Thursday, 11/14/2024
Woke to my alarm at 6:00am. Showered and dressed and went down for breakfast.
I then returned to the room to use the restroom and gather the items I would take on the overnight cruise and neatly secure and store the rest of my stuff that will stay in the room while I am gone. Then played online until it was close to my pickup time.
I grabbed my backpack and headed down to the lobby. I was originally told that pickup was at 7:45am, but last night I was told it was changed to 8:00am, but I still went down at 7:30 anyway, just to be safe.
They finally showed up at 8:15am. The main guy I had dealt with was not there this morning, and the staff on site seemed to be less informed and also not as good language wise, so was a bit frustrating trying to find out what was going on.
They had not given me any details on the trip, so I was flying blind in many ways. Hopefully the driver knows where I am supposed to be going.
When the driver did show up, he had my passport photo on his phone, so at least I know he was the correct person picking me up, and that helped reduce my annoyance which had been growing as the pickup time kept slipping farther back.
We walked down the street a bit as he had parked over on a nearby street as the road in front of the hotel is so narrow a single car blocks it off.
I was the last person to board the van, only 1 seat left. The van was full of what I think were Chinese tourists based on what language I could pick up from them. Other than some hello’s I did not speak with anyone during the ride.
We got onto the road and slowly worked our way out of the old quarter and eventually onto the highway. Once there it went smoothly without any major traffic issues, even the construction zones were still moving at a fair pace.
About half way there we stopped for a break in a small town at a pavilion built for this purpose.
It had parking, though not enough, for the vans and busses stopping here, a large dining area with a few places to order food, plenty of packaged food stuff to buy, and a huge section selling all kinds of souvenir crap and artworks for crazy prices.
Also, the very large restrooms which were the most popular things there.
I walked around a bit, but did not buy anything. I figured we might stop again on the way back, so would buy then if anything caught my eye.
We boarded the van and went back onto the highway. As we neared the coast, we started going over huge bridges over the large rivers where they had shipping yards and other services related to that.
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| Bridge over the Cam River |
We soon made our way to the edge of Ha Long city and then drove over a bridge to an island off shore.
This was mostly hotels and where all the cruise company terminals were located, and there were dozens of them.
You could see many boats out in the bay as well that were probably too large to dock and would use tenders to get people to and from them. Some of these things were massive mega yachts, though used as multi passenger boats and not privately owned.
We stopped first for the Chinese group which were all together, so I stood to the side while they all got off and unloaded bags, then I got back on the van with the driver to go over to my cruise dock.
Once we arrived, he took me inside and asked where I should be and they directed me to sit anywhere in the lobby of the small building.
I sat in a nice comfy chair and the staff gave me a brochure with the cruise schedule as well.
I noticed that the staff then went to everyone else in the building to talk with them and hand over room keys, but I was being ignored. They were also dealing with all the large luggage, so I thought perhaps they would get to me last since I only had a small backpack and camera bag and did not need porters to take my luggage to the boat.
After 30 more minutes and looking like everyone else had been served I was starting to get annoyed, so I finally stopped one of the staff and asked why everyone else seemed to be taken care of and no one had talked to me.
She asked my name and then told me I was not on the list of passengers!!
We checked it twice, she even let me read it just in case she was missing it, nope, not on the list.
She took me over to talk with another staff member and eventually they took a photo of my passport and called the head office that had made the reservation. Really starting to get annoyed now.
Not sure where things got screwed up, but depending on what happens, someone is going to pay for this mess.
Finally, another lady came over that seemed to be in charge of the rest and explained to me that my cabin I had booked had actually been a last-minute cancellation that was resold to me. But for some reason they had not updated the passenger list sent out to the local office at the dock.
While they did have my name on the main record, it had not been communicated to the local staff. Guess another reason to book these kinds of things in advance instead of last minute.
She then got me my room key and told me to have a seat until they were ready to board the boat and she went over the schedule of the next 24 hours with me.
After a 10-minute wait, they told us all to start heading for the ramp down to the dock.
The boat was much larger than I would have preferred, having 70+ passengers, but all the smaller capacity cruises had been booked already.
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| Boarding the ship (The Emeraude) |
Our ship was The Emeraude, which also the cruise line since they only have the one boat.
My room was on the 2nd level of the boat.
I was on the port side of the ship and nearly at the bow except for the luxury suite that took up the front half of the boat on the 2nd deck. That cabin also got the entire front section of the deck as a private space, and the crew put up a chain across the deck shortly after we boarded.
The 1st deck had rooms on the back side, but the front half was the bar/dining room plus the kitchen, and reception desk.
The 2nd deck was all rooms.
The 3rd deck had the bridge up front with a large open deck space in front of it. Next was the captains cabin on port and another luxury cabin on starboard. The back half was a covered bar and seating area and an open deck before some steps took you down the back of the boat to each level.
There was a main central stair as the primary way of moving between decks.
The engine room and crew were all on the lower deck below the waterline.
I checked out my good sized room, with a decent bed, small desk, luggage racks, and a good-sized bathroom/shower setup.
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| My cabin. |
I then went up to the covered bar for the welcome drink, some kind of tea, and sat around to watch the others.
An older guy from Wales, that I had talked with briefly in the lobby before boarding, came over to continue talking with me for a bit until they told us that lunch was ready, and to proceed to the dining room.
As we entered, they would ask our room number and take us to our table. But since each table was assigned to a room, I basically sat at a small table by myself.
After eating a decent lunch, I went up on the upper decks to take photos and video as we were cruised out in the bay. We were now in the midst of the hilly, forested island that the bay is famous for.
