Hanoi, Hua Hin, Bangkok and some SQ Suites

[yld200]

For our first night in Hanoi I booked us into the Golden Sun Palace Hotel in the heart of the old quarter. Check in was really easy, they sat us down and have us some fruit and a fresh fruit juice which was nice. The guy at the front was very helpful and offered up a number of nearby places to check out and eat at which was very nice and friendly.

Our room was on the mezzanine level which I thought would make it noisy but they had great sound insulation and we couldn't hear a thing. No other photos of the room sorry, but it did the job @ $35 /night. Great location, quiet and very friendly staff.


After settling in we hit the streets and the first thing we noticed was how busy the streets were. There's no footpath so you have to walk along the edge of the streets. Cars and scooters are constantly beeping their horns which took some time to get used to. I worked out that the tooting was more of a way of drivers saying 'hey I'm here be careful' and not 'get out of my way'.



We walked down to the Hoan Kiem Lake (Sword Lake) and did a lap around there. It's a very social place in Hanoi, men and women doing exercise around the lake, running, stretching and just socialising in general. The Temple of the Jade Mountain (Ngoc Son Temple) is accessible for visitors in the middle of the lake. The temple is dedicated to Tran Hung Dao and Confucian and Taoist philosophers. Turtle Tower (Thap Rua) is also located in the middle of the lake. A Vietnam tale of the lake states that when Emperor Le Loi was boating on the lake, a golden turner god surfaced and asked for his magic sword.


On our way around the lake we bought tickets to the water puppet show at the Lotus Water Puppet Theatre later that night.

Some locals working out around the lake.


We wandered around a bit more til we did a lap back to our room before dinner.

 

[nodabs]

Bringing back excellent memories of Vietnam from late last year, the water puppets I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. Also after hearing your airport experience I'm glad we got our VISA's in Aus, was pretty painless just without passport for a week or so. looking forward to more!

 

[yld200]

Bringing back excellent memories of Vietnam from late last year, the water puppets I wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised. Also after hearing your airport experience I'm glad we got our VISA's in Aus, was pretty painless just without passport for a week or so. looking forward to more!

Hanoi was awesome - far exceeded my expectations.

 

[yld200]

For Dinner we decided to go to one of the places recommended by the hotel - Pho 10. They only serve beef Pho here as you can see by the menu. I had the Half Done Beef, and SO had the fillet option.


Food was delicious


Each table gets a side of a few different flavour enhancers, lime and chilli. We also got some fried bread to dip in the Pho. Great first meal in Hanoi - the tone was set! Dinner cost 8 or $9


We then walked around a bit more and made our way back to the water puppet show. A traditional Vietnamese performance based on folklore and tells the tail of day to day living in rural Vietnam with references to farming. It was nice to watch but hard to follow but there's some great skills involved. Quite a few people were falling asleep during the show, including my wife!


A few more shots of Hanoi at night. We wandered around through the little alley ways and found people out eating on the sidewalk, cleaning dishes, drinking beer and eating sunflower seeds, one guy even washing himself down with a hose. I quite enjoyed the vibe and atmosphere, everyone was smiling, having fun and they don't pester you as you walk down the street apart from a few women selling donuts of some sort and women carrying fruit. All shops were open late until around 9pm despite it being a Monday.

 

[SuzieQ68]

Great report so far! Looking forward to reading more. Brings back memories - not of SQ F, but of Vietnam. Absolutely loved it and cannot wait to return.....

 

[RB]

I am also enjoying the Hanoi writeup. Seems like not a lot changed & the prices you are quoting surprise me given it is 13 yrs since our last visit

 

[yld200]

The following morning I had booked an overnight Ha Long Bay Tour (Ba Tu Long Bay technically) and on our return to Hanoi we would be staying at another hotel so I was up early to transfer our bags to the new place with the help of uber. The 3km return trip cost 26K vnd ($2) - I ended up giving the guy a small tip aswell for waiting around for me.

I got back to our hotel and sat down for some brekky. The complimentary breakfast menu was excellent and they basically said if there's something else you want let us know and we'll try to accommodate which I though was amazing service on their part.



