The itinerary:
Awake to the sunrise over Halong Bay and breakfast on the cruise back to Halong. The afternoon and evening is at leisure in Hanoi.
The trading boasts approach in the early morning light. It was still overcast, but warm and calm.
A floating convenience store.
Majestic Junks
Golden Sails, but only for appearance.
Loitering on deck (Photo by Nhan).
Cave Walk
There was quite a climb up to the cave.
Reminded me of Waitomo.
(Nahn, Me, Bruce, Sharlene)
Spectacular view from the cave mouth
We were up there, the hole is the entry!
Christine just mentioned she'd like a coffee but was overheard. In a few moments coffee appeared, seemingly from nowhere! :)
Silk service with a smile. All the crew were so good, and much better dressed that us!
On the bus to Hanoi
The bus stopped at a very touristy souvenir 'hyperstore'. It was quite interesting to see, some crafts etc were demonstrated, but nothing interested me. Also passed a roadside flower market.
Back to Hanoi
Hanoi vistas on the way back to the hotel. The rest of the day was free, on an afternoon wander I felt was getting a bit burnt so got one of the touristy 'Vietnamese Army' sun caps. I forgot to remove it before returning to the hotel incurring the wrath of the woman who'd tried to sell us one every time we crossed the entry threshold!
'Why you not buy from me, Why you not buy from me, Why you not buy from me...'
(I got one of her terrible tenth generation photocopied, definitely not duplicated, books in part to get some peace)
Although a 'do your own thing' evening a bunch of us ended up going for dinner together anyway. I don't remember much other than a really nice meal in a restaurant was such good value we ended up paying something like us$10/head and that still left a good tip for the staff. The food in Hanoi was superb, a mix of Vietnamese and French cuisine. The latter being perhaps the only good legacy of their colonial rule.
2023 Amendments
This post was written in 2023, so this section will document any gaps. I had a blog back then but didn't update it while travelling, and it was before I used other social media.
* We stayed at the M Hotel, now I think renamed Accor Mövenpick Hotel.
