Lan Ha Bay/Halong Bay Cruising, Vietnam
TLDR: Halong Bay/Lan Ha Bay really live up to their reputation as a UNESCO World Heritage site. We opted for a high-end (and more expensive) and longer cruise, and believe it was totally worth it.
There are so many boats to choose from, and at many different prices. Our first priority was a boat that went beyond Halong Bay; we hoped to see less touristy places. This requires a longer cruise (3 days/2 nights). Additionally, we wanted a smaller ship. We looked at both private charters as well as ships with 6-10 cabins (Most ships had more than 10 cabins). Although there are several private charter ships, they didn’t seem as nice nor have as many amenities as several ship lines that had multiple cabin ships. Price points for private charter (3-day/2 night) were in the range of US$2000-2500.
We found it tough to tell from reviews how likely it would be to get a clean room, good food and service. So we looked at high-end tour companies and the boat companies they used. That’s how we settled on one of the pricier ones: Heritage Cruises Ylang ship, specifically the 3 day/2 night trip. It was lovely – see below for more description and pictures.
Ylang ship from the Heritage Cruise Line
We booked directly with Heritage Lines via email. We mentioned it was our 30th wedding anniversary (as of August 2022!) and they added a few nice options such as a bottle of champagne in the room and flower petals strewn on the bed. On Ylang there are a total of ten rooms of two types: the Signature Suites (6 rooms) and the Regency Suites (4 rooms). Both looked nice in the pictures; the Signature Suites, about 40 square meters, are one floor below the Regency Suites, which are about 50 square meters. Both types of rooms are well furnished and have balconies. The Regency suite included a 45 min massage of your choice (per person), an afternoon tea set up in your room, and the option to have breakfast delivered to your room. The Signature Suite included a 30 minute choice of massage but not the other items. We opted for a Signature Suite.
We paid US$1344 for the two of us, plus an additional US$243 for roundtrip private transport from Hanoi (about a 2.5 hour drive) that was provided by Heritage Lines (they offered us a discounted Regency Suite for about US$200 total more since we booked about 1.5 months in advance). Initially I was outraged by the price of private transport, so I researched getting our own car or taking a shared van. The shared van was about US$125 roundtrip, and private cars were US$175-200. I decided to go with the Heritage Lines car because a) it was easy, b) I thought there would be a better likelihood of getting us to the correct location (which turned out not to be such a big deal, but was one less thing to worry about), c) I wasn’t really enthused about dragging our bags to a shared van pickup point and d) we wanted a non-stop trip to the marina (without the apparently obligatory stop at one or more souvenir shops that just about every TripAdvisor reviewer complained about when taking a car or van to Halong Bay).
The car pickup was easy. The driver arrived at our hotel a bit early and waited for us. It was a very comfortable Toyota Fortuner (aka Forerunner in the US). We stopped at a pearl manufacturing place when we were about 10 minutes from our marina stop. We thought the driver was confused about our port location. Nope, this is a standard up-sell – It turns out everyone builds in time for a stop on the way to the marina (so point (d) above didn’t work out for us either). Go with the flow. The bathrooms were clean. We enjoyed seeing the pearl making process. Then they have you walk through the jewelry for sale. It’s all pretty. We were not in the market. Just enjoyed window shopping and the salespeople were not at all pushy.
When we arrived at the marina/lounge, they confirmed our information, took our luggage and served us tea. Then we waited a bit for the high speed boat that will take us to the Ylang boat. Only a total of 6 rooms were booked as it turned out. Additionally, we learned that many 3-day/2-night boats simultaneously offer 2-day/1-night itineraries, which was true for Ylang. On the first night, there were 6 cabins with a total of 15 people and by mid-day the 2nd day, we were down to 3 occupied cabins and 6 people! (They don’t do a 2-day/1-night itinerary on the second night of the 3-day/2-night itinerary). For comparison, a fully booked ship held about 24-26 people. But we still had the full crew complement of 25, so most of the cruise felt like a private charter.