The coffee was very nice and has a caramel flavour to it which I found very smooth. I had an omlette with some bread which was all I really needed.



I booked our tour with Indochina Junk based on reviews from Tripadvisor and their availability. I found their communication while booking the tour was excellent during the process. The cost was around $500 for the 2 of us. A map of our cruise.


Our driver arrived at 7.30 on the dot to pick us up in the luxury mini van which was pretty luxurious.


Another couple joined us from the UK who were staying next door and we picked up another German couple aswell. On our way we went. The vans are comfortable with wifi, USB ports for charging and a small fridge to keep drinks cool.

 

[yld200]

The trip from Hanoi to Ha Long takes around 3.5 hours due to roads being in poor conditions and traffic in general. The van stops around 1.5 hrs into the journey at a place that sells all sorts of overpriced knick knacks - things like silk woven art, jewellery, clothes, statues and some food as well.


Arrived at the port around 12 which looked like it was undergoing some renovations at the moment. There were staff everywhere in a kind of organised chaos. We were quickly taken to our area and met our guide for the trip, Duc. Our bags were taken care of and off we went to board our boat around 12.30.


We stayed on the Dragon Pearl 3 which had a total of 11 cabins. There are a number of other boats in the Indochina fleet which range in size from a private 1 cabin Junk upto 24 cabins.

We boarded and Duc gave us an introduction to the Junk and the staff on board. Shortly after that we were given our room keys and our bags got delivered to our rooms. The rooms were nice and comfortable with a double bed and a private bathroom.


We started cruising and noticed the amount of work being done at Ha Long Bay - Hotels, a water park, and observation wheel and some kind of chair lift. Our guide later told us that a number of businesses have put a lot of money into tourism here and have lobbied the government who are now planning to stop all overnight cruises at Ha Long Bay, forcing people to stay overnight in the new accommodation being built. Duc wasn't really happy with this and had already hear plans of new junks being built to be able to carry over 100 passengers, no cabins and limited seating on board.


The limestone rock formations were just majestic.

 

[yld200]

We had some lunch around 1.30 which was 6 courses of amazing food. I didn't take any pictures though
The food was mainly seafood dishes and some stir-fry which all tasted delicious.

A few more shots while cruising.

 

[amaroo]

Nice TR. Looking forward to your Ha Long experience .... two visits to Vietnam and we still need to tick that one off.

 

[yld200]

Nice TR. Looking forward to your Ha Long experience .... two visits to Vietnam and we still need to tick that one off.

Ha Long is a must, very majestic place. It was the highlight of our trip.

 

[Buzzard]

Great TR yld200. In 2007 +1 and I did a cruise from HKG to SIN and one of the ports was Ha Long Bay.
I remember waking early the day we were sailing in, standing at the bow of the ship. Simply amazing!

 

[moa999]

Definitely worth going on some of the more boutique operators on Halong Bay.. they spend a bit more on fuel and go further East away from the crowds of boats (including backpacker party boats).

I went with Handapan Tours Treasure Junk, whilst our van wasn't quite as luxurious as the above we stopped at the same 'souveneir' shop and from the map took a similar route.

I've also had a mate who hated the road journey and took a seaplane back.. you can also package seaplane transfers with a cruise.

-

If heading back to Hanoi I also recommend Pho Thin / Pho Thin 10 which is just south of the Hanoi Garden Inn

 

[yld200]

Definitely worth going on some of the more boutique operators on Halong Bay.. they spend a bit more on fuel and go further East away from the crowds of boats (including backpacker party boats).

I went with Handapan Tours Treasure Junk, whilst our van wasn't quite as luxurious as the above we stopped at the same 'souveneir' shop and from the map took a similar route.

I've also had a mate who hated the road journey and took a seaplane back.. you can also package seaplane transfers with a cruise.

-

If heading back to Hanoi I also recommend Pho Thin / Pho Thin 10 which is just south of the Hanoi Garden Inn

I've heard similar things about Ha Long Bay being too crowded with tourists but we didn't have that problem on our cruise since we we around Bai Tu Long Bay. In one of my photos with the limestone rocks in the background you can see a row of small white objects along the bottom, these are all of the junks going around Ha Long Bay area.

