Today we set sail for our cruise around Halong Bay. It is so beautiful in this part of Vietnam. T and I had a bit of a hectic morning, as the taxi man dropped us off at the wrong location, so we were running round thinking we were going to miss our cruise. We spent a lot of money of this cruise too so we were panicking!
We eventually found someone who could speak English and they pointed us in the right direction. We arrived at the right port and checked in to our tour. We saw a lot of people waiting around, mixed age groups so we were relatively calm.
As they called our names out, people began to assemble to their designated boats. We were called over so we naturally made our way to our boat, and immediately assumed their had been a mix up. We looked over to see a boat full of 60 year old’s sitting there in silence, among a handful of lively boats.
Accidentally Booking Onto an Old People’s Boat
Of course, knowing us, we managed to end up right in the middle of the lot of them. We took a seat and looked to both sides of our boats to see mixed ages, couples, etc. We were pretty gutted to be fair.
Anyway, T and I are both chatty people so we took it upon ourselves to make an effort with everyone on board. We tried to make fun, light-hearted conversations but it didn’t go as planned.
Later that afternoon we all took our seats at the dinner table and I cannot help but laugh now, but at the time it was awful. T, bless him, didn’t really know what to do with the masses of cutlery set out on the table. Naturally we tried to be polite but I couldn’t resist giggling under my breath as I watched him struggle to figure it out. Every time we sat down to eat we were served a 5 course meal, so you can image how long that took to get through. Jesus.
It was quite difficult to find things in common with everyone on board and we tried very blooming hard to make conversation too.
Halong Bay Cruise
The tour itself was really good, we went kayaking, visited some caves and hiked up a view point to see the whole of the bay. The food on board was also amazing and we had the most comfortable bed. There was a Tai Chi class on deck just after sunrise but I didn’t want to get out of bed it was that good.
Unfortunately, the boat situation didn’t become any less awkward over the 2 days so T and I decided to hide out in our room playing drinking games with our own bottle of vodka, by ourselves. (jeeeez)
So How Did We End Up Booking Onto an Old-People’s Trip?
You know how nowadays the MAJORITY of companies have a website? I mean, if you don’t, you are at a serious disadvantage with your business!
So, I was browsing the internet doing a bit of research before we left for Vietnam. I looked into Halong Bay and knew we needed to go visit. For some bizarre reason, only 2 websites came up as I looked for cruises in Halong Bay. One of them was advertised as a complete party boat, probably a little bit too much for our ‘coupling’ selves. The other had a picture of older people, but a few youngsters mixed in. So we went with the second. ROOKY MISTAKE.
It turns out there are TONS of tour companies who offer this service, however do not own a website. WHY?
The best thing you can do is wait until you are in Vietnam and organise this cruise once you are there! Do not make the mistake that we did.
Keep your eyes peeled for my next post about Visiting Halong Bay and where to stay before you depart! It will be up shortly!
While you are waiting, click here to read my next post from my Journal: Exploring Hanoi City
