March 30th and 31st, Ha Long Bay

Breakfast at F Hotel

Sewing midway to Ha Long Bay, 2.5 hours away from Ha Noi

9AM 30th So the $50 also includes breakfast, which is just eggs and coffee. But it was decent and we got to the boat at 10AM. I was impressed by the boat, the tour guide and the food.

Hot Shower

Though drinks cost money, the food was decent and the rooms were very nice. They were going to put 2 in my room but the party that came up had a family of 3 with a 17 year old girl. They were not going to put me in a room with her so I had the room to myself.



Ha Long Bay is, to this day, the most beautiful place I have been to. We toured a cave, which was not that impressive since I have seen the scale of the mammoth cave.

We then had an one hour kayaking session before dinner, which was fine.

I was the only one who jumped into the very cold water.

I bought a 1 liter bottle of coke from her for 30,000 VNDs, which is normally 15-20,000 but it was much cheaper than drinks on board.

7PM 30th We had dinner and all the foreigners had a few drinks (mostly couples) and we called it a night at 10PM. One of the workers claimed that the boat costs 600 Million VNDs to build.

9AM 31st The boat heads back to harbor, which takes a few hours. Some people who are doing the 3 day, 2 night trip go off to Ca Bat Island and the rest of us head back to Ha Noi after an awful lunch next to the harbor.

My Boat

4PM 31st I arrived back at F Hotel and had pho with Tam, the very cheery girl working at F Hotel. I really cannot tell the difference but all the pho I have had here are good. She bought some sau for me, which are just like Chinese dried plum but not as good, for 20,000 VNDs.

Pho at Ha Noi

6PM 31st I left on a very crowded bus ($15 but supposely $25 for others) to Vientiane, Laos.