Halong Bay, Vietnam: A big FAT boat all to ourselves

January 1, 2011

My guess is that the most peaceful and outrageously beautiful time on our trip will be Halong Bay. Think ocean with jutting limestone outcroppings bursting out of the water, left and right, carving striking shapes into the sky. Just amazing.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t do Halong Bay on New Year’s Eve because it would have been an incredible way to bring in the New Year. We arrived on New Year’s Day at noon, to a chaotic port scene, packed with tourists leaving their Halong Bay boats, the morning after New Year’s Eve. Let me tell you, these guys were HUNGOVER. You could even smell the alcohol wafting out of their pores. Whew! The previous night was written all over them. Most of the boats were completely packed, filled with 30 to 35 tourists on each.

Then, we stepped into our own boat, which had held 30 drunk tourists the previous night, and we had it ALL to ourselves. Yes, no one else was on board. Our travel agent asked and received a big, sweet boat for us, and the boat company must have already had the staff just sitting around, waiting for a job after us. We had at least 10 staff taking care of the 5 of us on our boat. Let’s just say we were well-served.

But, more importantly, you really need to imagine what it’s like being on a large boat without anyone else. The kids and we just felt nearly-completely unself-conscious. It was such a feeling of freedom, peace, and relaxation. We had an upper deck, dining area, and lower deck, along with lower rooms.

The kids took over a couple rooms, made a clubhouse with elaborate rules, passwords, money, and treasures, and they disappeared. We only let Boom disappear with them if he wore his lifevest at all times.

Another perk was that a large boat didn’t rock much, allowing Ken to be nausea-free on the trip. He’s developed a very sensitive, strongly boat and car sick reaction with age. He was dreading the overnite on the boat, but ended up loving it.

Each meal was filled with seafood, and enough food for the 30 people who should have been on board. We felt guilty at the end of each meal with how much we left over. Interestingly, the Vietnamese staff sat and watched us with our kids, and the guide told us that they noticed that American kids are given much more independence at the dinner table than Vietnamese kids. Our kids could say no to certain foods and seemed to have developed preferences. Vietnamese kids, even our kids’ age, are often fed by their parents, as in their parents put the fork filled with food into their kids’ mouths. Parents give their kids no choice in foods. And, they make their kids eat all their food. All of our guides took a stab at making our kids eat all their food.

Needless to say, we all slept well on the boat, rocking gently, but waking up early to sit on top of the deck, watching the rocky outcroppings pass by on our way to the caves.

Click here for a video of Boom describing his boat.