The Indochina Junks stick together but we didn't bump into any of the other groups during our tour.

In the souvenir shop they had photos and addresses of people next to large statues that they had purchased to be shipped back home including quite a few from Australia which was pretty funny.

 

[LadyC]

Enjoying your trip report so far. We had the exact same experience at Hanoi airport with our visas. It seemed like chaos! It took us so long we missed our connecting flight to Danang

 

[carls888]

Looks like a great trip so far.
Looking forward to the Thailand portion! Love Hua Hin and Bangkok.

 

[yld200]

After lunch we arrived at our first destination which was a small limestone island that Indochina have managed to 'lease' from the government. We then kayaked around one of the islands which was fun.



We then returned and went into a cave on the island. Our guide told us that 5 or 6 families lived inside this particular cave and Indochina helped resettle them into floating housing. The families still take shelter here during severe weather and now have electricity too.



Some of the stalactites were cut down because if they grew to long and joined up to the stalagmites the fishermen wouldn't be able to use them to collect water.

The junks then put their sails up for a photo op.



We then cruised to our resting spot while the sun set. I sat on the sundeck with some blankets and took in the scenery - it was getting pretty cold.

 

[yld200]

Some more shots of sunset and then dinner time. We docked in a protected bay area and it was very still, couldn't even tell we were on a boat.



No shots of dinner but got some shots of fruit carving they allegedly did on board. I was a bit sceptical and thought they probably pull this out every night - impressive nonetheless. Food was spectacular again with another 7 course meal served.


The next morning sunrise was beautiful.

 

[yld200]

Brekky again was delicious with a chicken Pho served to those that wanted it and toast for others. I went to Pho option followed by some toast

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We were then taken to a fishing village. Some of the local women came to meet us and took us on their paddle boats into their village.


Their culture and way of life is very fascinating. The families that live nearby to each other will share food and help each other when struggling. The kids are forced into growing up very quickly and will learn to fish at a very young age. Once they reach 14,15,16 they will often get married and move onto their own boats.



They have learnt to let the fish grow since they can earn more money from larger and heavier catches. They have set up little catchments in their communities. Floating supermarket in the bottom left photo below.


I really enjoyed seeing how the locals live and found it very fascinating how simplistic life is for them.

I asked the guide how the locals feel about the tourists 'intruding' on their lifestyle and their homes. He said that initially it was very hard to get through to them what the tour companies were doing but eventually they saw the value that the tourists bring to their lives. The additional income they generate from the tour companies, selling souvenirs and tips / donations from tourists help them live a better life. The guide said that Indochina genuinely try to help improve their way of life and will always provide locals with fresh drinking water, fuel and even jobs. They've donated houses to locals and have helped improve quality of life for many.

Fishing really is their life and is what they rely on.

 

[yld200]

Next stop was a pearl farm. The women paddled us out to here and they waved goodbye.

Here they showed us the different pearls they culture. From left to right - Akoya, South Sea and Tahiti



They then did a demo of how a pearl is cultured and cracked one open for us to have a look at. Then we had 5 minutes in the gift shop. Nothing was forced and people just wandered for 5 minutes then we went back to the junk.



Once we got back on the junk it was time to back up our bags and leave the rooms. The crew would collect our bags and take them back to shore for us. We then had brunch since it was like 11 while we cruised back to port ended our tour of Ha Long Bay. Brunch along with the rest of the food was amazing, a smaller meal, you had the option to chose 2 out of 4 options to have with rice and salad.


We said goodbye to the captain and crew and headed back to land with our guide. The guide helped everyone find their bags and their drivers to take them on to their next destinations.

On the way back to Hanoi there was a stop at Yun Duc village where they did a water puppet show and offered tea and snacks to everyone. Since we had already seen a show we weren't that interested and wanted to just go back to Hanoi. A quick 15 minute stop at the same souvenir shop as well and finally got back to Hanoi at 5.15.



Bai Tu Long Bay (Ha Long Bay) was an amazing experience and the highlight of our trip. I would highly recommend anybody going to Vietnam to not pass up on seeing this beautiful place.