Ha Long Bay Day 2

Vietnam

by Jyothis Nair

liked this post?

Maps were disabled by the visitor on this site. Click to open the map in a new window.

Azalea Cruise

Exclusive Suite with Terrace

Tripadvisor

Maps were disabled by the visitor on this site. Click to open the map in a new window.

Avoid!

Not worth it
Okay!

Good for few days
In love!
We would go again.

My 30 second thoughts…

Words aren’t enough to describe how magnificent the entire experience is – you should feel it yourself. Breathtaking landscape, well trained staff and exclusive service along with neatly laid out tour plan – we couldn’t ask for more. It is just that the whole experience is on a pricier side.

Location

Ambience

Friendliness

Food

Cleanliness

Facilities (incl. activities)

Value for money

Cruise Day 1

THE CRUISE – DAY 2

Cruise Day 3

Read more here

Day two onboard starts with a free Thai Chi lesson on the main deck; guided by the local experts. But, all of us were quite tired owing to all those interesting activities we enjoyed yesterday. Plus, the sheer beauty of the landscape right from our bed when we woke up didn’t help us to be on time for the lessons.

As we were slurping our delicious breakfast, the cruise manager came over and reminded us that today we are going to explore a local village going by the name of Viet Hai – a village unspoiled by human expansion on planet earth. Of course, we are excited! We will leave the mother ship and go to the village in a smaller boat.

So, be ready to hop right after breakfast.

We tried classic boxing instead of Thai Chi 😎

Age was just a number during the entire trip. All four of us were equally excited and eager to explore what is in front of us every single minute. That means we were among the first few who are all ready for rest of the day. Now that we got time until everyone is on board, I can fly the drone around and see if I can capture at least 10% of our excitement digitally. I can tell you one thing, it isn’t easy to keep the drone up with the ship’s pace! Watch the video above to get a sense of my struggle not to loose the gadget to the salt waters 😨

Coming onboard the transfer boat made us realize it isn’t as small we thought it would be. It has enough space again for the boys to run around – this is important for us as it is otherwise difficult to contain the smaller make! So, now we are on our way to Viet Hai Village.

Upon reaching land, we got two options.

Ride a bike
Take the golf cart

Advaith and I chose to ride the bike while Mini and Arjun chose to hop on the golf cart. It was one of the most beautiful and unforgettable bike rides we had till date. Surrounded by high mountains, thick green jungles, and well-maintained paths, the cyclist in us couldn’t be happier. Though the island is mountainous, the path from the port to Viet Hai village had only one steep slope; others were manageable by my (then) 9-year-old himself.

1 2 3 4

Photos or videos wouldn’t do justice to the beauty of the place and people at Viet Hai. The happiness and joy of the village is visible on the face of always smiling locals despite a seemingly poorer lifestyle compared to mainland Vietnam (though that statement depends on one’s definition of lifestyle). We tasted some local wines (made from snake 🤯), fruits and tasty home made snacks. The boys were excited to play with rabbits and all other small domestic animals around there. After spending few hours with the locals and visiting sites of historic importance to the village, we started our ride back to port.

Enjoying the same breathtaking scenery on our way back.

Back in the day boat, we were all excited to checkout what surprise awaits us today for lunch. Take a guess at figuring out what the main salad (on the long plate) was made of before clicking the + below to find it out. I can tell you that we weren’t successful in that!

Expand to find out what the magic salad and other dishes are

Mango Salad, Oyster, Shrimp Soup, Chicken fry, Fruit salad, Lamb chops, Deserts

1 2 3 4

After lunch we have an option to go for a swim at the Three Peaches Beach. But, we all stayed back on the boat.

While the boys bask in the sun and immerse into nature.

Back in the mothership, we called it a day, an eventful day! Had yet another sumptuous dinner and off we went to our suite – slipping into the beautiful night onboard.

（￣︶￣）(‾◡◝) (‾◡◝) (*￣▽￣*)