Vietnam - April 2024
Vietnam
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| View of HaLong Bay from Surprising Caves |
Vietnam -
- Location - Beautiful country in Southeast Asia
- How to reach - Direct flight from major cities in India
- Vacation type - Beach, Bay, Mountain, City, Shopping, History
- Stay duration - We stayed for 8 nights and 9 days. You can choose to stay up to a month depending on what all and what pace you want to visit.
- Hotel/Resort - Vinhomes Apartment, Hanoi; Citadines Marina, Ha Long; Flamingo Resort, CatBa; Diya's home, Hai Doung;
- Flight costing : Average flights(in 2024) cost range - 28K - 55K per person.
- Hotel budget - From 4K -8K per night for decent stay
After the Scandinavia trip, the things at work got pretty hectic, including dealing with critical stuffs during Christmas & New year. The next opportunity for travel was only possible in April, when Tatva’s summer vacation starts. We have a very close friend circle in our society, especially 4 families (Sahil-Komal, Hari-Diya, Shwetha & us). Among this group, Diya (a.k.a. Nga) is a Vietnamese national. Her daughter Jina studies in the same school with Tatva in same grade. So, both Tatva’s and Jina’s summer vacation start at the same time. During one of the get-togethers Diya asked if we would like to join them during their summer vacation trip to Vietnam. We readily accepted the proposal as it presented a very unique opportunity to experience Vietnamese culture, cuisine, places with a local person. Shwetha also said that she would join with Aadvik (her son) but not sure about Vinay as he had lot of office work. Chitra mentioned this to Nandita (her sister) and she also said that she along with Abhishek (her
husband) & Rose (her 8 months old daughter) wants to join. Komal & Sahil mentioned that since they had been to Vietnam last year itself, so they will give it a pass. We tried to convince them that there will be different kind of fun with all of us together but in vain. As I mentioned, for both Chitra and
me, the things at office were pretty hectic, so most of the planning was taken care by Hari and Diya. We had a couple of hours long sessions to go over the itinerary, make changes as needed. By March, we were all set with the itinerary, bookings and Visas.
Day0 & Day1 (Bangalore-Kolkata-Hanoi): So, on the hot afternoon of April 6th 2024, we boarded flight to Kolkata in 2 separate groups, from where we will travel together to HaNoi. I think I rushed it a little bit. It’s because none of our trips are without adventures. So, here goes the story - The first
group (Diya, Jina, Shwetha, Aadvik, Abhishek, Nandita, Rose) which was departing earlier than us, went to the airport and during check-in they were informed that Rose can’t travel as her Visa had issues. Passport number mentioned in the Visa doc had typing error. Nandita and Abhishek were pretty tensed and were almost planning to abort this trip when Diya said that there is no need to go back, we will figure out something. After numerous frantic calls to numerous people by Diya & Hari, being set back by Rs 30K, after an hour, Diya arranged for a fast-track Visa for Rose. Diya had handled it, and this was going to be just one of first things where we would say “Diya will handle it or Diya handled it.”
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| @Kolkata Airport Lounge - waiting for Hanoi flight |
By the time, we reached Hanoi, it was 2:30AM midnight, Diya had booked a 15-seater Van for all of us. It took us another 45 mins to reach Vinhomes apartment (Diya & Hari’s apartment). Diya had booked an additional service apartment, so that our group could fit in 2 flats. Another 1 hour till we sorted out
keys, luggage and who will sleep where. Finally, we could only by 4:30 or 5:00AM.
We had hardly fallen asleep when Diya woke us up to go for breakfast and then shopping. We reluctantly, with great difficulty got out of the bed, half an hour later. Pushed ourselves to get some ready. We finally went out for breakfast - Hari, Aditya and Tatva decided to give it a pass and they stayed back. Apparently three of them had more fun than us (anyways, shopping is not my cup of tea). Tatva said that they played pillow fighting with Tatva & Aditya being in one team and Hari in opposition. I don’t know exactly how, but easy to guess that the kids won. All this while, our man Hari claimed that he is a “PillSheet” man (pronounced as pill-shit) whose superpower is pillows and bedsheets. Tatva and Aditya also spoke to each other in eerie voices.
