Too Long in Ha Long, Vietnam

Thankfully the night before leaving Da Nang, Jim checked our flight and discovered it had been moved up an hour. We arrived at the airport at 0530, and while Jim went to the bathroom, I noticed a cockroach on his seat. He returned, skeptical of what I just saw, but to appease me, we switched seats. Shortly after settling in, he saw them too—cockroaches scurrying everywhere, trying to get into our food, crawling on chairs and while other passengers remained oblivious, we kept watch over each other, squashing the fast little fuckers.

Boarding couldn’t come quickly enough. About five minutes before boarding, Jim checked the monitors and our gate changed. We rushed to the new gate just as they began boarding our zone—that was a close call!

The hour-long flight to Hanoi went smoothly. Upon landing, we needed to find an ATM and a Grab (Uber) to take us the two and a half hours to Ha Long Bay. We estimated the cost at around $100. For some reason the ATM only dispensed $70, thankful, Grab quoted us $69, and after three attempts, a driver finally accepted our request. He informed us there would be an additional charge for tolls. After counting our cash, we agreed we could make it work, leaving us with $3 to spare.

About half way through the trip, our driver stopped for a bathroom break and Jim couldn’t resist grabbing two coffees and now we definitely needed cash.

As we approached Ha Long, our driver searched for an ATM, at which point Jim realized I had put the wrong address in Grab and we had passed our destination. Our driver wasn’t pleased about the mix-up and reluctantly found an ATM after asking someone on the street. The driver charged an extra $12 for my mistake, but neither Jim nor I felt like disputing it, so we considered it his tip.

Getting to our room took another hour. Jim  reached out to our host for the key code. However, when we arrived at the hotel, the box code was not working. After getting the correct code and opening the box, the elevator key was missing. Finally someone just brought us the key. 

We took the elevator to our room, only to find no key pad on the door. It took us some time figuring out we had taken elevator A instead of B. Back down to the lobby, following the directions to elevator B. We found the door but, again, no key pad. Exhausted from our 0300 start, we just wanted to unpack and relax. Before bothering our host for the umpteenth time, Jim fiddled with the door, and miraculously, a number pad appeared. Phew, we were in!

We’ve stayed in over 75 Airbnbs during our travels and only had to cancel after arriving once. Unfortunately, this made number two.

As we opened the door there was stale air that greeted us, I thought nothing of it considering we are by a bay. Immediately I used the bathroom only to find no toilet paper, went to wash my hands and no soap, went to dry my hands and crunchy towel. Nope! 

Our host assured us the place had been cleaned and was sending the manager up to discuss our concerns. As we waited, afraid to touch anything or sit down, we discussed our options. 

Now I understand there is a language barrier, but when the manager for the third time offered me a used pair of sandals by the door, thinking it would solve the problem of the filthy floor, I kindly refused. I tried to explain that the floor was the least of our worries; it was the dirty sheets, blood-stained pillows, black mold on the walls, grease in the kitchen, a dirty rag stuck to the sink, no soap or toilet paper in the bathroom and fingernail clippings along with a brown substance on the bed frame. Unfortunately, she didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

The sandals!

Blood stains....

Black mold....

Grease ever where.....

Dirty rag stuck to sink....

Nail clippings.....

I have no clue!

By this time, we'd been traveling for 16 hours and when she offered to do a quick clean and change the sheets, Jim explained it would take hours of deep cleaning. We notified our host that we would be looking for other accommodations for the next two weeks. She warned us that with the holiday approaching, finding a place would be difficult—but she doesn’t know Jim.

We packed up and found a nearby hotel, booking it for the next two nights to give us time to figure out a plan. As we entered the lobby, I kept my fingers crossed. A tour bus was parked out front—surely a good sign. The lobby was filled with elderly Chinese tourists that were the cause for a lengthy check-in process. After what felt like an eternity, we received the key to our small, clean room with a bay view. This would do!

At 0400, we were jolted awake by the sound of crashing metal, rattling windows, thunder, lightning, wind, and rain. Jim looked out the window but couldn’t see anything. I lay there counting the seconds between thunder and lightning, as the booming noise echoed and the lightning lit up the room.

