Tag 195 - Two-day cruise to 'Halong Bay' & 'Lan Ha Bay'

Hey guys!

Today was once again a result of our spontaneity :)

We woke up around 8 o'clock, had breakfast and enjoyed the view from our balcony. It was a bit foggy, but nice and warm, and the sun promised to come out later. So we decided to go on the boat excursion as planned. But we found out that there were also two- or three-day tours to these islands. At first, we thought it would be amazing, but it would take too much time since we want to go to the south. We looked at pictures and unanimously decided that a multi-day tour would definitely be an incredible experience! However, we couldn't find anything online for today and would have to leave tomorrow... That would have been an option, but it would mean one more day in the north...

Anyway, we got on our motorcycles at 10 o'clock and drove to the harbor. When we asked for a two-day tour, it seemed to be no problem at all and within minutes we already had the choice: a 3-, 4-, or 5-star boat. The price difference was minimal! The cheapest would have been $98/person and the most expensive would have been $145/person (yes, sometimes the prices here are stated in dollars, which is much easier for us than this Dong currency). Well, in hindsight, the difference wasn't so minimal... Anyway, we decided to go for the most expensive one because on this boat, every cabin had a balcony and... a bathtub!!!!

After we had booked everything, we still had an hour to drive back to the hotel, pack everything, check out, and quickly buy some things for the boat in the supermarket.

We managed to do all of that with only five minutes delay, and off we went!

From the harbor, we took a "speedboat" (that's what it's called, but it didn't go that fast :)) to the main ship together with a total of 10 other guests. At first, we thought that more people would join, but it stayed at the few. Really cool!

On board, we were warmly greeted by the entire crew, given a welcome drink, and received a brief briefing. Then we settled into the cabins and were thrilled! Everything is so nicely done and the view!!! An amazing experience already up to this point!

After 20 minutes, we had a very delicious lunch consisting of four courses. Everything here is very sophisticated, but not in a way that makes you feel uncomfortable (yep, we're still traveling like backpackers: track pants and some shabby shirt with our now dirty sneakers :)). After a 30-minute break, we all gathered again and took a smaller boat to the shore. There we got bicycles and rode 6 kilometers to a small village. Our guide, 'Lucky Man' (his English nickname), explained a lot about the island to us. He also told us that they don't have a hospital here, only small medical stations. He said that the people here make their own medicine from herbs and certain reptiles, and that real medicine is rarely needed. They make their own alcohol, and depending on the problem you have, the corresponding ingredient is added during fermentation. For example, they use king pythons and scorpions for potency problems, and honeycombs for stomach problems. He showed us all this in glasses in which these things were soaked. In the end, we were allowed to try a drink of our choice. I wanted to give it a try and decided to go for the honeycombs - not bad at all as I had thought!

After a while, we drove a bit further to a freshwater lake and watched a young net fisherman. This water is clean, but not clean enough to drink. That's why it's only used for plants and rice fields.

We drove back and since we had a considerable lead over the others, we flew the drone for a short while. Unfortunately, the signal was too weak in the middle of these mountains, so it didn't really work.... But back on the boat, we immediately ran to the deck and repeated the action - with great success! We caught the sunset exactly right and took some really amazing pictures!

We had about an hour to quickly look through the pictures, and then dinner was served (during that hour there would have been happy hour and you could have watched the chefs perform at a show, but we decided to enjoy some time on the balcony with a glass of wine and the fabulous view).

The food was top-notch again and this time it was a five-course menu! Almost a bit too much for us since we hadn't eaten that much in the past few days... But in terms of taste and quality, it was awesome!

We also booked a massage for Kevin, which he is currently enjoying :)

He has wanted to do that for a long time and never really got around to it - it's perfect for something like that here!

Well, it's 9:30 PM now, he'll be back soon, and we'll jump into the bathtub :).

You can't imagine how excited we are about this detail!

There won't be anything else happening tonight, it was already enough for one day :)

So dear ones, there will be a lot happening tomorrow, our day will start at 6 o'clock!

We can't wait to tell you about it and say:

See you tomorrooooooow :)

PS: The pictures will follow tomorrow, we have incredibly bad internet reception