I Booked a Luxury Cruise in Vietnam and Was Shocked by What I Found

Ha Long Bay is one of the most popular destinations in Vietnam. But has it become too popular? Crowded attractions, cruise ships everywhere, and day party boats packed with tourists. But we heard there's another option, Bai Tu Long Bay, a quieter, more peaceful, and supposedly more luxurious way to experience the bay. So we booked a 5-star cruise to find out if this option lives up to the hype. Throughout this trip, we'll rate the food, excursions, the boat, crowds, and overall value using 1 to 5 stars to see if this place truly deserves its 5-star reputation. Let's go. Alright, so right now, we are leaving Hanoi and headed to Ha Long Bay. We got like a two and a half hour drive, but I think you're going to love this, alright? So let's go. Yeah, I don't know what's going on. But he just told us to get out the bus. That was the bus right there. So I think we're getting in another car, maybe? Oh, it's this bus. Okay. Alright, so we're getting on this bus instead. It's a new bus. I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. It's okay. We're good. This is the new bus. Yeah, I'll see you. Thank you. Sorry. Yeah, all good. That was different, right? Yeah. We swapped buses in the middle of the transport. And switching buses wasn't a problem. There are so many buses going to so many different places. That's just how transportation works around here. It's one big network. Alright, we made it to the cruise port. Now we got to find our boat and hop on. I think we take a small boat to our boat, which is already parked out in the bay. We opted for a lesser known bay because everybody goes to Ha Long Bay or Lan Ha Bay. So excited to see what our bay looks like. It said it's not that crowded. And we chose the 5 star Sycad Cruise, which specializes in a more luxurious way to experience the bay. And apparently, they had a surprise waiting for us. So we grabbed our luggage, made our way down to the dock, and boarded the boat that would take us out to our home for the night. At this point, we had no idea what they had planned, but we were about to find out. This guy here about to step on the boat. Check this out. Got a pool right there. Thank you guys. Thank you. Oh, this is nice. What you think? You like it? Yeah. And right off the bat, this boat impressed us. Honestly, it looked even more luxurious on the inside than it did from the outside, which if you're spending the night, that's what really matters. And before we even left the dock, the crew made us feel incredibly welcome. And they sat our table right by the window, which is a must for these views. Plus, Yvonne said she liked it. So, that earns the boat its first star. I think that's all, sir. Xin chào. Thank you. Xin chào. We got the room key. We're about to check out the room. I bet it's amazing. You excited? Oh, wow. 207. Where are we at? 210. 207. We're right here. All right. Let's check it out. Oh, wow. Look at this. Dang. We got all the flowers. What is this? Oh, yeah. I forgot I told them honeymoon. Oh, that's cute. Yeah. Look at that. That is crazy. Oh, they got the in the tub and everything. Oh, this is fire. Of course, mirror. Yeah, this is crazy. Look, you got a balcony. Look at that. What do you think? Okay. Yeah. And after seeing this spacious room with the decorations, the views we would have from the balcony, and the smile on Iman's face, this earned the boat another two stars. All right. Let's go check out what the lunch situation is like. It's the first meal on the boat. And so far, everything's been amazing. So I'm pretty sure lunch is going to be too. So let's go. The welcome lunch looks amazing. So I got the shrimp, the sea bass, the fried rice, there's beef under here, oysters, spring roll. Right here, crispy duck. Is it good? Cheers. Oh, wow. That is strong. That'll do it. That'll get you there. You get two of these. And with that being said, we get the first star in the food category. All right, we're going to go explore upstairs. Let's see what that looks like. Oh, wow. Yeah. Look at this. Now this is beautiful. Wow. So you're going to have a bar situation right here. You got like all those little sections right here that could get a pop. You got the tables. You got the day beds or like the loungers right here. Come on, yo. Look. This is the thumbnail. How long have you guys been together? Three years. Oh, that's lovely. So I met this beautiful lady on this cruise. Her name is Barbara and she is from St. Croix. That was like my third episode, maybe fourth episode. So y'all that have been here with me from the beginning, you know about St. Croix. This is her right here. Okay. Yeah. Tell the people. Say hey. Hey. There we go. She is a travel agent and she is here doing a scouting trip. Right. To see if this is worth, you know, talking about, you know, adding to her portfolio. And so far. It is fabulous. It is a beautiful place. Yes. And I definitely look forward to bringing some of my clients on this beautiful voyage. Yeah. And I'm interested in also becoming one of your clients because if you're doing stuff like this, I can only imagine what else you have seen. I invite you to come and join us. And as we drifted farther from the