The next morning Jim woke me to say he was going to get coffee and was leaving the key so the air conditioning would stay on. He would knock when he returned. Perfect. 

Jim - 

The storm subsided and the construction next door started. It was almost seven and I couldn't sleep anymore. I left to get some coffee only to find the elevator was out of service, probably from the storm. I found a small spiral staircase and wondered how all these elderly people made it down. There was no light so I used my phone, five flights down. I opened the door to the first floor and was greeted by a look on the manager's face telling me I wasn't supposed to be there, so I walked out to the front lobby. That's when I saw a huge, wide staircase that people who have already had coffee take. I asked about the elevator and he brought me outside and said typhoon. The streets were covered in debris and a couple of light poles were laying in the streets. He offered to make some drip coffee as the coffee maker also didn't work. 

The previous night I was unable to open the balcony door and asked him about it. He put the two coffees on a platter, grabbed his key and we headed up, now in a working elevator. As he opened the door Alisa, in all her glory, stood on the other side of the door all blurry eyed. I quickly told her to get back in bed. The manager played it off, dropped the coffee and showed me the combination of ups, downs, lefts and rights to make the door open. Alisa had the sheets pulled over her head as he left, I choked down the mud coffee and got back in bed. Let's try this again.. 

...after that humiliating wake up call a few sips of mud coffee was not cutting it and we set off in search of something to eat, both of us starving. The few people we saw were all cleaning up the mess from the storm.

Options were limited, with no Grab services available we settled on a hotel with an English menu outside. I decided it was the perfect time to try Pho. Shortly after ordering, a Chinese tour group waiting for their bus turned up with a speaker and a microphone and began to Karaoke at 0900.

As we wandered the streets, I struggled to keep my food down; Jim agreed, it felt eerie, like a ghost town. There were numerous apartments and restaurants, yet everything was vacant and overgrown, it reminded me of a town made as a movie set and left abandoned. The establishments were elegant and spacious, but completely empty. The internet was spotty, but when I finally had a signal, we ordered a Grab to another part of town. 

That night we went to the closest open restaurant. It had a few tables and only two other customers. We soon found out that no one spoke English. Google translate was not accurate, we did the point and nod and to be safe we stayed away from the hairy blood, spicy hair tripe and the red oil pig ears. We chose well...a tad spicy, not sure what some of it was nor do I want to, but definitely delicious. 

We checked out the next day to head to Tuan Chau Harbour, hoping for more activities and dining choices. But not after a beautiful send off by Hoa.

The change of plans included staying here for five days with the last two of those days on a cruise and then heading to Hanoi three days earlier. This involved quite a bit of canceling and rebooking, but there wasn’t much to do otherwise.

Tuan Chau also felt like a ghost town until our last day, which marked the start of the tourist season. During our stay, we visited King Kong Park, an amusement park featuring stone figures. For $4 each, we had the park to ourselves. 

On one of the few sunny days, we walked to the beach and explored a few beach bars, though neither of us chose to swim, the beach or the water didn't look too inviting.

Being on the bay was beautiful and definitely the highlight of our trip to Ha Long. We visited Cat Ba, where we hiked to the top of the national park, and also enjoyed an overnight cruise aboard the Alisa before heading to Hanoi. Two ways to see the Bay.

Google showed more food options in Tuan Choa, but there were only a few open or we found many were out of business. Most signs outside restaurants showcased dishes that weren’t available and they all shared the same menu. Although I did discover my love for coconut coffee, trying it at various places each morning—each version was deliciously different. 

We found a restaurant we frequented, Su’s, named after their dog, where I tried Bun Cha twice, needless to say this is where we ate most of our dinners. 

We stayed at a nice, clean family-run hotel for a reasonable price and much of our down time was spent catching up on Netflix series and relaxing.

I would suggest staying in Hanoi and booking a cruise or an overnight trip to Ha Long Bay would have been a better option. Still, we made the most of our time, seeing what we wanted to see and meeting many kind people.

Ho Chi Minh
Nah Trang
Da Nang
Ha Long Bay
Hanoi *Last Stop