October 3, 2025
The rearranging of our schedule to get to Ha Long Bay before the incoming typhoon would cancel all the cruises meant we had to leave Hanoi this morning. Regrettably that meant we needed to pack again! We are quite good at it by now but it will forever be an annoying task. Since we are coming back to this hotel in Hanoi after Ha Long Bay we got to leave our sack of laundry behind. This hotel does laundry for 2 USD per kilogram, an incredible deal as far as hotels go!
Jenny, the woman coordinating our time in Southeast Asia, met us at our hotel in the morning as she lives in Hanoi. She was extremely helpful rearranging our tour so we can get to Ha Long Bay after our guide yesterday, Fifi, suggested it. It was very sweet that Jenny wanted to meet the boys to give them mooncake for the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival, aka Moon Festival. The holiday has a lot of meaning but like Christmas its main goal is now to spoil all the children with presents. What culture doesn’t love seeing happy children!
After our hotel breakfast we were off with our driver for the 2-hour ride to Ha Long Bay. If you are reading this blog still, by now you know what that means, Harry Potter time! But today there was a twist, we stopped ignoring Lenny’s claims that he hated Harry Potter. Kayleen downloaded him some audio books to listen to, short stories and Roald Dahl. It took him a bit to settle into it but he listened in two separate clips mostly still and quiet. We took a bathroom break at a rest stop that doubled as a pearl farming exhibit where we briefly lost our driver. While I searched for him the boys got a strange tasting strawberry/vanilla twist soft serve. I’m not even sure it was strawberry after eating it.
Once in Ha Long Bay we went to a waiting room next to the dock with all the other people headed out for a cruise with the same company. It was very hot and humid out with the sun shining brightly but the waiting space was air-conditioned. I was told by our cruise director, Jimmy, that we were taking a speedboat out to the main cruise boat. Soon I would learn that the term speedboat is loosely used! We boarded a slow-moving boat with everyone else that had mildly working air conditioning. We got in a few games of Uno before it was time to…throw on lifejackets!
Kayleen said if we had seen the pictures of us in lifejackets, along with everyone else on the boat, before we departed we would be certain that the boat was sinking. Luckily that was not the case! We thought at first it was because people were so bad at moving to the main cruise boat, they made every idiot wear a life jacket but that was wrong too. We stopped at a dock to pick up a crew member and there must have been some authority there that required us all to pretend we had been wearing these life jackets the whole time. As soon as we pulled away from the dock, we were told it was OK to remove them.
We boarded the main cruise and saw that there were ships everywhere. Incredible that there is enough tourism to support the endless number of ships we saw. Once on ours we had a quick refreshment and talk about the boat from Jimmy. Then we retreated to our cabin before returning for lunch in the dinning area. Our cabin is two connecting rooms, but the connecting door is through a small closet so the boys loved the “secret” door. Both rooms had a balcony that you could sit on and watch the endless mountains as they passed by.
At lunch we met our server Jack, a nice guy with a six-year-old son. The menu was set and didn’t have much to interest the boys but Jack kept them happy with a big plate of fries and told us he would continue to do so if it was OK with us. We gladly agreed and where happy they had some pasta for them for dinner. After lunch we explored the boat a bit more before heading back to our room. We had the option to go kayaking but I really didn’t feel like it. Once back in the comfortable temperature of the room I was quickly ready for a nap.
Before I could fall asleep Kayleen was on the balcony and a small boat pulled up with snacks for sale. During our boat exploration I had seen a similar boat selling snacks to someone on the second floor of another cruise boat, using a net on a long pole to complete the transaction. We were excited for the experience and made the error of not asking the price prior to picking out the snacks. Two bags of what can only be described as Funyuns and a full size container of Oreos for 32 USD…. Sometimes your just paying to say you did it.
After my nap I woke up to the boys happily watching a show in their room on one of the iPads. Soon after this the boat turned and the setting sun was shining right in the glass doors to our rooms. It was blinding and clearly impacting the iPad watching. The next thing I heard was Lenny say “You’re smarter than a beaver Ollie!” Desperate to know what this meant I went to their room to find them laying on the floor where Ollie had moved one of the carry-on suitcases in front of them so they could watch hidden from the sun. Lenny’s admiration for beavers was meant as a massive compliment to Ollie. I pulled closed the curtains for the them and became the smartest beaver.
We showered and headed to the top deck to play Uno and catch the end of a cooking demonstration. It was dark out at this point but still so humid the heat remained intact. Even though we didn’t help at all with the cooking we got to try the fresh spring rolls they made which went nicely with our happy hour margaritas. Good cocktails have been sparse in Asia so far. I’m left craving our homemade margaritas and manhattans.
Dinner was fine but nothing great. Luckily the boys had their french fries and pasta or I don’t think they would have eaten anything. I tried a Jack Daniels manhattan but it was not worth drinking and eventually was poured out in our bathroom sink to avoid being rude. Ollie did manage to eat four deserts, thanks to Lenny and Kayleen giving up theirs and Jack slipping him an extra from the kitchen. By the end of dinner Lenny was not behaving well but all our threats of putting him to bed were totally empty because we all wanted to try squid fishing.
Jimmy set us up with the poles for squid fishing and fortunately the spot to fish was right outside our room. The poles were bamboo sticks with fishing line tied to the end and a lure with multiple hooks at the bottom. There was a spotlight shining down on the water to attract the squid and we were supposed to dip the lure in the water and pull it out repeatedly to tempt the squid.
Sadly, we did not catch any during our 30 minute attempt but we did make friends with an Aussie family. The mother and son joined us while fishing, the son had bet his brother and father that he could catch one in 10-minutes. His mother told us he was overconfident from a recent fishing experience in a trout stocked lake in Tasmania where they live. The boy was 12 though not much bigger than Ollie. He was keen to talk sports and tell us about his love for all sports but mostly footie, Aussie Rules Football. Also about the new professional basketball team in Tasmania called the JackJumpers. It was nice to chat with them before we all gave up on fishing and turned in for bed.
