Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

The previous post in this series is here..

After our vegetarian lunch in Hanoi, we started off towards Ha Long Bay. It was a long drive and our attempts at telling our driver to keep his eyes on the road failed miserably. So we just braced ourselves for a potential accident and tried to look outside the window as much as possible to the side! Apparently the norm here per driver given the traffic. We even called the guy who ran the service and that person said we were with the safest driver in his fleet!

This was a local Electric Vehicle which had some ADAS. So that gave us some consolation even though I didn’t trust the ADAS in this type of traffic. Enough of the car stories..

On the way we saw the west lake and the Pagoda in it. There was no time to visit this Pagoda but we had spent a lot of time in the morning at another temple with the turtles. We prayed en route to the higher powers in that Pagoda to make it to Ha Long.

We made it to Halong bay in 2 hours. The place was empty. No tourists on the waterfront. Apparently the boats had all left for the all day tour of the rock formations and would return around sunset. So we had the place to ourselves. Walked around, took pictures, saw the Dolphin palace which was impressive and we decided to go to the beach side. It was a 20 minute ride and we spent a good 45 minutes in the beach taking pictures and just enjoying the relatively empty beach.

Ha Long bay is really beautiful with the unique rock formations. The views were the same from most places though. We were reasonably sure that our decision to see this from the shore instead of an all day boat ride was a good one given our time constraints. Here are the pics.. yoga first..

At this point we decided not to wait for the sunset. It would take us a lot more than 2 hours in evening traffic to get back. We had not even checked in to our hotel and we wanted to see the night market and old quarter by night. So we told our driver that we can start back with no breaks. He was also happy as we had started early that morning from the airport and it was a long day for him as well. More photos..

it was a good call. We drove past a glorious sunset towards Hanoi and were dropped off at hour hotel a little close to 6:30 PM. We had made it back in exactly 2 hours.

A video highlight of our visit to Ha Long bay

We checked into our room and ventured out towards the market.. that in the next post!

Kayaking into the sunset - an amazing experience in Sorrento

The previous post in this series is here..

We were to drive to the starting point for the Kayaking and be there before 5PM. We ended up in a wrong parking lot somewhere in the middle of the hillside. Finally after calling the Kayak place we found a parking lot below at the sea level. Turned out we were not the last ones to arrive. This was booked through Viator. So we know it will be good.

We were asked to change in a small change room, leave everything there, given life vests, a hanging cover for our phones, paddles and when the entire group of 14 was ready, there were three guides who joined us. Once our vests were checked, we got a lesson on paddling and off we went. San and me in one kayak with her insisting that she will be in the front (which meant I got to direct the kayak.. you cannot have your cake and eat it too!) and the kids in another double kayak.

We kayaked along the coast line into a grotto. It was a thrilling experience. Once there, folks who wanted to swim there were allowed 20 minutes. There is a path from the grotto to go up the hill to a villa and see the sunset from there. San and me raced up. I thought I could make it to the villas front doors, but there wasn’t enough time. So we ran to the other side, got some pics and raced back.

San had a narrow escape as she fell when trying to get back on the kayak (it was unfortunately captured on video like a drishti parigaram) but recovered okay.

When we made it back and changed, Jr. was really sick. She was miserable. So we ate at the restaurant that was new (same owners as kayak place) and it was made fresh. Loved the pasta here. Then with wet clothes it was a race back to the hotel. By the time we reached the hotel the kid was really miserable. We had two more days of travel left. So we focussed on getting her better and went to bed early. When we got to the hotel I realized that my hard earned new challenge shirt was gone!

We had to take the next days plans depending on how things turned out in the morning..

A video highlight reel

In a way it was good we missed our original appointment and went to kayak at sunset. It was fantastic.

Sorrento piers and Sunset

The previous post in this series is here..

After going back to the hotel, the kids decided we had to go to the “beach”. There was NO beach. Just sea access points. We stayed at Hotel Angelina in Sorrento for the two nights. Strongly recommend it for the quiet location, access to the sea, walkable to the city center and public bus stop, and most importantly cute rooms and a very friendly staff. They helped me park the car everytime in the garage!

Our hotel manager told us that there is a public access point to the ocean where locals rent just umbrellas and chairs for 10 or 15 Euro instead of the 50-100 through the hotel elevators that take you down. We had to walk through a tunnel. So off we went. It was a good walk and nice experience. San and the little one stayed in the chairs and relaxed while Jr. and me decided to spend 2 hours in the water.

Then we went back up. It was tricky walking with wet chappals in the tunnels. We dressed up nice again and went back to the city center for dinner. Found a nice place which had a few vegetarian options and small wait time (turns out it was a chain restaurant which is not fancy by local standards.. we found out the next day). Still the food was good and we walked to a local supermarket. Everyone was giving up on sunset and I was being lectured on being sunset crazy. Pushed everyone to walk fast towards the sea and they reluctantly came.

Have to hand it to Jr. She believed in me and told everyone not to give up. When we went to the end of the road we got to see a glorious sunset. After this it was a longer walk back to the hotel and I used Apple maps to go through some deserted lanes. That made them all worry.. but it ended up okay and we were back at the hotel.

Here are the few pictures I have from this afternoon and evening.

A short highly edited video highlights reel..

On a side note, that purplish shirt that gives off different hues under sunlight was my dads. In the last few years we would get him shirts for events which he would wear for a few hours, then shirt will be washed and put in a bureau. When he passed my mom just gave me 15 of these once worn shirts, most of which I had got him as we are the same size. Used those shirts on this trip. There was a constant reminder to see things in a different context.

If you think I am pushing Ramarajan colors, my dad used to do this 50 years ago. He got shirts stitched with the hands and pocket in a different color with the local tailor. In a drab world he got style. Guess I have to thank him for that.

Back to Sorrento.. The next day was going to be packed. We had plans in the morning and had to be back in time for the postponed Kayak trip…