looking for.   Bill had pho ga with no soup, I had a bbq pork noodle dish and we shared a  large beer. Total cost was 95,000 badt which works out to about $5.25 cnd. You really can survive on less than $20 per day if want to. 

The next morning we set out to find the silver shops and then we had the most amazing 90 min massage we have ever had at Omamori Spa. The spa is a special place where young people who have been effected by the remnants of agent orange from the Vietnam war and have lost their sight are trained to do messages. It was incredible how they used their sense of touch and knowledge of the body to find exactly the right spots. The tingly gal that did my massage had such strong fingers I had to request that she lighten the pressure on my shoulders. They started with pressure point massage and then used hot stones and oil to finish. Both of us were completely wiped after we were done. We slowly made our way back to the hotel but not before we found our Vietnamese sub shop for lunch. These subs are to die for and cost about $1.35 each. The rest of the afternoon was spent having a siesta and relaxing. 

Friday night is a big street market where they shut down most of the roads in the old quarter to traffic and set up a huge amount of vendor stalls selling almost anything.

 After dinner we wondered around, purchased some great deals and then sat and listened to some great local music enjoying a .25 beer.

The crowds were starting to get to Bill so we slowly made our way back to the hotel as we had an early flight to Dong Hoi in the morning. After hearing the kids horror stories of the overnight buses and trains, I was very glad we had booked flights to travel through the country.   Hanoi has been great but we are both looking forward to getting to the farmstay out in the country side where there should be a whole lot less traffic.