port, there wasn't another boat in sight, which went against everything I'd heard about this place. So far, I think we chose wisely. And that's enough to give the crowd its first star. But now it's time to go on our first excursion. All right. So our first activity of the day, we are going to visit a fishing village. And I got my drone with me. Hopefully it's going to be, you know, calm enough to where I can fly it. So fishing village coming up next. Let's go. And as we pulled away from the dock, one thing on my mind, I cannot wait to fly the drone. And I've flown in some incredible places around the world. But I wasn't ready for this one. So we pulled up to Vong Vang village and we let the excursion begin. At early 19th century, after some small family or small boat would come and stop in this area for overnight because have high mountain and high mountain will block the windy, keep for the local people safety, sometimes typhoon or storm coming. And until 2014, in this village have about 80 family with around 300 people alive in here. Not enough fresh water, not enough food, not enough power, no medicine and no school for the children. For the food and fresh water, in about two weeks, have the one big boat will bring your fresh water and food from the harbor. They eat fresh water just for drinking and for the cooking. If they want to take a shower, they need to take a shower with sea water first. At 2017, the government will move all the people in this village to the mainland. The first thing, for the government want keep better alive for the local people. The second thing, they want all the children in here can come to the school. And the third, for the government want keep clean for the bay. For some of the local people, they are born in here. They don't like working in the harbor. They come back here for catch seafood, keep the seafood alive in the farm and also for rowing boat. When you see the tunnel in the mountain, for the fishermen in here, they are call it village gate. Because before they going out to the sea for catch seafood, they will going out of the village by this way. Hope for lucky with the trip. So now it was time to explore this village. Not just from the water, but from above too. And let's see what this place really looks like. So this fishing village was formed in the early 19th century. And at first, it was used as an anchorage for the ships that went out to the ocean and to the sea to chill and take refuge from the big storms. But over time, people started to live here. They started to build homes and houses and then farm oysters and things like that. And it became like a community. It came out of refuge into now where people live and survive and thrive. And as we headed back to the village, it was time to learn all about the business that takes place here. And the crazy thing is that it's an oyster farm, but not necessarily for food. It's pearls. Have you ever heard of the Vietnamese pearl or the South China Sea pearls? Well, that's what all of this is for. This is our pearl farm. I'm Sam. If you want to visit, I'm glad to be here to share with you some information. In here, we grow three types of oysters. The first oyster is the Akoya oyster. They make the small pearl with four main colors. White, pink, gray, and yellow. The second oyster, the Tahiti oyster. The oyster makes the black pearl. The last one, the South Sea oyster. The oyster makes the big size for the pearl with the white and the golden colors. And the worker is inserting one of the tissues, one of the nucleus, into the ovary of the oyster. You look like an oyster pregnant and the pearl growing inside. But not every oyster can give pearls after this. The success rate is only 30 percent. So you see the colors of the pearl, we cannot control them. They just come randomly and naturally by the different types of oysters. So instead of waiting for nature to take its course, pearl farmers implant a small nucleus into the oyster. And over the next two to three years, the oyster naturally coats it with nacre, creating the pearl. So now I would like to open one oyster for you to see the pearl. Is that okay? Yeah, please. For sure, right? For all their life, even if they make pearl or not. So after we got pearl, it's done for the oyster. And this is the Akoya oyster, make the pearl after two years doing implanting. This is the Akoya pearl, two years old pearl. You can have a look, this is the perfectly round one. We can drill the hole into this. And then put on the setting, you see the ring or the earring. And after we got pearl, you know, we can take oyster meat for food. Oyster shells, we can cut and shape them to make the jewelry. So you see, nothing is wasted, right? And this place was called Ha Long Pearl. And they have some beautiful items in here. So we decided to walk around and check them out. Look how big this joint is. What color? Oh, yeah, that is crazy right there. Go say hey to the people. I'm getting some girls. She never wants to be in the camera. Say hey to the people, say hey. This is Iman, okay? This is Iman, she wants to say hi to y'all. So with the kayaking and the pearl farm, we're going to go ahead and give the excursions two stars. So we headed back to our boat to see what