Overnight Cruise for Lan Ha Bay — The Millennial Experience

When I started researching for my Vietnam trip, the one place on top of my list was Halong Bay. Everybody knows the iconic images of the limestone mountains jetting out from the sea. It’s an UNESCO heritage site and I remember thinking how amazing it looked when I was watching the Vietnam Special on Top Gear. I also heard it was getting more and more crowded each year so I better go now before it turned into just a sea of bobbing heads. A vast majority of the packages being offered are for packages with pick-up from Hanoi or from the docks at Halong Bay. While reviewing possible overnight cruises, I noticed an offering from OneTrip. They mentioned that Lan Ha Bay is essentially Halong Bay, is right beside each other, but have less than half of the tourists. However, since OneTrip’s tour cost $850.00 USD/pp for an overnight cruise, that was way out of my budget. Even though I couldn’t go with one trip, it did give me a lead on how to get away from the overcrowded Halong Bay while still getting to experience it. I researched Lan Ha Bay and it became obvious that 1) it’s a bit of a hidden treasure 2) it’s more expensive due to the relatively low number of service providers 3) the cruises are higher end and geared towards foreigners. A vast majority of the cruises I found online were 4+ star cruises with a western-centric food menu. All the cruises included kayaking, salad roll making class, tai chi in the morning, and squid fishing. I did find a cruise called Lan Ha Bay Cruise and it had seafood BBQ and a more Vietnamese menu but they never returned any of my emails and I had to abandon that dream. I eventually went with the one that was arranged by my Airbnb host, Azela Cruise. Since my host was able to arranged for free pick-up/drop off at the hotel beside our accommodation within the Old Quarter in Hanoi and was slightly below the other cruises we found at $160 USD/pp for a 1 night cruise, we decided to go with the most hassle free option.

On the morning of our cruise, we were asked to wait at the pre-determined hotel lobby between 7:45-8:15 AM. The staff at the hotel already knew we were going to be there for the cruise. Our tour guide came to the hotel within that time and we got into the van. There were 16 of us altogether and on a summer’s day in Vietnam in a small van, it got HOT. Our guide told us that on the previous day, there were only 6 guests, so I guess it’s the luck of the draw. To get to Lan Ha Bay, you will have to take a ferry to Cat Ba Island. It’s a relatively short ride but it was pretty cramped, filled with other tour buses and locals. When we arrived at the harbour, we were given a chance to buy bottles of water and snacks from a shop. The cruise provides two 500 ml bottles of water in each room but you will need to pay for any additional bottles of water and beverages. Looking at the harbour, there were only a hand full of boats, waiting to take people out to their cruise ships. We learned later that the harbour at Halong Bay was jam packed with these small boats and cruise ships.

We all climbed on to one of the small boats and got our first taste of the amazing views of Lan Ha Bay. Our guide explained to us that Lan Ha Bay and Halong Bay is especially 2 different name for the same area. The bay is split between 2 provinces, the side with one province is called Lan Ha Bay and the other side is Halong Bay. The major difference is the number of tourism permits issued by each province. Halong Bay area gives out more permits and therefore has 3x the number of operators and traffic than Lan Ha Bay.

One of the many amazing views in Lan Ha Bay

After a short ride, we arrived on our home for the next 2 days. The ship has 3 floors, the bottom 2 floors have guest rooms and the top deck is for sun bathing, morning tai chi and night time karaoke. The second floor is the gathering area/dining room and is also where the public washroom is. One of the reason we decided to go with Azela Cruise was because it’s a relatively small ship. Most cruises apparently have karaoke at night and I did not want to be on a boat with 30+ people, all wanting to sing. I’ve been to far too many weddings and know for a fact that not everybody has a voice of an angel. There’s also no Wi-Fi and really spotty/no reception for cellphones. Think of it as a way to disconnect.

Once we arrived on the ship, we gathered on the second floor multi-purpose room and was given our room keys. We had requested a double bed but we ended up with a double + single bed in our room. It’s a little odd but it was nice to have a place to put all of our stuff. We also found two bottles of AquaFuma in our room. Not AquaFina (which we had a bottle of for comparison) but AquaFuma. Looking at the windows in the room and bathroom, I’m really glad we’re staying in Lan Ha Bay, where there’s a lot less boats around. I would not want to look out at night/morning and see someone from another boat staring back at me. Everything seemed clean and there’s AC in the room. My only complaint is that there’s no cold water so you can’t take a cold shower. The water on the ship moves around pipes to cool the engine so the water is pretty hot when it comes out of the faucet/shower. Realistically, you can’t really control the water temperature at all.

