Vietnam

12 - 13/04/2026

For our boat cruise we somehow ended up with the Suite 1 on the boat Victory Star, which was very nice and also included a spa. But the cruise ended up being very conflicted experiance. Everyone on the Internet and YouTube had raved about it as a must do in Vietnam. In fact my doctor in Warracknabeal had told me "You must do Ha Long Bay Boat Cruise". Thus, expectations where high, but the reality was it didn't deliver what the brochures promised.

The boat was ok, the food was excellent, the service was great, the cost was questionable, the price of alcohol was ridiculous (I nearly spent what my ticket cost on alcohol), and the rooms were fantastic. But everything else about this experiance was mediocre at best.

Priding myself on being an independent traveller, we opted to find our own way and accommodation in HaLong Bay and meet the boat at the HaLong International Terminal. Arriving at the terminal we were immediately surprised by the volume of people and number of tour operators that were queueing for departing boats. Groups were gathering in various locations depending on the boat, but of course Victory Star (our boat) was nowhere to be seen.

Standing in the middle of a crowd like ducks out of water, a lady approached and asked what cruise we were on. I showed her the booking, and she rang the company number for me, where she organised for someone to come and get us. She also sent them a photo of us so they would know what we looked like. She had no obligation in helping us, but as I have mentioned many times, this is the behaviour Vietnamese people that is demonstrate over and over.

At 11.00am a young bubbly kid appeared and introduced himself as Daniel, which would later became "Daniel Son". He gave us our boarding passed and took care of our luggage, leaving us to wait in a cafe with other fellow passages for the boat. For boarding we were taken out to the Victory Star by a shuttle boat.

Enjoying lunch aboard, we started a slow travel out into the bay where I realised we were travelling in a convoy of about 10 other boats. All cruise boats doing the same loop. Another obvious fact was that we were travelling past several coal boats that I assumed were loading coal from the smaller barges. I downloaded the marine app and tried to track our boat and understand what the ships around us were doing, but many didn't appear to have AIS.

The number of boats in the bay only got worse the further we travel away from the port. After lunch we arrived at Sung Sot Cave, the biggest cave in the region. We hopped into the shuttle boat and were transfered to the cave entrance. Here a line of people stretched all the way up the mountain and into the cave entrance. It was the same at the exit. We joined the line and proceeded about a meter every second. This pace remained constant throughout the entire cave and was simply due to so many people from so many cruise boats. The number of people was simply ridiculous. The highlight of the cave was a red formation that Goo became very excited about.

That afternoon we would anchor in a cluster of islands and where surrounded on all sides by simular cruise boats. Initially the music from a neighbouring boat became annoying, but it ended up turned into a source of entertainment as an Indian sounding voice thought he was the karaoke God and went on and on, song after song.

In the morning we opted for Kayaking. We were the first couple in a Kayak and made our way through a cave entrance and into a sheltered cove. The only other person there was in a boat sitting in the middle of the cove. He was there to rescue anyone who capsized.

It was lovely for about two minutes. We were there by ourselves in a very tranquil and peaceful place. Monkeys jumped from branches that protruded from the cliff walls, and even crossed the tunnel roof. But then the masses from about 4 cruise boats turned up. The cove became a Kayak parking lot and the monkeys disappeared with people yelling, splashing, and just being humans.

We headed back and waited to return to the mothership. Yesterdays cave was bearable, but this was jovial. It reflected on of the biggest issues I have with the bay. It is completely overrun with tourism and activities. My other main issue is the pollution. The water is warm, but not inviting, and yes we saw lots of objects floating on the water. I was glad we skipped on the swimming activity, and the bay is also famous for oysters. You will see them everywhere along the waters edge, but I'm not that sure I would be eating them!

But the biggest issue is the air is vial. There is no blue sky anywhere, and it's depressing. Grok tells me this is due to the coal mining and heavy industry in the area, but such tourism can't be helping either. Sure, Vietnam is proud of it's economic growth, but growth has a dark side too.

The boat arrived back at the port and we were back on land by 11am. We had booked a "2 day boat trip" so I'm not sure how 24 hours aboard qualifies as this! Unfortunately I was left feeling like another item that had just been processed by the factory. 6/10

15/04/2026

It has been fantastic to have company over the last two weeks, and Goo has been a great travel buddy.. even if I did push her to the limits a few times. Especially with walking in the heat and being on the back of a grab bike. Somehow she also managed to get a lot of shopping done during her stay, and we had to ship most of it back to Australia which in itself was an interesting challenge engaging with Vietnam Post.

I saw her off at the airport and found my way back to the appartment where it wasn't long and I was seeking company again. I messaged an old work college I used to work with at Inno Instruments called Hung. I hadn't seen him for 10 years and we arranged to meet for dinner. Back then Hung was the top sales guy for Vietnam and and unlike myself who was usually last, always took out the APAC sales awards. I had spent some time with him in Korea and Singapore, and I really liked him. I liked his name too.

I couldn't really remember what he looked like, but he soon found me saying I looked just the same. He took me to a resturant that soon had me sweating like crazy from the heat/spices of the dishes. Before I knew it I was eating all this crazy shit, like snails and bird eggs that had half formed foetuses in them. I was good up to the head, where I just couldn't get that down.

I have no idea what the pho/soup had in it, but it looked like weird stuff, and I didn't want to think about it or ask. While I was amusing him, a western couple had seen me sitting in this vietnamese place and figured it must be good, so they came in and sat next to us. They were given the menu (all in Vietnamese) and the guy started using Google Translate to read it. Then he started "Jesus!". "Oh, Fuck Off!". "Are you fuckin serious!". As this went on as his missus just started blankly into space. I'm pretty sure she was thinking let just get the fuck out of here! Hung and myself started laughing our heads off.

I turned to her and said "the snails are delicious". She looked at me and Hung held my plate up and said "he ate all of them". I admit the snails were good, and after some more words Hung then ordered a meal for them. We left before it came, but I'm sure it would have been just as funny watching them eat. The meal was only $VND160000 ($AUD8.40) for the two of us including drinks, and it just showed how the Vietnamese can eat well for little money.

Following dinner he took me to the Coffee Club, a rooftop bar that overlooks Ho Hoan Kiem lake. It was a great spot and I would recommend to anyone visiting Hanoi (9/10). In our talks he told me you can buy Viagra/Cialis without prescription, so once we parted ways I headed straight for a pharmacy. The first pharmacy said "don't have" but the second pharmacy said "how many you want?" With my pills in hand I headed back to the appartment, but what happened then is a story for another time!