Ha Long Bay Cruise

It’s time for my luxury 5-star cruise on Ha Long Bay. If you remember from the post when I arrived at the hotel, the manager recommended a different cruise to the one I had booked. So I’m now on the Rosy Cruise!

Was picked up in a luxury van, I was the first one and the seats even had massage function.

Took about 2.5 hours to get there, and then we had to wait for the smaller boat to take us to the cruise.

People of Ha Long Bay
There are 30,000 people living on halong Bay, either on floating islands or fishing boats. They have different traditions and cultures here to the mainland, but they are Vietnamese. One of the main differences is that women have the power here. If they marry, they will take the women’s surname and move to the women’s home/boat. Children honour their mother here above all else. They have a floating school and floating hospital on the bay, and people don’t tend to leave the bay. They stay here their whole life. Only big medical operations would take them to the main land.

The islands are not inhabitants by people, but they have a few animals, such as goats, snakes, monkeys, and sea hawks. They are made of limestone and are single columns, even if they look joined. The sea with the bay is calm as it has the mountains protected it from the harsh sea. The water in the bay is a mix of fresh and salt water, which means certain fish, dophins, and sharks don’t really come into the bay anymore. It means that with the seaweed, there are a lot of oyster farming here.

Really liked my room, massive bathtub, comfy bed, and my own balcony as well.

The amazing views from the first day…

Meet a wonderful and friendly indian mum and son from Australia, Amit, and Shaloni. Spent most of the cruise with them!
We were also joined at dinner by a lovely couple from Belgium!
Learnt a new way to screenshot on my phone! I’m not sure why I didn’t know they spoke French in Belgium. lol I feel very uneducated sometimes, but I will make up for it as Belgium is on the list, lol

Ended up having 5 cocktails lol

It would have been rude not to have a bubble bath, so that’s what I did!

Second day views…

There was no sunset as it was too cloudy so I decided I’d wake up at 5.30am to see the sunrise! I was the first on deck and to my disappointment, there wasn’t really a sunrise either. It just got light!

We went on the smaller boat to take bamboo boats around Bright Cave. Was lovely views, we saw monkeys in the trees and of course supporting the local people.