While kids and Hari were having fun time we went in search of breakfast. There are lot of cafes, salons, shops inside Vinhomes. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant for breakfast and had amazing rice rolls with soup. After breakfast, we headed to Aeon mall, where we spent almost 6 hours shopping and after spending a lot of money, we started back to apartment, freshened up. The plan was for a barbecue night near the beach (artificial beach at Vinhomes which was beautiful). It was continuously drizzling; however, we weathered the rain for an hour when we realised that while we can tolerate the rains, but our food could not. It was getting wet and colder faster. So, we decided to shift the party to Diya’s apartment. We carried all the bbq’ed food to the apartment. After few rounds of beer and having filled our stomach, we put the kids to sleep.
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| Barbeque in Rain |
We also learnt how to toast Vietnamese style - It goes like “Mot Hai Ba Dzo, Hai Ba Dzo, Hai Ba Vooooo” and then you drink. It translates like (One, two, three cheers, two three cheers, two three drink). And this is said in the loudest of the voice you can manage. People around you are bound to look back and smile. After the kids slept, we played game of Truth of Dare till 2:00 AM, after learning many “truths” about each other and doing many crazy things during this - including shouting girls shouting at topless guy in front apartment to draw their attention.
We could hardly get 3-4 hours of sleep before it was time to get ready for our next destination. Ha Long!!!
Day2 (Halong): This was easily the craziest day of our trip. we woke up around 7:00AM in the morning and got ready as soon as we could as we had to reach HaLong by around 10. We had a light breakfast in the Van itself.
We reached HaLong around 10:30 AM. It’s a very beautiful place. Our stay was at Citadines Marina. Once checked-in, we found that our room balcony opened to amazing view of HaLong Bay, and limestone hills covered with evergreen forests.
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| View of HaLong Bay from the hotel room |
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| HaLong at Night |
After resting for an hour or so, we decided to go to Sun World amusement park; have lunch nearby and then head to water park and roller coaster. To our disappointment we learnt that water park still closed as season had not started :(. Anyways, we did not let our mood dampen and focused on having a sumptuous lunch. We chose from a variety of live seafood, which included Prawns, Fish & Oysters accompanied by noodles, salad and rice wine.
After having a filling lunch, we took the cable car across the bay which offers astonishing view of Bay and limestone hills. The other side offers multiple games, a Japanese village, Magic room, wax statue museum and a roller coaster cable car. The car was super fun and especially the children had a lot of fun. After spending about 3 hours there, we decided to go to adventure park, but we learnt that it closes as 5 PM. Kids were really disappointed. Here, Tatva bought a lovely silver pearl ring for Chitra
(he had been wanting to do it ever since he had seen pearl ring in Mahabalipuram in 2021).
At about 6:00PM, we decided to buy some beers and head back to hotel. Our original plan was to hit the Casino after dinner, however Chitra and I decided to skip Casino and roam around the city streets. When we told it our friends that they should go ahead with Casino as we had other plans, Hari, Diya and Shwetha mentioned that they also wanted to join us. So, after kids had their share of fun in the swimming pool and after eating pizza order for them, we put them under supervision of Nandita and Abhishek (who anyways were staying back due to Rose).
By the time we got down to hotel reception, it was already 8:30PM. I noticed 3 bicycles parked outside the hotel main door. I asked Diya to check with reception if we could hire them. She checked and found that these were complimentary for hotel guests but were available only till 9:00PM. Diya being Diya, worked her charm on hotel staff and they agreed to lend us for the evening. Since there were only 3 cycles, Chitra & I went on one, Hari and Diya on another and Shwetha got a cycle all for herself. Needless to say, before starting we clicked pictures with cycles and then started our cycle ride in
search for a place to eat.
The evenings were cooler, slow breeze blowing on our faces while we cycle. After cycling for
around 6 kms and checking many restaurants along the way, finally we zeroed in on a “hotpot” dining place as Chitra wanted a hotpot (she had heard a lot of hotpots in Vietnam). Before the dinner, girls made their customary reels on a trending Indian song “Teri baton me aisa uljha”. Most of the restaurants in Ha Long are situated in a row on roadside, separated from road with a walking pavement. Also, most of the restaurant had and inside seating and an outside seating with a canopy. We had parked our cycles on the pavement and sat outside under the canopy. We all (except Shwetha, who is a vegetarian) order a seafood hotpot for us along with local beers. I frankly don’t remember what Shwetha ordered (may be a veg noodle soup). With loud cheers of “Mot Hai ba..” We started with beer while waiting for hotpot to arrive. Then the waiter brought a stove, hotpot filled with soup and raw, live seafood - prawns, crabs
along with pork, Oysters and lots of greens. Shwetha could not bear the sight of it and decided to move to next table :-). The food was too delicious, probably the best seafood I ever had. We had good time eating and drinking till both our stomach and heart fully was satisfied.