We were pleasantly surprised to find upon arrival at the ship that we had been upgraded to a Regency Suite.
Everything about the ship was lovely and pampering – the room was clean, large and equipped with both a huge jacuzzi tub and a shower; the staff was attentive and thoughtful about everything; the food was good and beautifully presented (our biggest issue was not enough Vietnamese dishes – I think the cruise line has to appeal to a broad, mostly European clientele). The massage was excellent. In addition, although there were scheduled activities, we never felt rushed because they didn’t try to pack in too much in too little time. We had several periods of down time.
We got to the ship about noon. We had a short safety briefing and were shown our rooms, where our luggage had already been deposited. Then we were served a multi-course lunch and the cruise director went to each table to describe a basic outline for the day. We took a smaller boat to Cat Ba Island, passing by the floating villages. Our cruise director, Mrs. Phuc, told us very interesting information and history about the villages. For example, the kids go to elementary school on Cat Ba and if they want to go to high school, they board (which we also heard was common for rural areas in the far North). The floating villages have been around a long time. The residents are protected from big typhoons by the coves and karsts, and the residents found it easy to hide during wars. Today, the government asks that they don’t spread out too much so that it is easier for local outreach (like during typhoons or other emergencies) and for schools. We saw how they set up a variety of planters on their floating homes–like some had bonsai and of course containers with food crops–and then they have netted areas set up for fish farming. They can move these if needed. They have dogs, kids, families–and it all looked very much like the movie Waterworld. Upon arrival at Cat Ba, we took an electronic cart to Viet Hai village, where we met several people and learned a little about life there, including how they fish, farm and make a distilled rice alcohol. For our return trip of about 4 kilometers, we rode bikes back on a flat paved road through lush forests and a cave.
Here is one example of the staff preparation: one of the bicyclists fell off their bike and got a cut on their head. The cruise director had a first aid kit on her to take care of the worst of the cut while another staff member called around to local doctors and hospitals. Within a few minutes, they had figured out where to take the bicyclist, and had a whole plan for ensuring the passenger and family could enjoy as much of the cruise as possible. When we got back to the boat, the injured passenger and spouse left on a separate tender with several staff, leaving behind their two pre-teen kids on the ship. The staff kept the kids entertained and within 3 hours, the injured passenger was back, stitched up and ready to enjoy the rest of the trip.
After a beautifully presented dinner, we decided to do a Singing Bowl Meditation. We actually got the hang of making the bowl sing (we had tried before but never really got proficient at it) and Dan fell asleep when the instructor played the bowl for a few minutes.
The next morning, the 2-day/1-night people went kayaking, ate breakfast and left the boat by about 10:30 AM. It was raining, so only 4 of the remaining people rode the tender to a different location on Cat Ba Island to hike in the national park. It was an easy 5 km hike and we saw tons of interesting flora and fauna, particularly two species of stick insects! Also, we walked through a limestone cave with various stalactites and stalagmites.
We had lunch, rested for a while on our balcony watching the spectacular karsts drift by, and then went kayaking. It was still raining so by this point, we were the only two passengers interested in going out. The cruise director accompanied us and told us later that since we had a good pace, that she took us much further out than most kayak trips. She took us around and through several karsts (see pictures!); at the farthest point, she led us into a secluded cove where it felt like we were the last people on earth or a Tyrannosaurus rex would appear any moment (or maybe both). Upon return, the crew greeted us with big, fluffy, warm towels, took our shoes to the engine room to dry and served us hot ginger tea.
After dinner, we thought we would try the night squid fishing (the crew had already told us it was unlikely we would catch anything as the squid season is March-May) but ended up talking to a nice couple from Calgary who early-retired 15 years ago and had been traveling constantly since then. Basically, we want to be them in 15 years. We got a lot of great tips on locations and things to do, so our travel list is now much longer…
We woke up early and took a morning swim off the back of the ship (again, it was raining so we were the only ones in the water; the water was warm). After a leisurely breakfast, we hopped on the tender and were returned to the marina for the drive back to Hanoi.
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