we could get into before dinner. This view right here. You ready? I'm ready. And of course, we had to check out the pool. After spending the afternoon exploring the floating village in that heat, there was no better way to cool off. And with views like this, yeah, we're going to give the boat another star. We got to go outside, right? Yeah, the happy hour situation. So we got to go upstairs. The sun is shining. I got the drone. Check this out. Ah, you got caves over there. The bar is lit. People are just hanging. The sun is setting. It's really nice. Hello. This is amazing. So the happy hour here. Oh, yeah. If you buy two, you get one more for free. You got some fruit out here, some desserts. You got all the liquor. I'm not drinking right now because I'm on antibiotics, but it's really cool. The sun is setting. And we spent nearly half a day with not another cruise ship in sight. So I think that scores another star for the crowd. We got the drone. We got the sunset. What's cool about choosing this bay over the other bays is that there's no other boats around us. You don't see another ship. You saw the drone. There's not another boat in sight, right? I think that adds to an element of peace that this type of area deserves. It's just one of those things where you know when you feel like you got something right. I feel like we got this right. We still have to sleep and then do some stuff tomorrow morning. Frozen. Can't think of words. Honestly, it's been really lovely. The scenery is really beautiful. It's really peaceful, really calm. You just feel really at ease here. And you feel really small as well, too, because the limestone is huge. It completely surrounds you. I think we can go ahead and give the crowd another star. The only thing I wish is that we could have gotten in the water. Like I love... Tomorrow? Maybe. I mean, listen, you could always jump off the boat, but they're probably going to make you wear a life jacket. Okay. This afternoon, we start from the Bãi Trái Quốc over there. Yeah. And then we went to Vung Biu floating fishing village. And then we start going back to the anchorage point. Now we are here. And we will stay overnight in this area. Tomorrow morning, we will go back to the Thiên Cảnh Sơn area over there. Okay. One of the caves. So I've seen pictures where there's just tons of boats. Where is that? Because that's not where we are. Ah, okay. So in this map, we have the three bãi to the right side here. We call it Bãi Đựng Long Bãi. We have Long Bãi. It's in the middle. 500? Wow. So now we're going to dinner. You ready? And speaking of dinner, let me tell you about a game changer. So one of the last things that I want to do when I get home from traveling is to go grocery shopping. And that's where HelloFresh comes in. They deliver everything that I need to make dinner right to my door. With more than 100 new recipes weekly, including Japanese, Indian, Thai, and Brazilian flavors, there's always something new to try. 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First, stir-fried beef. 10 out of 10. This was good. Then, the lobster. But, with cheese? I wasn't too sure about this one. I've never had lobster with cheese, so I'm excited to try lobster with cheese. It's good. And for dessert, we had banana foster with coconut ice cream. This was a 10 out of 10. After dinner, they gave us a display of traditional Vietnamese instruments. And man, these two were talented. Watching them move from instrument to instrument like it was nothing. This was a whole different level of talent. So, after dinner and a show, food gets another star. But at this rate, I'm not sure they're going to hit 5. We're trying to go squid fishing. Now is not the squid season. And you just go like that all night? All night. Well, he said they haven't caught a squid all season. So, chances are, you're not going to catch one today. So, I'm going to bed. That's how I'm feeling. We got Tai Chi in the morning. We are going to go visit a cave. Breakfast and then a cave. Then we pack up our things and head back to the port. You logged out? No, scarcity closing. So, did you catch anything? Hell no. And the next morning, I decided to wake up early before Tai Chi to fly the drone. But hey, don't judge me. I didn't even wash my face yet. So, from the water, Ha Long Bay is beautiful. But from up here, you finally understand just how massive this place really is. Around 16,000 limestone islands rise from the sea. Most of them completely uninhabited. And according to the Vietnamese legend, they were created by dragons descending from the sky to protect this land. And honestly, looking at it from up here, I can see why they believe it. It's like 6.30 in the morning. And we are about to take a Tai Chi class on the upper deck. So, come with me to learn Tai Chi. It is raining, which is going to make it cool. It is pouring rain. So, Tai Chi has been practiced in Vietnam for centuries, originally as a martial art. But today, millions of people use it for balance, relaxation, and meditation. The idea is simple. Slow down, control your breathing, and connect every movement. Which sounds easy, until you're trying to remember what move comes next. But doing this in the rain, while our boats slowly weave