After dinner, I proposed that now is the time to hit a casino, however girls wanted to go to night club. And when boys and girls disagree on a point, everyone knows who wins ;-) We started back on our cycles in search of the night club but did not find anything interesting. Diya suggested that we go to “Sky Bar” which was situated on the top floor of the hotel we were staying in. We reached back to our hotel at around 12:00AM, returned the cycle. The receptionist told that the sky bar closes at 11:00PM.
Hari & I wanted to go back to our rooms and catch up some sleep which was needed after 2 “almost” sleepless nights and given we had a cruise to catch next morning. But Chitra and Shwetha were in no mood to listen. When it comes to dancing, even God can’t change their minds. So, Diya called for a cab.
We asked cab driver for suggestion; he took us to a nice beach club. The place was huge with all tables and chairs setup on beach sand. Tables and chair were made of Canes with chairs having foam cushioning on those. There were disco lights, and the DJ was setup and the end (near the sea) in a boat sized setup. Immediately in front of DJ, there was a big dance platform, and all the chairs and tables were setup behind the platform. At this hour, there were hardly 15 people there, but the music was good. So, we decided to sit there, drink and dance till the closure time (1:00AM). We left at 1:00AM, but the girls were not done yet. The roads were fully deserted, the pavement was empty, just 5 of us, enjoying, dancing, singing. After walking for few hundred meters or so, we saw huge beach leading to open sea. We took a left and then walked till the seashore, it was very dark there. In no time we all were inside the sea. :) After 15 mins or so, we came out. Diya called for a cab which dropped us to the hotel. But it looked like girls were in no mood to call it a night. I desperately wanted to sleep but was helpless. It
was decided that we go to our rooms, take bath and then meet in Shwetha’s room. So, after 15 mins, we were sitting in Shwetha’s room, drinking beer and talking about our crazy night we were having so far. I think it must be an hour when we finally decided to get at least 2-3 hours of sleep. Thus ended a long, craziest and fun-filled day in Vietnam.
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| Post mid-night craziness |
Day3 (Ha Long Bay Cruise & Cat Ba): I woke up at 7:00 AM in the morning, Tatva and Chitra were still in deep sleep. I asked Chitra to get up and start to get ready. To our dismay, Tatva was running fever. And when he has fever my mood takes a dip. We let him sleep for some more time while we did morning chores. After all that, we woke him up and took him for the breakfast, which he hardly ate and then gave him medicine. After breakfast, we got ready for next leg our trip - HaLong Bay Cruise.
We reached the HaLong international cruise port at around 9:00AM. Port was like a mini airport with few check-in counters and a coffee and snacks place. We went to checkin counter and after checking, we had some 30-45 mins before our Cruise arrived. We made some fun videos, reels before heading on to the Cruise. It was a nice, small cruise with an upper deck. After settling in in our table, we decided to explore the cruise, found places to take pics and took ample number of photos :-) The view of the bay from deck was breathtaking with so many small limestone hills decorated with evergreen forests, a marquee of Halong.
Our first stop was 1.5 hours away, named surprising caves, nestled in a maze of these hills. As we approached the caves, the scenery for better, and even better. We were transferred from the Cruise to a smaller speed boat, which took us to the caves. I was still very concerned about Tatva as it was windy and cave exploration was going to be physically taxing. But he wanted to go, so we took him along. You need to climb approximately 150 steps before you get on to a deck which is at the entrance of Surprising caves. The deck offers a stunning view of the bay and caves. Since it was overcast, the water was darker shade of green. A cluster of small-small hills were protruding from the sea everywhere, enhancing the beauty of the bay. As soon as we entered the caves, it felt like we have been teleported into a magical world. The stalactite and stalagmite formations of limestones were very artistic and usage of lights inside the cave was done aesthetically to enhance the beauty of the caves multi-fold. It was a huge cave, one narrow alley leading to another part of cave all of them very enchanting. I think by this time you would have guessed, girls made their reels wherever they could.
