After our somewhat mixed sightseeing experience in Hanoi on Wednesday, we left the city yesterday morning for an overnight cruise on Halong Bay. The bay is famous for its many karst rocks dotted throughout, with spectacular scenery. Getting there involved a three and a half hour drive. Surprisingly, that went pretty well with no meltdowns by anyone along the way.

We left just after breakfast and arrived around 12.30pm. After dealing with the boarding formalities, we were on our way pretty quickly. Given its popularity, there are lots of different options for touring the bay. We had booked with Bhaya Cruises, and they were excellent throughout. You can book rooms on a large boat, but we decided we wouldn’t inflict the kids on a whole boat load of strangers, so we went for the smaller option. We had originally planned on booking a 2-bedroom boat. They were booked out so we booked a 3-bed. In the end, the 3-bed wasn’t available so they actually gave us a 4-bed. Which meant the boat was massive, and all just for us. Nice!

This trip was a huge hit with the kids, and I must say we really enjoyed it too. Having the boat to just ourselves (and the crew) was a real treat. We could stretch out and make ourselves feel at home without feeling guilty about disturbing others, so we did!

Our well-appointed dining room. DW and I did our best to make a dent on the drinks cabinet!

In the afternoon, we visited one of the floating villages in the bay. Apparently the people here genuinely do live here, and these settlements long pre-date tourism. They started as permanent fishing sites in the bay. The one we visited even has its own (floating) primary school. This particular one is clearly firmly on the tourist map though – it must be weird living in a permanent exhibition:

On the way back, we took a photo of our boat:

After that we just chilled for the afternoon. It was overcast and raining slightly when we were leaving the harbour. We were really lucky as it brightened up mid afternoon. The sunset was stunning:

We had a cookery demonstration before dinner. Then the kids had dinner first. When we got The Boy to bed, the crew had set up a lovely candlelit dinner for two for just myself and DW (the girls were chilling in their bedrooms at this stage). This was our first meal together without the kids since we started this trip. And it was very nice indeed.

The following morning we woke to a misty bay. Before heading back to the harbour, we had a chance to go kayaking in and around some of the caves in the rocks. This was good fun, and thankfully no-one ended up in the water! We were all a bit tired by the time we got back to our hotel in Hanoi, but it was worth it. This was a wonderful experience.