Vietnam and Japan 2017 Part 3

After our three-day trip to Japan, we returned to Vietnam flying from Tokyo Haneda airport which was much quicker and cheaper to get to the airport from the Ritz Carlton hotel.l I would recommend this hotel to couples and families. I’d also recommend flying into and out of Tokyo Haneda airport. We flew business class, with a flying time of four hours, and enjoyed access to the business class lounge.

We had to get a visa (because it was our second visit) when we arrived at Hanoi airport in Vietnam. The queues were long plus we paid $25.00 per person and we had a letter from our DMC to enter Vietnam.

Once through immigration and customs, we took a taxi to our hotel in Hanoi called The Quoc Hoa Hanoi Hotel. The journey to the hotel from the airport was under 50 minutes depending on traffic. We arrived late at the hotel and didn’t get a chance to venture out as the next day we had an early start to Halong Bay for our cruise.

We both were really looking forward to our cruise on Halong Bay with Orchid Cruise. The journey from our hotel to cruise port was two hours and 30 minutes. Once we arrived onboard we were given a welcome drink plus cold towel and greeted by all the staff that would be looking after us for our entire cruise together with a briefing on the cruise itinerary.

We then checked into our cabin with suite balcony, as we wanted to see the views of Halong Bay. We had a great surprise, as we were given a free upgrade to Orchid Executive Suite. This cabin was amazing, number 202 and there are only two cabins of this type on this boat. The cabin features an en-suite bathroom, music entertainment, air conditioning, LED TV, safety box and hair dryer. Our cabin was situated on the second floor with personal cabin size of 45 square metres with private sun lounge and lounge chairs on our private balcony. We also had a private jacuzzi and a secluded private bar in-cabin. This has to be the best cabin we have stayed in!

The food was excellent, we had lunch, dinner and breakfast on our one-night cruise. We were impressed that we were shown the menu for our dinner during our lunch, so they can cater for any special requests we had. Drinks were an additional cost including soft drinks. We had three courses for dinner and there are set meals times.

During our one-night cruise, my wife went kayaking and we both visited the caves at Halong Bay which are breath-taking, although we were disappointed by the rubbish that is dumped in this area. Although it rained all day and night and we had a thunderstorm during the night, we still enjoyed our cruise and wished we had done the two-night cruise to experience more of Halong Bay.

After our cruise we went back to our hotel in the afternoon and we went straight back out to explore some of Hanoi, as our flight was in a few hours’ time plus we were meeting Thu from our DMC who arranged this trip for me. The few hours we had in Hanoi was great to explore the city and we wished we had more time. Our hotel Quoc Hoa Hanoi Hotel was in a great location, the old quarter and near to the night market at the weekend plus near to shops, restaurants and bars.

Breakfast was a limited choice of cold and hot dishes. The rooms were okay, clean but need updating. It was lovely to meet Thu from Easia, our DMC partner. We met at a bar called Ca Phe Pho Co with great views of the river, we would recommend this place to anyone that is meeting up as it is very popular with locals and a great place to see the sunset too. My wife tried coffee with an egg! It sounds odd, but I tried some too - this drink is a speciality for Vietnamese. We were touched that Thu made time to meet up with us in her spare time, and she also gave us a present which was really sweet of her. We have now built a friendship between us which is good for both of our companies and I can trust Thu to look after my customers in the future and give them a great experience whilst in Vietnam. Thu really has the Travel Counsellors ethos - with us it’s personal.

We took a taxi back to the airport from the hotel and flew back business class with a flying time of 12 hours, but I watched a few movies on the way home. Vietnam Airlines offer a great food and onboard service.

We definitely want to go back to Vietnam and Japan to explore more, as we felt we didn’t get a chance to explore enough of these wonderful countries. Vietnam is very cheap, and Japan is very reasonable. Vietnam Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh are both very busy cities, and you have to watch out for all the motorbikes as this is a popular mode of transport in Vietnam. The people are very friendly in both countries. Our highlight was Halong Bay Cruise and Tokyo.

A special thanks for arranging this trip Thu from Easia Travel and from Valentina and Desiree at the Ritz Carlton In Tokyo.