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| Inside Surprising Caves |
After an hour of cave exploration, pictures, videos and reels, we were back to the boat which took us back to the Cruise for our lunch. The lunch was good, with a variety of options there including some delicious seafood. Unfortunately, Tatva’s fever had increased (which was not surprising after visit
to surprising caves). So, we gave him another dose of medicine and put him to sleep.
Next stop was to go Kayaking. However, only people who went for were Chitra and I. The Kayak goes through a cave (not surprising cave :-)) and opens into a magnificent valley. It’s surrounded by hills from all sides, only way to enter was to navigate through that cave entrance which was dotted with stone protrusions. One needed to navigate their Kayak carefully unless they wanted to hit one of them. It was amazing to see a secluded water body, protected from all sides by its hilly bodyguards. Chitra
and I had lots of fun rotating the Kayak and capturing 360 videos. We also tried some stunts like taking Kayak under few of the rocky formations.
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| Fast Boat to Cat Ba |
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| At Cat Ba |
After an hour or so, we were back on our Cruise. Two chartered speed boats were waiting for us to take us to Cat Ba Island. Tatva was still sleeping and was very hot due to fever. We somehow managed to carry him to boat, covering him as much as we could. Speed boat ride was nice, very windy and cold but many enchanting views along the way. Only worry was the chilly wind effect on Tatva. We reached CatBa at around 4:30PM where a Van was waiting to take us to the Flamingo resort, were going to stay for next 2 nights. The bus went through dense forestation, reminding me of my trip to Baratang Island in Andman. It looked like the Jetty point and resort were at the opposite ends. After a ride of 40 mins, we reached to the resort. Flamingo is a nice, huge beach resort. It spans across 3 huge buildings, all
built on hills and connected through sky walks. After getting down the bus, we came to lobby and had
welcomed ourselves by having our own serving of welcome drinks which were kept in glass dispensers
there. We noticed that hotel also had onsen (hot water spring) - on chargeable basis. Ever since our Japan trip, Chitra and I had been a fan of onsen. So, we all decided to enjoy the onsen, which will be fun as well as help with our tiredness and rejuvenate the body. After check-in we proceeded to our rooms which were on 12th floor.
We gave medicine to Tatva again, he wanted to eat noodles and watch TV. So, we made cup noodles for him and put on TV which both Aadvik and he watched. We put on the Kimonos provided by the hotel and then headed to onsen. Anyways, after paying for it, we (Hari, Aditya and me) were escorted to changing room. After changing into our shorts, we went inside the courtyard where multiple onsen pools were there. Each pool was maintained at different temperature. One has to move from lower temperature pool to higher temperature pool and finally ending with Sauna. I could only tolerate till 3 temperatures and it because too hot for me to try others. But overall, it was very relaxing and
the body seemed really light.
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| Ready for Onsen in Kiminos |
The plan for the evening was to have hotpot for dinner which was located in the Seafood restaurant
inside the hotel. This decision was based on the amazing hotpot experience we had the previous night.
Since, Tatva was sick, we took turns. Chitra went first to order. After a while, Shwetha came back with noodles for Tatva and then I went. The hotpot here was not as good as what we had in Halong. I was very tired by now and also Tatva’s sickness had dampened my spirits, so I just ate hurriedly and went back to the room. Fed Tatva some noodle soup, gave him medicine again and he slept. Chitra and I went to sleep at around 11 PM. She slept immediately but I could not sleep as I was watching over Tatva’s fever and it was only at 2:00AM when he looked fine that I could sleep.
Day4 (Cat Ba): Next day morning started on a good note. Tatva’s fever was under control and I could sleep a bit longer as there was no hurry - it was a leisure day. The weather was a bit cloudy, however, we had decided that irrespective we will hit the beach today. After a nice breakfast, we all went to the beach which was in basement floor of the hotel. In that floor, just before the beach there was a gaming arcade, pool table and some more indoor games. We suggested Tatva to not go in water and rather enjoy the VR games in gaming arcade which he happily agreed to.
