Vietnam V

In Hanoi a young driver waited for us at the airport and we started for a 45 minute ride to the city center, where our hotel was located. However, we only stayed one night in the city, as we were about to leave early in the morning to get to the world famous Halong Bay. The large bay consists of more than 1900 small islands. The Halong Bay was first listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994, in recognition of its outstanding, universal aesthetic value. In 2009 it was included on a list of nominations as one the World's 7 Natural Wonders.

Again, we had a private driver for the 3.5 hours journey. Before we boarded our cruise, we eat the best croissants ever! Unbelievable, as we all had been in France before. Anyway, the Paradise Cruise was pure luxury! The rooms were quite spacious, the bathroom very modern, so was the whole cruise, and the details also contributed to the perfect impression. The welcome buffet was great and offered a wide variety of vietnamese specialities. The cruise had a sun deck with nice sun loungers and so we could soak up the majestic panorama of the bay! It's really a wonderful piece of the Earth! The night we spent on the boat, which also had a bar with drinks. We had nice talks during dinner and enjoyed our time on the cruise. The next morning we returned back to the dock where our driver already waited to bring us back to the hotel in Hanoi. We spent another two days in the capital, strolling around, eating street food, and checking out some nice bars. As Sophie didn't feel too good one evening, Silvan and I went to a Jazz Club were we watched the band perform for less than 30 minutes, before they closed. As we had to leave, we went to a bar called Funky Buddha with a nice DJ and nice folks. The next day was, sadly, the last one we could spend in Vietnam, before returning to Singapore with Tiger Airways.