We eventually arrived at our first stop for the day. A little island that has a large, man-made beach and a steep hike to the top of the hill for a lookout over the area.
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| Hon Ti Top island |
A tender arrived to take us over to the island, looks like it belongs to the cruise company, so must have been waiting near the island for us to arrive. We were going to be here for about 1 hour.
I had no interest in swimming, did not even have swimwear with me, so went right for the hike up the hill.
HOLY HELL! Steep, roughhewn steps in the rock, worn out and broken in many spots, with a weak rope handrail only part of the time, and numerous switch backs as you head up! Man, I am out of shape!
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| The steps from hell! |
Took me 12 minutes to reach the top, exhausted and drenched in sweat.
But at least there was a nice breeze up there. Took several photos over the area and enjoyed the view a bit while I let the breeze dry me some. It was very crowded though as there were probably 20-30 boats dropping people off on the island.
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| View over the bay, lots of boats visiting. |
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| More views. |
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| The Emeraude from above. |
I then made my way down the steps and filmed the descent on the 360-camera, will see how that turns out.
At the bottom I bought a Coke at the concession stand and then sat next to the boat crew who were waiting, the same lady that had helped me sort out the reservation saw me and had waved me over.
It was a shaded area that held many tables for people to eat and drink at. I spent the time going over photos and editing a few and deleing others that did not turn out like I wanted.
I also talked some with the staff about my time in Vietnam and what I had been doing over the previous 3.5 weeks.
Finally, the time came to go back to the tender and return to the boat.
Then they tied the tender to the main boat and we departed for our next stop. Guess we bring it with us?
This leg of the trip took a while, so I sat in a chair outside my room on the deck to get a breeze and take photos along the way.
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| Many birds flying among the hill tops. |
We arrived at the next stop, a large pearl farming operation located in a sheltered bay of a large island.
You could see a large number of floating markers for the oyster nets they would hang in the water and the floating platform where they managed and harvested the crop.
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| Coming to the Oyster Farm (Small black floats in water, platform to the far right). |
The tender took us over to the platform and we were then given a tour of the operation.
They talked about how they plant and grow the oysters over a 3–4-year period, how they maintain and keep them clean during the growth period, and watched them doing that work.
Then they demonstrated how they seed the young oysters before hanging them in the pots, and also how they harvest the pearls when ready.
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| Workers cleaning the shells before going back into the water (done regularly) |
They mentioned how the oyster itself was then kept and used for cooking and eating, and the shells were ground up for fertilizer, so nothing was wasted.
We then exited via the shop which of course was selling all kinds of pearl-based jewelry.
Nothing of course interested me. While I might have bought an unmounted pearl for my gem collection, the only specimens they had for sale were huge, and very costly, so not going to do that.
Then they took us outside, and those that wanted could rent a kayak for the next 30 minutes to go out and paddle around the bay. I thought about it, but by myself that would have been tiring, and not sure I would want to be matched up with some random person on a kayak.
Plus it cost $14 for the rental which seems steep compared to other things I have done, so I just skipped doing that and stood around taking photos till it was time to leave.
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| People getting into Kayaks |
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| Kayak paddling among the boats and shore. |
I actually boarded the tender on my own so I could just sit down and relax while waiting.
We were among the last boats to stop that day and the pearl workers were all cleaning up and shutting down as we were finishing up our visit. Most of them left the platform by boat before we left.
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| Sun setting as we finish up the farm visit. |
The tender took us back to the boat and we all went to clean up and drop of stuff before going back up to the upper bar for happy hour.
It was buy-one get-one free, so I bought a Coke and got two, though for the cost of them on the boat it was like buying two on the mainland!
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| Happy hour in full swing. |
Drank my Cokes and then wandered up to the front deck as I was not interested in the cooking class they were doing next at the bar area.
I wandered from side to side taking photos in the night, though I doubt too many will turn out.
I went back later as they were also supposed to have some snacks, some kind of crepe, but were out by time I went back. I think that was what they were cooking, so probably did not make enough or people got greedy.
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| The bridge at night (unmanned as we are at anchor for the night). |
I then returned to the room to write in the journal for the day and relax until dinner time.
I went down for dinner when they came around and announced it was ready.
Sat at same table again and had dinner which was okay, but not great.
I then went back to the room to charge my phone, only to find my charging cable was missing, and then recalled I had used it in the van that morning and probably forgot to grab it in the chaos of getting everyone out of the van at the first stop and missed it at 2nd stop. Crap!
I have another cable for the GoPro that is the same, so was able to use it to charge, but annoying as the missing cable was a heavy-duty one that was not cheap to buy, but guess will have to get a new one.
Laid in bed and read for a while as I was not sure if I wanted to go out again.
They will be showing a movie later tonight and also doing squid fishing off the back of the boat.
Not sure I want to do either, but will see how I feel at 8:30pm when the film starts.
I might find a quiet spot on deck and just read more tonight.
I did decide to go check out the film, a movie called IndoChine that I had never heard of. It was a French film with English subtitles.
I spent about 40 minutes watching and then left as it was a boring, pointless and plotless film. Only 2 others were there watching.
I went up on the top deck and read a few more pages, then came back to the room as it was getting a bit cool outside.
I wanted go to sleep, but the next 2 rooms on my side have German couples in them, who had other German couples joining them, and were making quite a racket outside my cabin.
Breakfast is early tomorrow and then there is a meditation class before we go over to visit the cave on another island, which is the main reason I booked the trip. After the cave then we head back to the port and get our ride back to Hanoi.
Goodnight.
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