All Summer Long

The day started well when the extremely kind lady at our hotel couldn’t believe we didn’t want to order anything else for our breakfast on top of the cereal, croissants with ham and cheese, pain au chocolate and fresh fruit we’d already eaten.

“You don’t want anything else? We will make it very fast. You should have something else.”

Seriously, I have never known a nation to feed you so much!

We’re on the bus to Halong Bay now in a kind of daze due to still recovering from Sa Pa. Jenny (or J-Lo as she likes to be called) is our guide and our driver is called Mr T. We’re flying out of Hanoi as fast as possible avoiding all obstacles and Mr T seems to be quite adventurous when it comes to overtaking vehicles – like all Vietnamese drivers I suppose. This adventurous streak moves up to the next level when he attempts to overtake a blue truck whilst another bus is hurtling straight towards us. Obviously, he doesn’t make it and with surround sound gasps, we are now sandwiched between said lorry and bus whilst losing a wing mirror and half of the paint off the bus. Coolly, Mr T pulls over, strolls off the bus, begins fixing the mirror with the helpful Greg who is just a passenger on holiday like ourselves, then gets back on, apologises to us all and drives off. Just a normal day at the office.

The rest of the journey is scrape free and we find ourselves on the small tender boat ready to take us to our small ship. The only problem is, our ship isn’t there. We don’t know where it is. So we wait and wait until it finally appears along with smiles from all of the guests.

The ship is truly lovely. We make our way to our cute cabin which is decorated with swan towels and rose petals. We will be okay here. It’s much prettier and comfier than we expected so we’re really happy.

We set sail to our first port of call (Bai Tu Long Bay) and are told that we’re going to be kayaking to Cap La Island. This sounds really exciting to me but not so much to Paul when he realises he forgot his spare pair of jeans. We are bundled into our tandem kayaks and told roughly where to go and off we row… straight into the pier. I get the uncontrollable giggles as usual whilst Paul manages to steer us away from the pier to the surrounding limestone karsts. This soon becomes one of the best things we’ve done on the trip as it is so peaceful, quiet and purely exhilarating. Can’t recommend it enough!!

We disembark at a small beach and rest awhile to soak up the atmosphere as it’s totally stunning and a welcome rest from all the horns we’ve come accustomed to in Vietnam. We kayak back to the boat station and hand over our kayak and oars. We’re sad it’s over but looking forward to a meal and a night on the boat as my sea sickness is non-existent due to the vessel being a decent size and the calm waters. Result!!

Of course, we are fed until our stomachs are close to exploding. The seafood is phenomenal here so we indulge in crabs, oysters, prawns and calamari and even get to make our own Vietnamese fresh spring roll. We didn’t win the competition for the best one though – that went to a 4 year old.

We enjoy a glass of wine on the top deck (extremely romantic) and take in the beauty of our surroundings before heading to bed for a very early start the next day.

We’re up drinking coffee by 6:30am then are thrown off the ship into Thien Canh Son Cave. J-Lo tells us that we need to beat the rush. Surely it can’t be that bad though as we’re in the middle of nowhere, right? Wrong! We are the first boat to arrive and have the place to ourselves but a measly 10 minutes later, the cave is bombarded by tourists and we just about make it out of there unscathed. J-Lo was spot on with her plan and the cave was pretty cool to go through as well as rewarding you with spectacular views of the bay.

We’re filled with breakfast items until we can’t breathe then we pack up our things and relax on the loungers on the top deck as we sail back to the harbour. Pure bliss.

Once back at the harbour, you’d think the trip was over. But oh no. They feed us one last time with a huge lunch of seafood and stir fried dishes. We have big appetites and even we are beginning to be quite over-faced with all the food. It’s so good though!!!

The whole 2 days were just brilliant with the right amount of activities planned and enough free time to relax on your own. There were about 20 guests on the boat and all of them were lovely and friendly which made the trip even more special.

Mr T got us back to our hotel safely. Good work, Mr T!