We woke this morning in Ha Long Bay, in what was formerly North Vietnam. Today’s plans had been the subject of much discussion — both before the trip began and even more so after our planned visit to Ho Chi Minh City had been cancelled. As we were only in port for one day, we had to choose between visiting Hanoi or taking a leisurely cruise around the famous Ha Long Bay itself.
As we thought we would have visited at least one big city on this trip already, and didn’t much fancy another long coach journey, we eventually settled on the bay cruise. That said, we rather wished we could have done both and hoped we wouldn’t come to regret our choice.
As we hadn’t been moved to the morning cruise slot, we enjoyed a very leisurely start to the day, as our excursion didn’t begin until 1pm.
By the time we reached the Lido buffet the ship was eerily deserted — which we rather liked. After filling ourselves suitably, we headed to the outdoor pool area where there was just one other couple in residence. It seemed most people had opted for morning excursions.
We sat quietly for a while until, without warning, there was a large explosion somewhere on the ship, followed by billowing black smoke from… somewhere. All the lights went out and, far more annoyingly, with the power cut we also lost the WiFi. After a few minutes an emergency tannoy announcement requested First Aid responders to report to the forward engine room.
Eventually the captain made a somewhat muddled announcement explaining there had been an incident involving one of the engine “scrubbers” (which I later discovered deal with exhaust fumes) and assured us they were working to restore power. I think we were in the dark for about 20 minutes. The whole episode was then never mentioned again, which seemed slightly odd given we’d just had an unplanned blackout and smoke incident.
We grabbed a couple of rolls for an early lunch before heading to the meeting point for our excursion. Yet again, people ignored instructions about disembarking in seating row order. As I was at the end of our row, I stood up to prevent people barging past until we were called — an act of quiet heroism that went entirely unacknowledged.
For reasons known only to the organisers, we then had to ride golf buggies from the ship to where the boats were waiting, despite the fact it was perfectly walkable.
On the small boat, some passengers again decided they were being clever by ignoring instructions about not going up to the top deck until we had pulled away. This meant we had to wait while the poor tour guide rounded them all up and marched them back down — at which point they moaned that there were only separate seats available. When we were finally cleared to go upstairs, we had positioned ourselves perfectly and were first up, securing the best seats on the top deck. Small victories.
It wasn’t the clearest of days, but it was warm and dry as we motored out past the nearly 2000 limestone rocks the bay is famous for. The guide was quite sweet and delivered the customary hard-luck story involving her small children.
There was only one stop on this tour, taking just over 30 minutes to reach the Dung Thien Cung caves. We were warned it involved more than 120 uneven steps. Karen was unsure whether to attempt them but was off the boat before she fully realised she had no choice — as it was a one-way route and the boat was moved to the pickup point. I gently pointed out that the guide had explained this at least twice.
We took it slowly and, in the end, Karen was very pleased she’d done it. The caves were quite impressive and, as Barry always says, it’s not a proper Clare holiday unless we go into a cave. The path through was nicely paved, though wet in places. Not quite as good as the Luray Caverns we saw last year, but still very well done. Disney would have been proud.
The steps down and out proved just as tricky for Karen, but again we made it back to the boat in good time. We were then taken past some of the bay’s more famous rock formations, including the one depicted on the 200,000 dong note.
The boat was owned and crewed by a family. The mother ran a small shop on board and was rather aggressive in her attempts to sell us assorted tat, slamming various items onto each table as we headed back to port. We avoided eye contact, shook our heads firmly, and repeated “No” like seasoned professionals.
In the end, we were very pleased with the tour and glad we’d taken it — it really was quite unique. However, a small part of me still wondered what Hanoi might have been like.
Once back on board, we headed straight up to the Crow’s Nest for a much-needed hot drink before returning to our cupboard to get changed for dinner.
We dined alone tonight. Karen had roast turkey with sprouts — only two very small ones, leading us to wonder where on earth they’d managed to source them — while I opted for the rather delicious coconut-crusted mahi mahi. The waiter informed us that the ship’s clocks would be going forward an hour overnight, which changed our post-dinner plans.
Instead of going to the show, we got a couple more Diablo cocktails and headed to the Rolling Stone Lounge to watch the band perform their 70s set, which we thoroughly enjoyed.
Back in the room there was yet more post from the ship, including another reminder about the time change. I do believe we’ve received more post in our cabin this week than we get at home. We also discovered we’d been promoted to three-star Mariners in the loyalty scheme, which apparently comes with additional perks on a future cruise. We were also reminded to “use it or lose it” with our onboard credit, so resolved to go “shopping” in the morning.
And so, with that, it was “Good Night, Vietnam” for the last time, as the ship sailed past China and set course for Hong Kong — a 36-hour journey ahead.
