03/01/2025
Old man had an early flight at 8am, it's a torture 😅
So here I was waiting for Hermes Cruise transport to pick me up at 8am giving the hotel breakfast a miss.
Somebody from the cruise called me and asked me to walk to main road to wait for the bus. Waaaaa... pissed off early in the morning. I told her she had to get somebody to pick me up at the hotel as I had a big luggage. Then a young girl came, moment she saw me, she asked for payment. That's not the end, I was put in a bus together with other back-packers instead of Hermes Cruise transport. Didn't expect the service to be this bad when I had paid so much. I was seriously pissed.
This was the transport I was packed into. It's not too bad I would say but the Hermes Cruise limo bus would be way better with shelled seats with more recline.
I don't leg room problem normally cos my legs are very short heeheehee...
Outline of Halong Bay from far far away.
The pee stop was actually a stop with pearl retail. I intended to buy myself a souvenir anyways.
Escalator to shopping.
I bought a necklace and a seashell bracelet with the whole bus of back-packers waiting for me.
The cruise's waiting station.
And when I saw their limo, my anger flared again.
I controlled myself from screaming but not able to force a smile and told the reception what happened.
Half an hour later she came back with a S$16 cash "compensation", I didn't know to laugh or cry, haizz.... I supposed this made the cruise manager paid particular attention to me.
The waiting area was.... haiz...
The cruise was cleaning, laundry was loaded off.
The weather was so comfortable then.
I am now having heat rashes in Singapore.
All cruises in Halong Bay were about this size.
Welcome drink was half a glass of watermelon soda.
Dinning area, each room had assigned table for all meals.
I was the only solo traveler on board, gotten some weird stares initially.
Itinerary given out in hard copy (I'll die if it's digital lolxx...).
It's really packed with programs, not much time to lepak on the cruise, I was already thinking what were the things I could skip.
Sibei hungry by 1pm. Buffet lunch.
Had a bit of everything.
My fav would be the steam prawns. There's still a difference between cold prawns and FRESH steams prawns, the later one send my mouth to heaven.
All drinks had additional charge, haiz...
They served the cutest egg coffee on burner. It's about 100ml only I think 😂. I ate so slowly till I was last to leave.
Finally, heading to what I paid for.
😭😭 The room sia!!!
To think that this was the smallest (and cheapest) suite they had. I think the area was more than 40sqm.
The huge bathroom had a jacuzzi bath tub which I forgotten to use (how did I??).
I had the whole super king bed to myself and nothing's gonna tear us apart lolxx... but I had to lah, need to see the rest of the cruise.
The entire balcony could be seen through floor length window.
Tripod on bed to get this photo. The view was to die for. Halong Bay is one of the UNESCO Heritage Site and truly lived up to it's name.
Some random pics of parts of the cruise.
Entrance aka reception.
Top deck.
There were numerous hills and mountains rose from the sea, so much so that the sea was calm like a lake.
This was a private pool attached to one luxury suite.
The ship was moving slowly (was it?), hardly felt any motion.
I was all ready to sink myself in bed when the cruise manager knocked on my door and successfully fished me out to Sung Sot limestone cave.
We were on a smaller boat. The life vest was new and clean!
There were so many cruises of people on the island.
The insanely long queue was a blessing in disguise as climb became step by step stretch over half an hour.
To be honest I wasn't really interested in the limestone caves as I had seen quite a few in Japan and China. But the view from here was incredible.
Probably the photos looked boring, but in real it's quite majestic, worth a visit especially if you had not been to a limestone cave.
The cruise manager called us "Hermit cool (Hermes cruise) members" lolxx... hermit coooo hermit coooo all the way along the way...
He was very nice and took pics for us.
They tie the "penis" with red cloth so that you wouldn't miss it, laugh die me.
The climb was not only for the limestone cave but the view was a great reward.
Photo taken by my little "babysitter".
Going down was not good for my arthritis, it would be worst without pain killer urrrrgggg....
After descending we were ferry to another spot.
Energetic ones canoe while shagged ones had boat rides.
Again the life vest was clean and new.
The boat rowed into the low cave.
Passing through the low cave was another paradise.
In other words this area was enclosed with hills around, it's the sea no doubt but looked like a pond.
I took photos of monkeys, can you see them in this pic?
One lady asked me to take photos for her, in return she took some for me too.
Rowing out.
The cruise manager was there waiting for us at the dock, so we had this pic.
All Asian but I didn't get to talk to anybody.
Finally back to the cruise, waiting for sunset. There was a spring roll cooking class which I just see look for a while and left.
I tried to feed my eyes with the scenery as much as possible. I couldn't believe I was here...
It's like painting...
The hue of orange with grey.
"Provision shop" float by, but I didn't need anything. Come to think of it I should had tipped her for her tough effort...
Whenever I think life is tough, I should look back and see what is tough. My arms will disown me if I keep rowing like this for like at least 3hrs?? She is used to it but it doesn't mean it's not tiring.
It was as if god spilled his color paint onto earth, the sunset was the most beautiful gradient one could ever seen.
As the sun left, the orange faded away slowly taking over by pink, then purple...
This was the little girl whom "baby-sited" me, affinity was short but we will have photos to look back at.
Dinner time, had mojito (again).
Menu.
Everything was nice but I was expecting more. Anyways ate till very full.
After dinner, they had squid fishing but I prefer to head back to my room. A big rose was tied with a note at the door knob.
Spending the last few hours on board, didn't want to leave, wished it was a 3D2N but couldn't afford it.
Time on the cruise ended after breakfast the next day. Also ended being solo, heading to Ninh Binh to unite with my blood sisters.
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