The name of our game in Ha Long Bay was RELAXATION. After the hectic chaos of Hanoi, we were instantly obsessed with the silence and stillness of Ha Long. Our villa was absolutely enormous, and we spent the first day exploring the resort, Premier Village. It was incredible: two gigantic pools, a full gym, and a relaxing spa. The beach was 200 meters from the resort, although it was a little too chilly to swim at this time of year.
It was a bit of a weird experience because despite the hotel being gorgeous, massive, and full of attentive staff, we were essentially the only guests at the entire resort.
There was almost too much silence, but our ears were still ringing from Hanoi, so we couldn’t complain!
On our first day, we walked out to check out the surrounding town and looked for food. We struggled to find even one open restaurant! There are so many abandoned/not yet open storefronts and hotels in this area, and we saw maybe 4 other tourists in our 3+ hour walk. We knew we were coming in the off-season, but we didn’t expect it to be quite so barren!
The buildings in the area all looked like new builds, but there was so little signs of life that it had the feeling of a ghost town.
The next two days we spent completely chilling out maxing relaxing all cool. We took full advantage of the beautiful resort, and enjoyed some much needed peace and quiet, basking in the sun by the pool that was JUST OURS!
A highlight of the already amazing hotel was the best bacon in the entire world that they made daily for breakfast! Actually, the breakfast in general was out of this world. Even though there was hardly anyone at the resort, every day we woke up to the biggest spread of food ever. A truly unmatched experience.
After a couple days of relaxing, we went for a boat tour of Ha Long Bay! They served us a yummy lunch, with lots of seafood and veggies before we got to our first destination.
Our first stop was Ti Top Island, where we did a short but steep hike up to the viewpoint. The iconic silhouette of Ha Long Bay was a bit dulled by a foggy haze, but it was still breathtaking.
The second stop was a massive cave, where there was a nice pathway leading through the whole thing. It was cool as far as caves go, but I’m not that into caves if I’m being honest.
On the third stop, we were able to kayak in the bay and enjoy the beautiful scenery! They were two-person kayaks, which was so fun. There were a lot of people that seemed like they had never been in a kayak before though, so we had a couple of near collisions but luckily remained upright.
After the tour we were all tuckered out, so we had another chill night. We ate a yummy dinner at the hotel restaurant and watched a rom-com at the villa.
On our final morning we woke up early to spend as much time as possible at the breakfast buffet. We made up for our sadness of leaving this incredible resort by eating ungodly amounts of bacon (it helped).
We rode with Richard and Christy to the Hanoi Airport, and said our goodbyes. It was such a wonderful visit with them, and so exciting that it was all of our first time in Vietnam! We’ll miss the interesting conversations, and fun family time but we’ll see them again soon.
They flew back to Taiwan, and we headed to our next stop: Phú Quốc Island, in the south of Vietnam!
