It was an early start, pickup at 0730. We got up, packed and had a beer. Nothing better to start an early adventure. The checkout was a breeze and the shuttle surprisingly was exactly on time. It was amazing, comfortable and had wifi.
The drive to the rest stop was about 1.5 hours. Most of it was simply trying to get out of the city. We travelled through the country side, along farms, plantations and rice fields. It was pretty.
The ‘half way‘ stop was basically a tourist shopping area. They had very beautiful stone work!
The also had hand crafted pictures, made on site.
The sad thing about this Place was it was seriously expensive, even by western standards. A beer that normally costs 12 dong was 60. Most of the crafts were in US dollars.
We got back on the bus and the second ‘half’ was much longer. We arrived to the Paloma Cruise reception area just before noon. The checkin was seamless and the staff seemed friendly.
After going through security (basically just checking all people had paid) We boarded a small boat that would take us to the cruise ship.
We have a very full schedule ahead of us.
Our ship was pretty nice but it’s charm wasn’t realized until we boarded. Hoang, the Service Director, was a charming young man that was not only informative, but very funny. Throughout the trip he joked about singing, dancing and best of all, he performed his rendition of Thai chi, cutting the Mellon (no pic, so you might have to ask us for a demo).
The food might have been the highlight of the cruise, but I would be selling many other activities short. Here is lunch:
It was way too much food. Especially because I didn’t was fish, thanks Tim for always thinking of my needs.
The first excursion was to Caves of Heaven and Scenery, well, that’s the English name. It was incredible. We actually felt like we were catapulted onto a Hollywood stage!
Beach was nice, but too cold for swimming.
We went back to the main boat to change and get ready for kayaking. Although I sceptical, it turned out to be a very rewarding experience. My hips and back hurt!
We enjoyed happy hour on the top deck an we chatted with a couple from Ireland and a couple from Germany. Good fun.
The dinner was incredible. Pics can speak for themselves.
The final activity of the day was squid fishing. It was interesting, not going to call it fun. No one caught anything, probably because it is too cold.
