Bamboo boats traveling around Vong Vieng floating village

(Sept 25) - We woke up at 630am to catch a taxi into Hanoi so that we could meet our transport van to Ha Long Bay at 8am. We met up with the van (12 people total) and drove 3.5 hours to Ha Long Bay.

We arrived at Hong Gai Port which is a slightly less congested port with access to Ha Long Bay and closer to Bai Tu Long Bay. The big advantage (and reason we selected this cruise) was because this cruise spends most of its time in Bai Tu Long Bay (neighboring bay to Ha Long) and then we end with a quick cruise through typical Ha Long Bay.

As soon as we boarded we sat for lunch. The food was great! Every meal on the cruise is an 8 course meal with a mix of western and Vietnamese food. The boat cruised through Bai Tu Long Bay during lunch and we arrived at our first stop, Vong Vieng floating village. We all moved on to a smaller boat to take us from the cruise boat to a little platform at the floating village. Here we switched boats again to move into a kayak or bamboo boat (multiple passengers and rowed by a person from the village). We selected bamboo boat since we knew we had kayaking lined up for tomorrow. We spent about an hour rowing through the village seeing their homes, boats, and beautiful scenery. They also had a pearl growing farm where they practice a trade taught to them by the Japanese of inserting a starter peal into a live oyster and then keeping them in the water for a few years to see what they get. They only have a 30% success rate!

After the floating village we boated back to the cruise ship and did some swimming off the boat. This was a lot of fun and we got to jump off the roof of the boat!

We came back in for a sunset party with sangria, fruit, juice, and the setting sun on the bay. The boat drove through the bay to the area we would be anchoring for the night. While driving we had a cooking class and completion to make spring rolls. We both have experience in this area and neither of us won for best roll. Unbelievable. Dinner was served after (another great meal) and then we just hung out on the sun deck of the boat. We also tried our hand at squid fishing but nobody caught one since it is not the season, or so we were told to make us feel better.

We also met some really cool people today on the boat. The first people (Glen and Abby) are on a really long backpack on trip (6 months!) through Southeast Asia in support of their friend that recently passed away. He was planning to do this trip with Abby and Glen was his best friend, so when he passed away Glen and Abby thought this would be a great way to celebrate him. The second couple (Amy and Simon) were vacationing through Southeast Asia and were on their last couple of days of vacation. Simon is the lead engineer on developing the break system for the new cross-London subway line and Amy a psychiatrist. All four are from the UK and pretty much the same age as us. We all played cards and chatted most of the night.

Overall a great day and beautiful scenery!

Boating around Vong Vieng fishing village

Hanoi -> Ha Long Bay

Dan Golembeski