So, while Tatva went to VR games, we headed to the beach. We collected beach towels from the reception there. There was nice and huge swimming pool (connecting 2 of the buildings) just before the beach. It looked very nice and was done very artistically, colorful, winding, going through artificial caves, a waterfall and an uneven surface. The beach was few steps down. Since, it was overcast, the cooler of water not very bright but water was very clean. For this trip, we had got similar custom-made T-shirts for all of us and today was the day to wear it. We all wore the same T-shirt, clicked multiple photos in it. After clicking pictures to our heart’s content, now was the time for Vitamin-Sea, which I had deficiency of. After a while, Chitra and I decided to go to the beach in the next building. Water was bit colder there, so everyone else except Chitra and I went back to previous beach. The view of hotel from the beach was very nice. All three towers were decorated well, had lots of plantations and
standing tall very beautifully. Near the pool (as I mentioned, the pools were connected), there was
preparation going on for some event. We went up and saw the huge, gorgeous swimming pool which was connected from other tower. There were multiple waterfalls falling into the pool on this side. We spent good time there.
After a couple of hours, we decided to go back and get ready for the lunch. We wanted to explore city enter (remember it’s a small island) and have lunch somewhere there. After getting ready, we all met at the reception. We hired an electric buggy which dropped us to city centre. We very quickly found a nice seafood place, which put our tables on the outside - we could see the bay from across the road, Cat Ba written in huge blue letters under an arch enhancing it’s beauty. We went to take a look at the live seafood stock and chose what we wanted in our plates. While the lunch was being prepared, Chitra & Shwetha decided to do some street side shopping in nearby flea market. They bought some cloths, shoes and other stuffs. Jina came to inform us that food was ready. We went back to the restaurant. After a disappointing hotspot last evening, I was a bit apprehensive of this one. But this hotpot of shark was delicious (though Halong was the best one). We had nice, slow lunch. Everyone ate to their heart’s content.
By the time we finished lunch, it was already close to evening. The sun had started to go down, dusk was almost upon us. We crossed the road and decided to walk towards the Pier. The beauty of CatBa is captivating. The hills, sea, promenade, pier and eateries on the opposite give a vibe of a small, isolated town nestled in the lap of nature. We took pictures, took lazy strolls, made funny reels, laughed with each other. After that most of us decided to have massage. After a relaxing massage, we ate dinner and then we went back to the resort. Around 10:30 PM, we decided to pick some beers and drink it on the hotel beach. So, three of us (Shwetha, Chitra and I), picked Beer from Abhishek’s room and headed towards the beach. The access to beach was closed, so, we headed to the swimming pool, dipped our feet in the pool and spent time drinking beer and gossiping till 12:00AM.
Day5 (Cat Ba -> Hai Doung): Chitra and I had an early start next morning as we had decided to go for Kayak. We went down, paid for the Kayak and heard (not sure if we really did) some instructions
from the lifeguard and pushed out Kayak in the water. This Kayak was transparent and was very lightweight. The hotel beach is like a Bay and you will see few of those small hills few hundred meters away inviting us towards them. It was absolutely scenic. We did all usual stuffs with the Kayak, rotating it 360 degrees, taking videos, photos, going fast, keep it idle. Then started the argument with Chitra on how far and which side could we go. The lifeguard had given some instructions but since we didn’t hear it clearly, we had different interpretations. Since when Chitra listened to any instructions? We arrived at a middle ground and explored as much as we could. We saw the hills from near close, saw many small caves formed under them due to waves. The view of the hotel from there was stunning too. We Kayaked for almost an hour and then headed back to rooms.
We woke Tatva up and then headed for the breakfast. He had been missing the fun on the beach for last 2 days in CatBa (and he loves beaches), hence the plan was that we will go to beach after the breakfast and then go for complementary herbal foot massage. However, we had time for only one. So, Tatva and I chose the beach and Chitra went for Herbal massage. Shwetha and Aadvik joined us on the beach and after half an hour or so Chitra also joined. By the time Chitra came, kids were done with the beach and desperately wanted to play VR games. I paid for the VR games the kids for VR games while Chitra and I enjoyed for some time in the sea.
We were able to get to the reception for check-out (Diya was really getting annoyed because of delay we were causing) at around 11:00AM. We went to the ferry point which would take us to Hai Phong and from there a Van ride to Hai Doung, which is where Diya was born and brought. The first stop over in Hai Doung was a very amazing Vegan restaurant, where every single dish looked and tasted like some non-veg dish, and all of them very delicious. Then, we stopped over to buy some wine for Diya’s mother.
