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Published: October 26th 2009
After months of research McKay and I finally decided on the PINTA GOLD cruise for our Halong Bay trip... it is a hard area to research/make a decision on and we decided after one too many horror stories that we would go with a company that had rave reviews on Trip Advisor... only to be disappointed by the whole experience...
We woke up bright and early for our trip and as I lay in bed waking up I could hear McKay in the bathroom... (in an American accent which made it even funnier)... Oh my god... OH my god... OH MY GOD! I started to get worried and yelled out "whats going on" ... she says "there is a spiiiiiider in here" ... I picked up the phone and the conversation goes:
"Hello"
"Ummmm we have a spider in our room"
"Oh ok"
"Ummmm can you please send someone up now to kill it before I kill myself"
This whole time McKay is yelling and when I hang up I am now standing on the bed screaming... Ten seconds later there was a knock on the door... A guy comes in and as McKay watches in horror wrapped
only in a towel as he goes into the bathroom.... He then pops his head out the door and in the funniest Vietnamese accents goes "Spiiiiiderman" - so hilarious... we are still screaming though and then he cups it in his hand and throws it in our bathroom bin... McKay looks at him in horror and says "Ummmm now can you take the bin?!" "Oh ok" he says with a big smile..
The staff downstairs later told us they could hear us on the 7th floor (we were on the 2nd!) LOL
Anyway..... onto Halong bay... Halong Bay is a beautiful area of Vietnam and reminded me of Phang Nga Bay in Thailand so much.... its a UNESCO World Heritage Site and completely packed to the brim with tourists... We picked a two day cruise and were picked up at about 9am for 3 hour drive to the Bay... by the time we picked up the last g uests it was around 10am and the day was severley being eaten into. We did the obligatory stop at a gem factory along the way to 'go to the toilet' (and spend money), arriving in Halong Bay just after 1pm.
We were transported out to our boat in the bay and it started off well with cold face washers and juice in wine glasses. We were given our cabin keys, put our bags in and then fed lunch as we set sail... They then told us we could relax until about 3pm when we would go to 'Surprising Cave' - having been through a million caves I wasnt too keen so McKay and I made the decision to stay on the boat and get some sun while everyone else did the trip to the cave... No sooner had everyone finished lunch and got up on the sun deck the guide was there telling them it was time to go.. McKay and I fell asleep in the sun and woke to everyone arriving back late afternoon..
We were then told dinner would be served at 7pm but at 6pm the guide came back up and said dinner was ready.. dinner was 'ok' but nothing to write home about, contrary to all the glowing reports... After dinner we went back up to the deck and had a glass of wine before retiring to bed by 8pm..
Breakfast was at
7am in the morning however we both slept in... by the time we woke it was 740am and noone had bothered to wake us. We went into the breakfast room to find our breakfast sitting cold and soggy on our table... and it was deserving of prison food.. a couple of fatty slices of cold bacon, a quarter of an omlette that had been sitting there cold for almost an hour and would have consised of half an egg if we were lucky, bread that felt stale, butter, jam and eventually coffee when we begged for it!
The guide said to hurry up and eat so we could all go kayaking so everyone had to wait while we scoffed down our disgusting cold breakfast... We then went kayaking which was good fun.... No complaints there...
When we got back to the boat it was around 930am so we went up to the top deck to get some sun... We were told that lunch would be at 11am and while this was pretty early we figured we could sun until 1030am then have quick showers before lunch... at 10am the guide appeared and asked us to all get our
bags out of the rooms so that the staff could clean them..... we were like WTF ... our bags werent even packed and we hadnt had showers... I asked if we had time for a shower and the reply was "no, ok 5 minutes" ... we rushed back to the cabin had quick showers and packed our bags... we got up to the deck to try relax at 10.25am only for the guide to reappear at 1030am telling us lunch was ready!!!!! You have to be kidding....
We spent the next hour eating in the dining room and by this stage the food was tasting pretty average... by 1130am we had nothing to do and no room to go to... we went up but two of the umbrellas werent working so we had to either sit inside or in the sun... We were back at the wharf by 12pm but had to then sit in the harbour another hour waiting... for god knows what. When our drinks bill came we had been overcharged for 1 wine and 3 beers and also charged for our softdrinks/juice/water that were supposed to have been included in our tour...
We paid the
bill exhausted and over the whole thing... only to have the guide try to get us sign an 'official' receipt that was completely different... a complete scam going on for sure! When I refu to sign the receipt and questioned the variance he stuttered something about speaking with a friend... he then disappeared and then unbelievably never came back and never said another word to us about it.
The whole time the staff never communicated as to what was happening nor did they make us feel relaxed... we were either being rushed to do something or being left in limbo as to what we should be doing.. Not too impressive for an expensive boat tour...
Just after 1pm we were taken to shore only to have to wait for almost another hour in the sun for the bus.. a complete nightmare! On the way home the guide approached us asking for payment for the trip... I then had to explain to him TWICE that we had in fact paid and sorted it out a couple of days ago with head office. We arrived back at our hotel at almost 6pm tired and cranky... and running late for our
train.
We found a little authentic restaurant and sat at little squat tables eating traditional Beef Pho Soup and drinking Ha Noi Beer... for 2 beers and 2 soups it cost us less than $6 in total! We then went back to the hotel to wait for our train transfer... we were picked up and another couple (Raelene and Trevor) were in the van.. it turned out that they were from Henley Beach in Adelaide (just round the corner from me).. and by the end of our transfer Raelene was telling me all about her wonderfuul 39yo son that she would set me up with! She became the mother-in-law after that and it became a running joke for the Sapa journey as they were staying in the room next door to us at Sapa..
Anyway in summary, we did love Halong Bay as a destination however we were disappointed in the company we chose to go with... and despite the bitching above we had a great time making the most of the situation...
Sapa blog will be on its way soon... this place has stolen my heart and I cant wait to show everyone my photos... its
a photographers dream!
Love to all
Reet and McKay
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shoog
non-member comment
looks like you're having a great time!