Vietnam - Hanoi Trip - Day 2 - Visit to Thien Cung Grotto

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After visiting the fishing village, we proceed to visit Thien Cung Grotto, is one of the most beautiful grottos in Halong Bay. You can read the legend of the grotto from source.

We alight at the pier to climb up some stairs to the caves but remember your boat number cause after visiting the caves, need to return back to the same boat and all the boats looked alike, but if you have a guide, just look out for him.

It's about 100 steps up to the cave, the climb is worth climbing cause inside the cave it was really very beautiful.

View of Halong Bay from the top of the caves. Fantastic view.

After about four hours of tour around Halong Bay, we finally return to the harbour to take the mini bus back to Hanoi - dread to think another four hours on the road, should have book a hotel room near the harbour of Halong Bay lol.

Half way through our journey, there's a toilet break at a souvenir shop. Things over here are more expensive, saw the same souvenirs at the airport selling half the price.

Finally we arrived at our hotel doorstep, too tired to look for dinner, so just pop over to the cafe on the ground floor of water puppet theatre which is located infront of Meracus Hotel.

We had some baguettes with bacon and ham.

Short video of Thien Cung Grotto.

Saw many eagles/hawks flying above an island on the way back to Halong Bay Harbour. Wow there's so many boats that looked alike. The whole trip was interesting, fantastic and amazing but do travel safe and take precaution by wearing life jacket especially taking the small shuttle boats.

Vietnam - Hanoi Trip - Day 2 - Halong Bay Part 2 - Fishing Village

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE YOU RE POST MY PHOTOS ON TO YOUR BLOG. THERE ARE SOME BLOGGERS WHO DID NOT ASK MY PERMISSION AND REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT THE COURTESY OF LINKING BACK TO MY BLOG. THIS IS LIKE STEALING. PEOPLE, I HAVE SPEND MUCH TIME TAKING PHOTOS AND DOING HOMEWORK ON MY TRAVELLING INFORMATION AND KINDLY SHARE THESE INFORMATION TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEM. IF NECESSARY I WILL POST SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR BLOG TO SHOW YOUR BAD MANNERS OF STEALING MY PHOTOS. THE MOST DISGUSTING THING THEY DID WAS TO SCREEN SHOT MY PHOTO AND CORP OFF MY BLOG TITLE FROM MY PHOTO AND REPOST THEM IN THEIR BLOG.

We were lucky the weather was good, not too sunny and no rain.

We got a chance to visit the local fishing village.

They made all of us to alight from the ship and we were left standing on a platform. As the tour include a chance to take the kayak to view the nearby caves, so there's no additional fees to use the kayaks. But for those who wanted to take the shuttle boat to view the caves, we had to pay US$5 per person.

The local guide said no no to life jackets for those taking the shuttle boat. I dont mind to pay the US$5 but please give us the life jackets. They dont take safety seriously. After what happens just a week before our trip, five taiwanese died at the same spot from an accident involving the shuttle boats, I just grabbed the life jackets and put them on, then every one follow suits. Do insist on the life jackets for precaution.

You can read about the accident.

Taking the shuttle boat towards the cave.

Once we enter the caves, the sight was so beautiful, we seems to be inside the middle of the mountain, looked so peaceful and calm.

There's even a small school in the fishing village. After about 30 minutes ride on the shuttle boat, we finally arrived back to the platform where we started.

A short video of the fishing village.

Vietnam - Hanoi Trip Day 2 - Halong Bay Part 1

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE YOU RE POST MY PHOTOS ON TO YOUR BLOG. THERE ARE SOME BLOGGERS WHO DID NOT ASK MY PERMISSION AND REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT THE COURTESY OF LINKING BACK TO MY BLOG. THIS IS LIKE STEALING. PEOPLE, I HAVE SPEND MUCH TIME TAKING PHOTOS AND DOING HOMEWORK ON MY TRAVELLING INFORMATION AND KINDLY SHARE THESE INFORMATION TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEM. IF NECESSARY I WILL POST SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR BLOG TO SHOW YOUR BAD MANNERS OF STEALING MY PHOTOS. THE MOST DISGUSTING THING THEY DID WAS TO SCREEN SHOT MY PHOTO AND CORP OFF MY BLOG TITLE FROM MY PHOTO AND REPOST THEM IN THEIR BLOG.

At last, we arrived at Halong Bay Harbour to take the cruise. We decided to book only a one day tour instead of staying overnight in the ship. I think Halong Bay is now over populated with so many ships and tourists. There are about 10,000 tourists visiting Halong Bay daily.

Do keep the tickets with you, need to produce the ticket when visiting one of the caves.

On board the ship, we were served with one glass of drink and lunch. Any additional beverages, you need to pay.

For better view, we can climb up the roof of the ship. The view of Halong Bay was fantastic except there were really too many ships.

Short video of the many ships departing from the harbour.

Short video of the view of Halong Bay - very beautiful.

Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam.

Vietnam - Hanoi Trip Day 2 - On the way to Halong Bay - Tyre Punctured

PLEASE ASK PERMISSION BEFORE YOU RE POST MY PHOTOS ON TO YOUR BLOG. THERE ARE SOME BLOGGERS WHO DID NOT ASK MY PERMISSION AND REPOST MY PHOTOS WITHOUT THE COURTESY OF LINKING BACK TO MY BLOG. THIS IS LIKE STEALING. PEOPLE, I HAVE SPEND MUCH TIME TAKING PHOTOS AND DOING HOMEWORK ON MY TRAVELLING INFORMATION AND KINDLY SHARE THESE INFORMATION TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN THEM. IF NECESSARY I WILL POST SCREEN SHOT OF YOUR BLOG TO SHOW YOUR BAD MANNERS OF STEALING MY PHOTOS. THE MOST DISGUSTING THING THEY DID WAS TO SCREEN SHOT MY PHOTO AND CORP OFF MY BLOG TITLE FROM MY PHOTO AND REPOST THEM IN THEIR BLOG.

After a good night sleep, feeling so refreshed, we went for our breakfast at the basement of the hotel. We did not pre booked our halong bay tour online, so on Day 1 upon arrival, we booked our one day halong cruise tour with the hotel. We need to get ready by 8.00 am as the tour bus will be coming to fetch us to the harbour to take the cruise. We joined the group tour at US$38 per person.

The hotel's breakfast was so appetizing and delicious. They even had beef pho. The service was so good, they keep attending to our needs by making sure our cups/glasses were always filled with drinks and clear the dirty plates very quickly. We dont even have to wait for the beef pho or fried eggs to be ready,we just tell them what we want and they served right to our table. This is what I called excellent service. :)

Soon we were on our way to halong bay. The journey from Hanoi to Halong Bay is about 4 hours including half an hour toilet break.

Something beyond our expectation (as what was written on the mini bus hahahaha), we heard a loud bang after 1 hour journey, the mini bus had burst one of its tyre. Strange less than 1 minute is a tyre repair shop (so coincident.) It took about one hour to repair the tyre and waiting for a new tyre to be delivered by motorbike to the shop. So instead of a four hours journey from hanoi to halong bay, we took five hours but most important everybody were safe and sound.

This incident reminds me of another incident when I was at Ho Chi Minh where our tour bus got caught in some cables. You can read in my Ho Chi Minh's travel posts.

Half way through the journey, we had half an hour toilet break at a handicraft shop. The toilets were really very clean.

Almost bought a beautiful ao dai's blouse in this shop but the S size was too small for me while the M size was too baggy for me, OMG they really have such tiny waist.