through these mountains, I finally understood why people do it. For a few minutes, you really do forget about everything else. Oh, yeah. The swimming trunks. Might as well stand in the rain if it's going to rain. This is a good way to focus on your inner energy and body. Besides, Tai Chi is good for your joints, arms, legs, and all parts of your body. Tai Chi. And Tai Chi exercises will slow you down. Slow you down and control your breathing. I'm going to show you a Tai Chi video. This was beautiful, I swear. Look at this. It's raining, but it just kind of stopped as we finished the Tai Chi. I guess we were supposed to do the Tai Chi in the rain. But guys, look at this view. Right? All those mountains. Wow. How are you doing this morning? Just very good. And you? I'm good. Are we hiking today? Yes, today we're hiking. Alright, so after Tai Chi, it's time to see what they got for breakfast. Good morning. Let's go see what they got for breakfast. Good morning. How are you? I'm amazing, right? Good morning. This is omelette, beef stew, beef noodle soup. Can I get everything? Yes. She got the sun glistening on one side. Good morning. You missed Tai Chi. I did, but I watched the sunrise. It's not the same, but I'll allow it. The line was peaceful and beautiful too. Alright, let's dig in. So I got the beef noodle soup, an omelette, and some passion fruit. With this view, and also this view. And breakfast was good. I say 8 out of 10. Good enough to give the food one more star. And I needed that beef stew because I was battling an ear infection all trip. We ready? Yes, ready. Let's go. So next up, we were going to see a cave hidden in one of these limestone islands. From the outside, you'd never guess what's hiding inside these mountains. Millions of years of water and erosion have slowly shaped the limestone into an entire world of stalactites and stalagmites. And apparently, some of these formations require a little imagination to see. In total in this area, we have about 1,553 square kilometers. With 1,969 islands and islets. But only 989 islands and islets have been named. If you have a lot of money, you can buy the mountain and give it a name. I'm kidding. Ha means coming down. Long means rugged. And for the limestone in here, we start to make from about 340 million years ago. The Tien Kai Son cave in here, one of 32 caves in the bay. For the legend, we call this the home of emperor. At the day, the emperor will be working in the sky. And at the night, he will come in here for sleeping. But you know, just for the legend, nobody can sleep in here. And for the stalactites and stalagmites inside this cave, we start to make from about 200 million years ago. It will come up only 1 centimeter. 1 centimeter per 100 years. Very long time, right? And this cave, during the time of the Vietnam War. It means the Vietnamese and American War. This cave is one of the area for the show the alive inside. This cave has 2 gates. 2 doors deep and 2 sides of the mountain. And in here, a little bit higher than the water. They will see farther to the bay and they know all the time. And my boat will coming. So after the cave, we had a little time to check out the beach. But unfortunately, still no swimming. Apparently, the ocean floor has a pretty steep drop off. And a tourist recently had to be rescued after going out too far. So yeah, today we're just going to enjoy the view and take a walk. You can see it drops. I know, it's perfect. It feels amazing. And that is the cave? Yes. Oh, for like everything? Probably want to be first when you do that. So we made our way back to the boat to try to make it in time for lunch. And with the beach walk and the cave being not crowded. The excursions and the crowd get 2 stars each. My only knock is that I wish we could have gone swimming. Ladies and gentlemen, now is the time for check out. At 9.45, the brunch will be served in the restaurant. So it was time for our last meal of the trip. First up, shrimp salad. 7 out of 10. Then, the squid cake. 10 out of 10. That was easily my favorite. And finally, grilled chicken and rice. And I love rice, so this gets a 9 out of 10. And that puts this meal right at a 9. So we're going to add one more star. Giving it 4 stars overall. And that's fair. The food was good, but it wasn't nothing to go text your friends about. Now, there's only one thing left to rate. The value. Was this cruise actually worth the price we paid for? Alright, that's a wrap on Bai Tu Long Bay. Amazing overnight cruise. We saw the fishing village, had a happy hour. We did Tai Chi. We did Tai Chi? I did Tai Chi in the morning. I didn't. I just wasn't filmed. She didn't. And I didn't. We were the only boat around us. I think you said there was like 500 boats. Yeah, 500 boats for Ha Long Bay. So you got like this whole, this beautiful, scenic place to yourself. But was it all worth it? Well, I almost forgot. We gotta add another star to the boat for Tai Chi. But here's what really surprised me. For transportation from Hanoi. Overnight 5 star cruise for 2 people. All the food. All these experiences. We paid $350 total for 2 people. At that price. Yeah, the value gets 5 stars. And honestly, I think we found one of the best ways to experience Ha Long Bay.