Day 87-88 Wednesday - Thursday April 10-11, 2024, Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

April 10

Yesterday was a sea day as we cruised the Hainan Strait towards Ha Long Bay.

As I get to the upper deck the fog is so thick you can cut it with a knife.

The ship's foghorn begins to sound. This is such a beautiful place when the sun is out or even if its partly cloudy. Ha Long Bay is in Northern Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin near the border of China - 170 kms or 106 mi east of Hanoi.

Ha Long Bay has been recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1994. The bay consists of 1,969 monolithic limestone islands on many shapes and sizes. Again, if only the sun would come out then this place would be completely different.

The time is 06:57 as Insignia's horn sharply sounds three short beeps. Its warning all ships in the area, as Insignia begins a 360-degree turn. The bow of the ship is now facing in the direction that will take us out of Ha Long Bay tomorrow at 15:00. We will overnight here. Vietnamese custom officials are on the dock waiting to board Insignia and give her clearance allowing passengers to leave the ship. It is a long pier that might be at least one km in length.

Destination Services is offering two full day tours travelling to Hanoi. The population of Vietnam is nearing 100 million with the top cities being Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) 9.3 million and Hanoi 7.7 million as of 2022.

Janice has booked a five-star Junk boat overnight excursion. I am a little worried as Vietnamese five-star may be different from North American five-star. We will see what transpires. There is no shuttle between the two terminals so, we will need to take a taxi to the other port where we pick up the junk boat.

As we leave the ship, the shuttle driver of the golf cart said he was a taxi driver and would take us to the next port. We passed many junk boats offering one day trips in the bay. We are looking for Emperor Cruises. We arrive an hour early so Janice and I take a short walk and bought some incidentals. The cost for these items was $670,000 Vietnamese dollars which when converted to US dollars was $26.

The junk boat is anchored in the harbour. The area is a hub of activity with many junk boats being re-supplied for the evening. The luggage is collected and taken to the boat while we wait for the tender to return. Getting on the tender we don lifejackets for the quick two-minute ride out to the boat.

From what I see the boat has seen better days, oh well we will make the best of this adventure. Well, this is further from the truth. As we make our way to the boat, we can see the staff waving to us. There were three French Canadian couples from Ottawa, five couples from Mumbai and two women living in Switzerland, one Russian and the other Ukrainian. All will spend a night on the junk boat with the exception of the Canadian couples who will spend two nights on the junk boat.

What a surprise as we boarded the boat. The inside is fully teak. To our left is the dining room where all our meals will be prepared. A wooden semi-circular staircase greets us on our right. The staircase leads to cabins on the second floor while the third floor has a tearoom and sun deck with eight lounge chairs, several tables, and couches.

As our name is called in the dining room a staff member takes us to our cabin. Our cabin is called Hue the former capital of Vietnam. The cabin is laid out in teak with a king bed, shower, bath, and balcony which with two chairs. Its at least double the size of our stateroom.

Lunch was served at 12:30 includes soup, diced apples, avocados, and a cucumber salad with raw scallops on top. I gave the scallops to Janice. After the salad, three deep fried vegetable egg rolls each were brought to the table followed by the main dish of sea bass.

The head of the crew explained the afternoon would include a tender to explore a cave where you basically crouched down for 30-40 meters at the beginning. Both of us decided just to rest on the boat. Janice went for a massage, and I enjoyed the scenery. Once the group returns the sails are manually raised as we make our way to the final spot where we will spend the night.

Tea is served and the bar is open on the top deck.

April 11

A morning stretch program was offered at 6:15 where the participants wore matching blue tops and bottoms (like judo outfits) as gentle music plays in the background. I was unable to get up that early for it and obviously Janice missed it lol.

A light snack of fresh fruit, pastries, juice, and coffee were available before we took the tender towards the water cave. Upon arriving at the location, we are transferred to gondola style boats manned by a female gondolier. There must be at least thirty boats providing this service as well as kayakers in the water.

We make our way through the cave towards a small lake where we stop for photos of monkeys who make their home here. They are very funny cute and make us laugh as they open the bananas they are thrown. Large limestone rock features also surround the lake.

Leaving the cave, it is back on the tender to make our way back to the boat. We are back by 9:00 and need to leave our luggage outside our cabin by 9:30 as they need to prepare the rooms for the next group. A full brunch is awaiting us upon our arrival.

The junk boat is making its way back to Ha Long Bay while we eat. As we leave the boat at 10:30, the crew waves goodbye to us.

What a nice two-day one-night stay. What looks old on the outside appears different on the inside.

We are back at the cruise port as all aboard is 14:30. Insignia's departure time is 15:00 as we cruise towards Hue (Chan May) 265 nautical miles away.

Ha Long Bay does not have a container terminal per say as I have noticed several container ships anchored in the bay as we sail out where they are unloading what looks like sand into low level container vessels who will sail back to Ha Long Bay. These big container vessels have cranes on their ships to collect the sand and deposit in the smaller ships.

The foghorn is going off as visibly is near zero at 17:38 as I write this blog. Not sure what the evening will be like.