Day 10 of our cruise and we’re at sea heading up to Halong bay.
The majority of people on the boat seem to be Brit’s and Americans escaping their respective winters. There are 2 outdoor and one undercover pool on our deck with plenty of lounges which are always packed with sun bakers. I imagine there’s some decent sunburn happening although maybe not today as it’s overcast.
We, of course, are much more sensible, hanging out in the bars, theatres and casino on sea days. Our gambling buddies are Wilma and her husband from Glasgow. The machines we’ve been playing launch into German beer hall songs on a win, which make for great singing along. I’m going to sneak a video of this as I reckon these machines would be a hit in the spike bar at the golf club. We’ve also hooked up with a NZ couple for pre dinner drinks in our lounge. Bit too successful as we’ve missed dinner twice now because of extended drinking sessions .
As anticipated, Saturday was a long day with the trip out to the Mekong. Bus took over 3 hours each way as we had to pass through the outskirts of Saigon. The bus ride itself was a great way to see the countryside, but that left only a couple of hours at the Mekong so only time to do basic tourist stuff. We had lunch provided, but it was aimed at the cruise ship market so while nice, wasn’t a great example of Vietnamese cuisine. Just convinced me best way to see Vietnam isn’t off a cruise ship.
As a consequence, we changed our tour yesterday in Hoi An so that we were dropped off and left to do our own thing. Lovely lunch alongside the river, assisted by guidance from waiters on how to eat food. The old town is essentially a huge market place with some historical buildings, so rest of afternoon was spent wandering around exploring.
Today doing chores. Val washing and me cashing in casino winnings to pay down room charges.
Round about 