Early in the morning we were pleased to meet our guide for the next few days, Hoa, from the Sinhcafe Hanoi office. He was amazing: excellent English, understood Brendan’s allergies (he has his own food allergies and stories of mistakes growing up in Vietnam where the citizens do not take food allergies seriously), knowledgeable, and very caring of our desire to survive the road travelling in Vietnam (and encouraging our driver to stay safe). Deb’s first comment about the roads here was, this is Cairo all over again!
We made our way to Ha Long bay (a 2-hour drive by van plus an additional stop at some crazy shopping warehouse in the middle of nowhere with 5-star bathroom) to board a junk (don’t know where this name come from to describe this class of vessel) for our leisurely ride through the amazing limestone geography of 2000 monolithic islands. Lunch was large fresh crab and huge shrimp with Vietnamese spring rolls, vegetables and greens. The boys wanted a simpler dish (not to mention allergies to seafood), so they were served rice, chicken and pork. As we were the guests in the galley on a huge ship, we felt quite special. It also dawned on us, that we were on a private tour. The scenery was remarkable and the pace perfect. No wonder it is a designated UNESCO world heritage site! We stopped at the “Wooden Stakes Cave” with 3 huge caverns, one of which was just discovered in 1993 by a local fisherman. After the visit, we reboarded the junk for our Cat Ba island for our one night resort say at the Sunrise Resort. However, the port is on opposite side of the island and we had 30-minute life-and-death drive on mountain roads with a terrible driver who insisted on passing every car, bus and truck no matter how dangerous. We made it safely.
The Cat Ba resort is renowned for it terrific, but not-so private beaches. They were jammed with tourists but they were alive and fun. Plus the pool where we spent the afternoon was fantastic. We enjoyed our nightlife as well touring the village and eating some terrible food (save for Brendan’s specially prepared meal) at a pub, The Noble House. The beers, ex pat community and pool table were great, though. We ended up there because our original pick for restaurants, the Green Mango, refused to serve Brendan because of his restricted diet. In our 4-months on the road to date, plus the 11 years that we have helped manage Bren’s diet, this is the first place in the world that would not accommodate him. Sad, really. After dinner, and a few beers with the ex-pats and tourists who ate there, we were returned to our hotel on motorcycles by the local American rock-climbing adventurists doing their good deed for the day. They happened to be closing up shop next door when we happened to pop out of the restaurant. We boarded their motorbikes and were whisked back in no time. Thanks go out for their ex-pat hospitality!
We made our way to Ha Long bay (a 2-hour drive by van plus an additional stop at some crazy shopping warehouse in the middle of nowhere with 5-star bathroom) to board a junk (don’t know where this name come from to describe this class of vessel) for our leisurely ride through the amazing limestone geography of 2000 monolithic islands. Lunch was large fresh crab and huge shrimp with Vietnamese spring rolls, vegetables and greens. The boys wanted a simpler dish (not to mention allergies to seafood), so they were served rice, chicken and pork. As we were the guests in the galley on a huge ship, we felt quite special. It also dawned on us, that we were on a private tour. The scenery was remarkable and the pace perfect. No wonder it is a designated UNESCO world heritage site! We stopped at the “Wooden Stakes Cave” with 3 huge caverns, one of which was just discovered in 1993 by a local fisherman. After the visit, we reboarded the junk for our Cat Ba island for our one night resort say at the Sunrise Resort. However, the port is on opposite side of the island and we had 30-minute life-and-death drive on mountain roads with a terrible driver who insisted on passing every car, bus and truck no matter how dangerous. We made it safely.
The Cat Ba resort is renowned for it terrific, but not-so private beaches. They were jammed with tourists but they were alive and fun. Plus the pool where we spent the afternoon was fantastic. We enjoyed our nightlife as well touring the village and eating some terrible food (save for Brendan’s specially prepared meal) at a pub, The Noble House. The beers, ex pat community and pool table were great, though. We ended up there because our original pick for restaurants, the Green Mango, refused to serve Brendan because of his restricted diet. In our 4-months on the road to date, plus the 11 years that we have helped manage Bren’s diet, this is the first place in the world that would not accommodate him. Sad, really. After dinner, and a few beers with the ex-pats and tourists who ate there, we were returned to our hotel on motorcycles by the local American rock-climbing adventurists doing their good deed for the day. They happened to be closing up shop next door when we happened to pop out of the restaurant. We boarded their motorbikes and were whisked back in no time. Thanks go out for their ex-pat hospitality!
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