After dropping off our bags, we went back to the common room for lunch. We were divided into 3 tables and all the dishes were served family style. It’s not a lot of food so if you’re a big eater or have a big eater in your group, there might not be enough. For the average person, you should have enough to eat. If you’re concerned about it, I would definitely bring some snacks. For lunch, we had corn soup, a salad, a plate of prawns, fish cakes, chicken drum sticks, cooked vegetable and finished with egg omelette. Everything tasted OK but I thought it was a bit bland. I guess it’s safer to go a bit bland when you’re cooking for a wide audience. Beverages were not provided during the meals so you’ll have to pay if you want to drink anything apart from the 2 bottles of complimentary water in your room. The average cost for a can of beer is $2.50 USD and a glass of wine is about $5.00 USD. The cocktails were a bit more expensive and was probably around $7USD. All the prices are listed in USD so I would suggest that you bring some small USD bills with you. You don’t have to pay right away and can simply start a tab with them.

After lunch, we switched into our swim suits, hopped on to the smaller boat and headed towards a small “private” beach on an island. There’s 3 of these beaches on 3 different islands. The different tour groups take turns going to these beaches so the beach you end up at is determined by whether or not another group is there at that time. When we got to the beach, we were allowed to explore the beach and swim wherever we wanted. We were also allowed to jump off of the boat but because the boat was still quite close to shore, a number of people got scratched up by the corals on the sea floor. I do have to mention that even though we were on a beach that was suppose to feel like miles away from civilization, there was plastic garbage everywhere. While I was swimming, I kept getting hit with stupid plastic straws. Our tour guide brought a sack with him to pick up garbage. Half of our tour started helping him pick up garbage and after our hour and a half on the beach, we filled up the whole 1 meter high bag with garbage that washed up on to the beach.

After the beach, we went back to the ship for 30 minutes before heading back out again to go kayaking. If you are craving snacks, take cash with you. There’s a small floating boats at where the kayaks were stored and you can by bags of chips, soda, beer and even souvenirs. My husband had my phone so I didn’t really get a chance to take any photos so you’ll have to settle for photos of my back while I’m kayaking for the both of us. The kayaking was probably my favourite part of the whole experience. Even though there was a traffic jam when we went under a limestone cave, most of the time, it was really quiet and peaceful. We even went into a closed off area where we were able to swim again. We realized later on that the life jackets are kind of optional and took them off because it was getting too warm with the sun and the paddling.

By the time we got back on to the ship, we were getting hungry. We weren’t really given any information as to what was going to happen that night. We cleaned ourselves up and then proceeded to go up to the top deck. There on the top deck, the crew had music playing and were preparing fruits for us as a part of cocktail/happy hour. From what I remembered, all the cocktails were buy one get one free or was half priced. Since they were still more expensive than beer and I had limited USD with me, I opted to stick with beer. The fruits and drinks were really nice. We had a chance to get to mingle and chat with everybody and also to sit and enjoy the sunset.

After happy hour, we went downstairs and had dinner. Started with creamy yellow soup of some kind. None of us could tell what it was but it wasn’t bad, it was just unidentifiable. The second course was a mixed salad with a ranch dressing. Again, it wasn’t bad, just wasn’t great. Next, it was fried prawns and cheese/mayo baked oysters. Both of these were pretty tasty and obviously the presentation was pretty. Then there was a plate of vegetarian salad rolls. It was bright and fresh but it definitely needed a dipping sauce. Next dish was a deep fried calamari with a thousand island dipping sauce. It tasted pretty good, especially after the rather bland salad roll. We actually used the thousand island dipping sauce for the salad roll. After that, we had stir-fried cuttlefish and vegetables. The cuttlefish was cooked nicely and was not too rubbery. Then we had stir-fried broccoli/carrots. Lastly, the meal finished off with a plate of pineapples and apple. The pineapple was super sweet and delicious but the apple tasted like Styrofoam. We learned that Vietnam does not grow apples and needs to import it. So my advice is: don’t buy apples in Vietnam.

