this is crazy where's the boat I don't know
today is finally the day that we are going on the ha long bay they cruise this is something
that we've been super excited for for literally the entire time we've been in Vietnam i'm
pretty sure we booked it like the day we arrived we booked it pretty much straight away so
it's been four weeks of building excitement and anticipation for this day but we're getting
picked up in like five minutes and we still need to finish packing
we've just been picked up in this awesome limousine style bus very luxurious and we're
getting taken to Halong bay
but we're not cruising ha long bay we're going a little bit further because this is a two
night cruise we're going to bai tu long bay which as i understand it is like an extension
of ha long bay a little bit further out but should be really good
so we've just gotten on board we went to the dock we got on a tender and now we're on board
the dragon's pearl there is 10 rooms total on here for a maximum of 20 people but there's
only 12 people on board for this trip which is amazing we've already met them all they're
all super lovely we're in our room getting unpacked it's a square with a bed in it but
it's a lot bigger and brighter than i was expecting so we're 90% sure that this is the
dragon pearl's first trip in two and a half years
it's been a few hours since our awesome lunch that just kept going and going and going and
we've just been watching the world go by and all these beautiful cliffs and the sheer cliff
faces with all the trees jotting out it's just beautiful hoping that we'll get a good
sunset tonight as well yeah but now we're getting ready i think we get to go kayaking
and we are going okay look at that
first activity of the trip and we're out kayaking during sunset Jordan's doing all of the work
i just get to enjoy how unusual
it's a bit rocky
right chuck her in reverse
this is insane the black sharp cliff face and then it's offset by the bright green of
all the leaves of the trees it's just so pretty it's so special being out here at night i
don't know what it was like pre-covid but we literally have 12 people on our boat and
there's 12 people out in canoes right now and that's it we're by ourselves there is
what looks like a beach up ahead and it looks like everyone's pulling over to have maybe
a little swim or just a little break i think Jordan's gonna need one because i've cut them
for all of five seconds
how cool is that and now i think we're heading back to the boat to finish watching the sunset
and then i think we chill out until dinner time i don't think there's anything else from
the Itinerary
i'm tired but so far the trip has been awesome met some really cool people
Kayaked around amazing limestone cliffs just come back up onto the rooftop watching the
final bits of the sun going down
good morning from Indochina's dragons pearl it is our first and only full day here on
the ship so we got up bright and early to watch the beautiful sunrise with all the cliffs
in the background
so we thought we'd start off today by taking you on a bit of a boat tour it's not a very
big boat there's 20 cabins in total only six of them are occupied at the moment so it won't
take too long but we thought we'd start with our cabin we have one of the standard cabins
with a double bed the bed is pretty comfy it's a bit short for Jordan so i think his
feet were poking out during the night by far the best thing about this room is the awesome
windows we haven't shut the blinds we've just woken up with the sun and it's been amazing
next we have a bathroom there's not too much to say about this there's a regular toilet
which is cool a basin with a mirror and some storage a shower which is really hot and has
great pressure and again the best thing in here is the window it's a little porthole
that you can open
how cool is that so when you leave our cabin you can either go this way which is just more
cabins or you can go this way
it's cool that we get to walk up and down here every time we go into our cabins don't
worry it's super safe but upstairs is where the real fun begins so this is where we've
been eating for all of our meals they're just setting up for breakfast now it's really nice
because we all get to sit outside because we're quite a small group i think we get this
luxury otherwise you would come in here so this is the internal dining room there's much
more seats in here but it also has two very cool features a fully stocked bar and a coffee
machine
you look over the side of the boat you'll see the tender that's how we get to and from
the boat so that's how we arrived on the boat originally and it's how we'll get to our picnic
and stuff i think today and now upstairs
so this is the little captain's area where he does all of his captain-y things like talk
on the radio and spin the wheel we try not to bother him too much but he's super nice
and smiles every time you walk by this is the first of the lounging areas as you can
see there's lots of room for people so everyone gets their own little lounger they've got
lots of umbrellas so we don't get too hot from the sun another cool thing on this deck
is that it has the massive sail this hasn't gone up yet but i can imagine when it does
it would just be amazing so this is where we've been spending a majority of the time
and i think you can see why we have uninterrupted views of all the beautiful landscape and cliffs
we still get some umbrellas and lounges why would you not be up here
so that is a full tour of the beautiful Indochina junk dragon's pearl we are so happy that we
got to call this home for the next couple of nights today is actually our first and
only full day so we've started the morning with some coffee the sunrise and now it's
time for breakfast
we just watched them put the sails up and i think we've come to the beach i hope we're
jumping in a tender to go to the beach rather than the kayaks but we'll find out shortly
and we get to have the beach picnic which is the first one that they've had back since
Covid-19 for the first year two and a half years two and a half years and we get to be
part of that in it that's so cool
so we just got the tender across from our sail ship what's it called from our ship and
doesn't look so cool they put all the sails up just for us to get some photos and stuff
it looks really nice but now we're on this beach and there's puppies i love it
out for our first kayak of the day really work up a sweat before we get treated to our
picnic lunch so picturesque out here though it's just our group again birds flying around
the cliffs the trees the water i love it
ah hour like five on our secluded beach we finished a massive lunch which again just
kept and coming it was delicious but now we get to go explore a limestone cave i think
it is before we go kayaking again and then free time yes free time or nap time as they
say all this time in the sun and the water has tired us out this is crazy it's apparently
this used to be used by the local people that lived on the island if there was any typhoons
or storms or anything they'd come in here and have protection now they have motor boats
so they just run away so that limestone cave was really cool it was like 10 degrees colder
in there as well which was a really nice break from all the heat but one last kayak which
should be really beautiful and then we get to have a nap before dinner so tired
that's a wrap on the day done a lot been in the water been in the sun eating a lot of
food we're just gonna head back to the boat chill out for dinner and that's it that's
the last night on the cruise we just got tomorrow morning and then off somewhere new
can't believe today's our last day yesterday after the kayaking we were exhausted so we
had dinner and went straight to bed i got a little bit sick after the kayaking i feel
like i'm getting a bit of a cold so i pretty much fell asleep straight after dinner and
slept all the way through it's now breakfast time i've poured myself as big of a coffee
as these little cups will allow but today even though it is our last day we get to go
see a floating fishing village and i think we get to go on some form of little boat should
be a good last day
that's the end of the trip now we just catch a tender back to the mainland and on a bus
back to the hotel
i've poured myself as big of a cuppy