Our Hạ Long Bay Cruise: Day 2
By Lauren Gerzina & Justin Hayes
[UPDATE PICTURES POSTED]
Cat Ba Island, Kayaks, and Clams!
We woke up early and ate a breakfast buffet which included pho and omelets – which we of course enjoyed thoroughly. Then we decided we would do the all-day excursion away from the cruise ship. We were promised a visit to a nice village on the main island (Cat Ba) and a kayaking and swimming stop after lunch. About half of the people on our boat chose to stay on the cruise – no clue what they did all day.
We all loaded onto the dinghy and expected a short ride over to one of the many islands for the first part of our tour, but to our surprise, we dinghied over to a “day boat” which was about 2/3 the size of our cruise ship and had three levels – the first level was a dining room/kitchen with A/C; the second level had a small room with couches and the captain with an outside lounging area with three large umbrellas at the bow; and the top level was a sun deck with lounge chairs.
Our day boat then proceeded to pick up another tender full of Orchid Cruise traveler and then, we were off. We had a two-hour slow cruise through the beautiful scenery while everyone chatted, lounged, and generally tried to stay cool. The two hours breezed by (probably because we weren’t on a small tender boat), and we arrived at a small bay where we boarded a tender that took us to a dock. We were told we could choose between riding a bike or sitting in a large, covered electric golf cart to take us to our destination. Justin wasn’t feeling 100% and the sun was crashing down on us, so we opted to be lazy and take the golf cart. Good move. The ride was only 6km but a lot of it had a 10% grade and then a quick drop down again to get into the village of Viet Hai. Our golf cart beat everyone else to our destination, which was a place where you could get a free fish massage. Yes. Fish massage.
There were only four of us on this golf cart, and we had no idea what to do, so we wandered over to a pool full of brown fish which were two to five inches in size. We all took our shoes off and put our feet in the cool water. The fish were SO TICKLISH!!! We were all giggling like schoolgirls as the fish swarmed our feet and apparently took off all the dead skin. Free pedicure!
Everyone showed up just as we were getting out. We watched everyone else enjoy the fish for the next few minutes and then loaded back up to go another half a km to another house where we got a geography lesson on the Ha Long and Lon Ha Bays (and some of the history of the people who live on Cat Ba). Ha Long Bay was named “the descending dragon” because the Vietnamese people are said to have descended from dragons. One version of the legend says that the islands were once the emerald teeth of a Mother Dragon, called down by the emperor to protect his people, that created an impenetrable barrier from enemies.
They also let everyone try four different kinds of wine – each one was supposed to bring special healing or properties to the consumer. Justin decided to finally try the “happy wine” or the King Cobra snake wine – which he said was “ok” and tasted like sake. The happy wine was supposed to bring strength to the drinker. Lauren tried the ginseng wine which was supposed to bring beauty. This wine was absolutely gross, and Justin said he preferred the snake wine.
Back into the golf carts to head back to the port. All the people on bikes were thoroughly beat and were not happy they had a round trip it. We took the tender back to the day boat and cruised toward our swimming spot while we ate another fabulous multi-course meal.
As soon as we anchored, we headed to the back of the boat to put on life jackets and board our kayaks. The kayaks were two-seaters which we joked were divorce-kayaks. The kayaks were not the most comfortable, having little to no back support. But we carried on to a nearby beach where we swam in the refreshingly cool water. The water was a little murky, and Lauren noticed there was like a film on the surface of the water. We would later learn that this was likely caused by the excess amount of diesel due to unmaintained engines on the cruise ships.
Regardless, we still enjoyed the swim and Justin had fun collecting all the fully intact clams from the sand – like a weirdo. We then boarded our kayaks to go check out a small tunnel that created an opening from our little bay to a larger area. After snapping a few pics with the Go-Pro, we headed back to the boat.
Post-kayak update: Despite the uncomfortable two-seater kayaks, our marriage remains strong.
We took the day boat back to the area where our main boat was anchored and then hopped on one last tender boat to take us to the main boat. It took a long time to get to and find our boat since we ended up having to drop off passengers from three other Orchid Cruises and navigate around the other cruise ships in Lan Ha Bay. When we arrived, passengers of our boat who stayed behind as well as some newcomers for a two-day/one-night cruise were swimming behind the boat. Again, trying to dock a tender boat with swimmers in the water would never fly in the U.S.
We headed back to our room to shower and get ready for Happy Hour/dinner. Justin headed up for happy hour to watch another cooking demonstration – this time for traditional fresh spring rolls. Dinner was another fabulous multi-course, hour and a half long meal that Justin could eat most of. They mostly switched out any teriyaki/soy-based sauces with a yellow curry sauce. Since Justin was still dealing with some congestion, we also enjoyed some strong Vietnamese green tea as well as some delicious ginger honey tea.
We skipped the last happy hour of the night again and hit the hay early.
