The Pecore Family from Newfoundland - Leonard, Gina, Julia, Lauren and Joanna
So we were all happy to leave Hanoi by bus, destined for Halong City, where we boarded one of the many “junks” in the bay. These boats are wooden cruisers that, collectively and from a distance, look like a fleet of pirate ships. That analogy got stronger when we were pointed to our boat, aptly named the Black Pearl. Onboard, we moved into our cabins, all lovely
Anna Brackenbury
Hi All! At the moment we are in Chiang Mai. Well after our first day in Hanoi we decided to go to Halong Bay for 3 days. We left Hanoi early on the Tuesday morning and got to Halong City around lunch time. There were the 5 of us and a couple from our hotel which were on the same trip as us and between us we had our own guide for the 3 days! We were shown to our junk. I thought there would be a lot of junks at the harbour but there were hundreds! We were shown to our cabins and they were really nice. Us three girls shared and the boys shared too. As soon as we got on the junk we had lunch. The food was brilliant, they bought out lots of dishes so there was even enough choice for me...
We booked our trip of 1 night and 2 days through one of the many Sinh Cafes and were praying we had not be ripped off, so were therefore very happy when the mini bus turned up the next morning. We only paid (40GBP) each for the trip I want to state this as I thought for this price I could not fault the trip. The mini bus was air conned but it was quite old still did the job and we arrived just after lunch at Halong Bay, we boarded the boat which I thought was lovely, the dining room was very nice, it had a sun deck on roof with sunbeds and chairs, our double room was a lovely wooden cabin with lots of windows a lovely bathroom (though limited hot water) and air con. There was 12 people on our trip and we were split into tables of 6 for lunch, we got approx 6-7 dishes per table but I thought it was plenty enough, inc salad, rice, shrimp, squid, whole fish, chicken dish, crab (lunch and dinner was different but similar types of dishes lots of seafood). You had to pay for drinks though but we were told this before we booked. After we cruised for a while then took a tour of the caves which were brill and totally not what I was expecting, we had plenty of times to browse and the guide explained different things then we went kayaking which we got an hour to explore at our own accord, I have never been before and very much enjoyed this. In the evning we had dinner then were offered Karaoke or Squid fishing, Karaoke was very popular but we opted for squid fishing which was fun. Drinks are quite expensive but this was the only cost we incurred over the two days. Beds were very comfortable and the bay is so calm that you cant even feel you are on a boat. Breakfast consisted of an egg omelette and four rounds of bread with butter and jam, plenty enough for me, plus FREE tea and coffee, not sure why the others had to pay and we had refills also. After cruising back to the bay we had lunch in a restaurant used by all the tour companies, was quite a feast and was plenty of food and choice, again drinks not included. All in all for the price we couldnt fault this trip at all, something like this would cost you much more in the UK, also got a look at other boats when we cruised near by and they all looked of a similar quality i thought and did similar activities. Boat we were on looks exactly like the boat on the website except no yellow fin sails, the room with the double bed looks exactly like the one we had!!