Review by jadesy via Tripadvisor
Went on this trip (couple, 30-ish) in August last year and I feel bad I never got round to writing a review. So here it is finally!
The trip was really amazing. A one-off experience, and a must-do if you are in Hanoi.
We were picked up at our hotel in a nice 4×4 just for us, which was brilliant. Took about 4 hours to get there with a short stop for juice and toilet at the usual crafts outlet type place. It was pelting down rain, the tail end of a typhoon nearby, and there were jams due to road floods; but it added to the adventure (thank goodness for the 4×4!). Thankfully, once we arrived it was just light drizzle and by evening cleared up completely. We met our guide and headed to the boat. A little motorboat took us to the main junk. By the way, if its raining, wear decent shoes as it gets a little slippy on the motorboat and steps. Actually, even with just the water spray its a little slippy. Plus when you visit the caves there are loads of steps so wear good shoes. I was a bit fussy about this as I’d broken my ankle slipping in water earlier in the year!
The food on board is truly exceptional and soooooo much of it! Dinner was about 6 courses! I don’t eat seafood and they happily accommodated this and cooked separate dishes for me, which was really nice (as seafood is the obvious norm when on the boat). I did try fish and it has converted me! Was delicious. The Vietnamese coffee is also a must-try.
The cabin was cosy. There are creaks and noises overnight but you are on a boat, so to be expected. Not disruptive at all, quite pleasant really. Didn’t need to really use air con but nice that it was there. Everything was clean, good condition and met my expectations – I have pretty high standards so that’s saying something. Its a cabin on a boat, so its not decadent luxury like you’d expect in a hotel, but was comfortable, spotless and nice. The bay we stayed in overnight was just for Indochina and was very peaceful.
I think the trip of 2d 1n was the right length. Could have done 2 nights but don’t think its worth doing any longer than that. Also do remember that you are out in the water and not near mainland shore so bring with you anything you would normally need day to day since there are no shops to pop to! You might want to pack sun cream, kindle/phone charger, adaptor and insect repellant, though we never saw any bugs actually. The boat has a bar and our waiter made us cocktails. Dinner and breakfast on the deck was really special. We also ate inside when it was drizzly.
Saw lovely scenery, the really interesting floating village, caves, huuuuge jellyfish and learned some Vietnamese from our guide. ‘Cam On’ pronounced ‘cahm oon’ is Thank you, in case you need it! We were unsure about the whole tipping thing for the staff. Do we or don’t we tip? Of course we couldn’t access the internet to check, being in the middle of the water! I don’t think it is expected but we wanted to leave something as a show of appreciation. Bear in mind that its not just the guide doing the work, so when tipping 6 people it becomes kind of amusing. I think we totally over-thought the whole thing when at one point we were using a calculater and percentages based on role responsibilities! Oops! We just laughed at ourselves and handed over some VND. If you aren’t sure whether to take dong or US $ I would say take both. Same applies for Hanoi.
The guide, Mr Hoanh, that we had was great, we were worried that it might be awkward with just us and the crew on a little boat but they were not intrusive in any way. We could relax on the sunbed on the front deck and feel quite alone. A big shout out to our crew though… Mr Duong the chef, Nhep the captain, Vinh the waiter, Hung the mechanic, and Viet the supervisor.
It may seem expensive but I think it was definitely worth the money!