After dinner, it was free time. There were some fishing lines for squid fishing and you can see the fishing boats out for squid fishing off in the distance. Squids are attracted to light so the lures all lit up. There was also karaoke on the top deck. I’m pretty sure that the other ships nearby moved away after we started singing…Things started winding down after 10 PM. Our guide actually slept outside on the top deck behind the bar so he insisted on lowering the volume of the karaoke machine until it was essentially off. There’s staff members throughout the ship, more than willing to take your drink order during this time so you definitely won’t go thirsty.

The next morning, a bunch of us got up early to watch the sunrise. It was a pretty clear morning and was incredibly peaceful. Unfortunately, my cellphone stopped saving photos right when the sun was rising so my photos for this leg of the trip is very limited. After the sun rise, I went back to my room to lounge around while others stayed and did the morning tai chi class taught by one of the crew members.

Breakfast included a pho station where you can get beef or chicken pho and an egg station. You can get your eggs scrambled, over easy or sunny side up. They might even do an omelette but I didn’t really try. There was a plate of cucumbers/tomatoes, a plate of sliced bread and some cantaloupe. The pho was not good at all. Everything was bland and overcooked. It was probably the worst meal I had on board. On the bright side, breakfast does come with coffee/tea so you will get your caffeine fix.

After breakfast, we went on our next excursion, which was a visit to a pearl farm. To be honest, it was one of those shopping stops that you get on a lot of Asian tours. We were shown how the pearls are grown and then taken to a show room. After about 20 minutes, we were told we could go back to our boat. Once we were back, we were told that we had to check out of our rooms. This is to give the crew time to clean the rooms before the next tour arrives.

After we checked out of our room, we met back at the common area and had a salad roll making class. It was fun and we got to eat the salad roll. It was quite a mess. Salad roll is a lot harder to make then you might think. After we made the salad roll, we had a bit of time to kill. Since we didn’t have a room to go back to, we went up to the top deck. It was really hot. All we could do was lounge around in the shade. Don’t be fooled by the water in the picture, it was never cold/chilly while we were there in Lan Ha Bay. This wasn’t even full on summer yet.

For lunch, it was buffet style and we had 2 fruit platters, fried rice, fried noodles, chicken nuggets, steamed vegetables and fries. Again, it wasn’t great and it was something the crew could whip up easily and used to feed us. At this point, you can tell they’re just waiting for us to leave so they can start on the next tour group. An envelope was placed on each table for tips.

After lunch, we still had time to kill so we had to go back to above deck and hang out until we were called to leave. I managed to sneak in a nap on a lounge chair because it was too hot to do anything else. That day, even on the water, was approaching 40 degrees Celsius. When we were finally called down, we were told that we would be leaving by speed boat. Not everybody liked the speed boat but I loved it. I really enjoyed the cool breeze and how fast we were going.

We landed on a sandy beach, without a proper dock and had to carry all of our luggage for about 2 city blocks to the van. That does not seem like much but it was difficult for some of the older people in our group, particularly a senior who had some mobility issues. I should mention that there’s no elevator on the ship so if stairs is an issue, this is probably not for you. We also brought back with us the giant bag of garbage we collected from the beach. If you’re traveling, please remember to be respectful of the environment and bring your garbage with you. As we drive through the busy parts of Halong Bay, we could see that the dock was PACKED with boats and was many many times busier than Lan Ha Bay. I was relieved to find that I made the right choice. On our ride back, we stopped by a massive building that had food, souvenirs and giant statues for sale. This was our rest stop/shopping stop on our way back. It was insanely hot and we were stuck there for over 30 minutes before we were allowed to go back on to the van. Again, it was so hot that day and the only AC part of the building was the high end jewelry section. During the ride, they do encourage you to put money into the tip box for the driver. We were dropped off one by one at our accommodation. Some people got dropped off at their new accommodation so you are not required to be dropped off at the same place as they picked you up (so long as it’s in the tourist core in Hanoi).

Final thought for this excursion is that you should definitely go. You will not regret making a trip to Lan Ha Bay. I heard about how crazy busy Halong Bay is and would highly recommend Lan Ha Bay as an alternative. Azela Cruise was quite average but Lan Ha Bay was extraordinary and beautiful and should be a priority if you ever go to Vietnam.