It was around 4:00PM when we reached Diya’s home. Her mother welcomed us with Coconut water and some sweets. I was feeling very sleepy, bit of course nobody would let anyone sleep there. The evening plan was to have family dinner with Diya’s extended family (her mother, sisters, brother-in-
laws and kids). It was a nice hotpot, and we learnt more about Vietnamese tradition. They are few varieties of rice wine; the tradition is that host has few designates who make sure that guest's glasses are never empty. And every few minutes, they will find some occasion to cheers and gulp down a shot of rice wine. I requested by host to be a bit gentle with me and fill as little as possible. By the end of it, almost everyone was sloshed. We also tasted some horse bone wine. We went for stroll after that, a lot of drama happened (another crazy night) before we went to bed.
Day6 (Hai Doung -> Hanoi): We woke up a bit late, girls went for shopping, they wanted to buy traditional Vietnamese dress called Ao Dai, while we were lazing around and relaxing. Diya came back to pick us for lunch. We had some nice lunch with her sister and nephew (wonderful people), shopping in supermarket for local Vietnamese stuffs (Noodles, Chop sticks, Broth cubes etc).
After that we headed for Hanoi. It was around 8:00PM when we reached Hanoi. We got down at one of the Vinhomes which is themed based on Venice. It's very beautiful and had some pirate related show as well. We then had dinner and went back to Diya’s apartment for sleep.
Day7 (Ninh Binh): Ninh Binh is a very beautiful, picturesque small town, a couple of hours of drive away from Hanoi. It is very touristy as well, due to amazing landscape, beautiful caves and temple. Bulbul, Abhishek, Diya, Hari decided to take rest. So, rest of us, started around 7:30AM in the morning in a private car. We first had a quick breakfast at Starbucks.
Our first destination was Trang An, which is a very scenic complex of limestone mountains, boating through long caves, numerous temples. We took a boat tour which takes us on the river through the amazing limestone caves with stunning view of surrounding mountains and valleys. The boatman will make several stops leading to temples and pagodas. Our final destination was Khe Coc which has multiple huts, showcasing the huts that tribal people of Vietnam used to lived in. Each hut varying in size according to ranking and utility. We also did a small hike to reach the top of the mountain which offers a stunning panoramic view of Trang An. The entire tour took us close to 4 hours.
We were starving by the time tour got over. We had a nice Vietnamese lunch by the river and then headed to Bai Dinh. It’s a collection of Pagodas and again a must visit place. We had a very nice, hopping on and off the electric cars. We clicked many pics, even did a small hike. By the time, we finished it was already sunset. We asked the driver to take us for dinner. He took us to a place where we had the worst dinner so far. After that we headed back to Hanoi. Everyone except me already fell asleep during the drive. We reached at around 10PM and went to sleep.
Day8 (Hanoi and night flight): This was our last day in Vietnam. It was also Abhishek's birthday. WE had ordered a surprise cake for him for the evening. After breakfast of Banh Mi, we took cab to old quarters. Vehicle movement was restricted (as it was Sunday). We walked to Hoan Kiem lake (Sword Lake) which has its own legendary story. Kids played some games there. We strolled around for hours. There is a temple (Ngoc Son), a cathedral, a ship shaped mall and many other things, and you will not get bored in that area. Girls did some shopping at the street side; we had some nice tea.
After that, we decided to visit "the famous train street". Hari & family, Aadvik and Tatva said that they will go back to the apartment. Shwetha wanted to join us to train street but then Aadvik started to throw tantrums. Both of them made a commotion on the road; then frustrated, Shwetha said that she will also go back. So, Chitra and I decided to go by ourselves. Bulbul and Abhishek had gone ahead, we called them and we met near the train street.
Train street is extremely overhyped, especially if you are coming from India. There are many cafes and shop along the railway track. The cafes sell foods and beverages for exorbitant price to sit next to the track. If you are not buying, then they will not even you stand there. We anyways, clicked few pictures, saw a train go by (still don't know what thrill people get there).
These were craziest, amazing 8 days spent in Vietnam and a lot of credit of our dear friends Diya & Hari!! Because of them, we could do this wonderful trip.
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