Change of Plans
- Ruth Mcbride
- Oct 6
- 7 min read
Day 2 of our Fascinating Vietnam, Cambodia and the Mekong Delta River Cruise with Avalon
Our last breakfast at the Lotte hotel Hà Nội! After 4 nights at this beautiful hotel with an amazing suite and wonderful food, it was time to check out.
We paid our bill which was mostly laundry charges and waited for the rest of the group to arrive before heading down to the bus at 8:30am.
Our guide Ha told us that we would be heading to the Van Long Lagoon instead of Ha Long Bay as originally planned because of the impending Typhoon. After visiting the lagoon we would be staying in Tam Coc at a fairly new luxury hotel resort instead of staying at the VIN Pearl resort in Ha Long Bay. It is disappointing that we don’t get to see Ha Long Bay
Ha Long Bay top image. Van Long Lagoon bottom image.
Safety comes first though and we were glad Avalon has come up with a back up plan for us today during the impending typhoon to experience more of Northern Vietnam, despite not getting to the coast to see Ha Long Bay.
Top image is the distance from Hà Nội to the Van Long Lagoon.
This image is what our route would have been to Ha Long away.
We sat moving slowly in Hà Nội traffic for exactly 1 hour before we got on the highway to the Lagoon. If there was no traffic in downtown Hà Nội these bus journeys would definitely be a lot quicker!
I passed the time on the bus doing some artwork of a photo I had taken in the Old Quarter.
My inspiration photo and my painting using water colour pencils and small brushes I brought in my carry on bag. I’ve been doing some painting as we travel to complement the blog and personalize some of the wonderful things we are seeing on our travels.
We exited the highway about 2 hours into our trip for a stop a “Four Seasons”. Obviously a play on the actual hotel chain and a profiteering idea for some entrepreneur who knew that buses must pass by to get to Ha Long Bay and the Tam Coc resort area.
I don’t mind if I do! Coconut water is sooooo hydrating!
After a short 25 minute ride of looking out the bus window at the interesting countryside, we arrived at Van Long Lagoon.
We were not really sure what to expect on a lagoon tour, but Ha our guide advised us the we might see some Gibbons. Cool!
The boat loading dock!
Guys on our tour from Sarasota , Florida
Our view from our boat
Our boat driver was wearing a jacket with two fans built into it and was not experiencing the 40C heat that we were enjoying. We did get a nice breeze on the lagoon after 30 minutes when we turned around to paddle back to the dock.
As we were almost back to the dock our rower said “Monkey” and she stopped the boat. There was a gibbon in the distance which we both saw. The gibbon was shaking the branches and jumping around on the shoreline so our rower stopped the bot for a few minutes in case the gibbon came back into view for us to take a photo. Unfortunately we couldn’t capture the gibbon’s photo but it was a cool experience to see a gibbon in its natural habitat!
Fan for the photo op!
Our rower lady loaned me her fan to use. I find that using fans only makes me hotter somehow with the effort of waving the fan. It was a nice gesture of her though to loan it to me. She also stopped to pick me some water iris’.
We tipped our rower lady 40,000 dong or $2 CAD which was over and above the tip Avalon had already provided to the rowers.
Our Tour Director Ha had chosen the lagoon instead of the resort area we were heading to which was a lot more touristy. The lagoon was very tranquil and allowed us to be in a more peaceful environment than what we would soon discover in Tam Coc. Despite being super hot and humid, it was neat to see a gibbon in its natural environment which we would not have seen in Tam Coc.
After an hour in the heat we were so glad to be back on our air conditioned bus to make our way to a very nice traditional local restaurant for a family style lunch.
Lunch spot
Spring rolls and beef kebobs
Lunch was very good with pork spring rolls, stir fried chicken and vegetables, stir fried bean sprouts, and pumpkin soup. We were given very small bananas for desert.
The ride to our hotel from the restaurant was pretty quick. We were both pretty sweaty from the boat ride and we were happy to get to our beautiful room overlooking the water at the Emerald Resort Tam Coc. I kept asking Richard how did Avalon manage to get us all premium rooms with water views at the very last minute in the middle of the Mid Autumn Festival after our plans to visit Ha Long Bay fell through? Tam Coc we learned is known as the “Halong Bay on Land”
While we waited for our luggage to be delivered to our room I saw that there was a brochure for a Spa at the resort. After I worked out what the cost of a massage would be I asked Richard to please call down to the Spa and see if we could get two lymphatic drainage massages today before dinner. Dinner was scheduled for 7pm, not that we were going to be hungry for anything more to eat today.
The spa was busy and not answering their phone but the front desk reception clerk took the details of what we were looking for and called us back to say we could both get a massage at 3:45pm! Wonderful!
Rather than shower, we went to the spa in our sweaty clothes and realized we were actually in the same room for our ‘couples massage’!
Our female masseuses had us lie face down and asked whether we wanted: Light, Medium or Firm massages. We both said Medium and I am so glad I didn’t ask for Firm! The masseuse was a bit of a killer working on my lymphatic system to move the fluid back towards my heart.
As we changed back into our street clothes we both agreed it was the best $56 USD we had ever spent for two 60 minute massages! My legs and ankles were back to normal after the massage which was amazing, but I kept running to the WC to relieve the fluid from my body! I’m so glad we jumped on the opportunity for lymphatic massages today to try and reverse the damage done by the massage lady in the Old Quarter of Hà Nội. I will never risk that type of massage again given the experience I had with my ankles for two days after her brutal massage. My legs are both pretty bruised too which will heal, but what an ordeal and one I would rather do without!
We met a fellow guest from Houston on our tour and told her about the spa and she was able to get a 60 minute deep tissue massage for $32USD. She had mentioned she had walked into town so we decided to do the same and keep the fluids circulating in our legs!
Tam Coc is very popular with British visitors and a British football match was playing on the tv in this bar.
The town of Tam Coc was a mixture of bars, massage parlours and restaurants. We did find a small shop with the shop owner sleeping on the floor at the back of the store, to buy postcards from.
If we had come to Tam Coc to do a boat ride it would have been on one of these metal boats instead of the authentic bamboo boats we were on in the lagoon. I think the hot metal from the boat would have been a killer! Our resort is across the water from the boats.
We were dying to have showers, so we walked back to our resort as the sun was setting on Tam Coc.
We showered in our gigantic shower and had time to rest before dinner. I put on the silk bathrobe from the room and laid on the bed with the air conditioner on high, blowing directly on me. I told Richard no dinner for me, but he was welcome to go without me. At this point I fell asleep on top of the covers and slept until 2am when I decided to finish yesterday’s blog.
The change of plans to visit the lagoon and the Emerald resort in Tam Coc was a welcome respite from the busy traffic and congestion we experienced in Hà Nội. Seeing the North Vietnamese countryside was nice too despite the long bus rides, but since we are only 12 people on a large bus, we have space to spread out. One couple on our tour stayed back as they had already visited Tam Coc and they will join back with the group at Hà Nội airport tomorrow.
I am finding there is quite a difference between a Viking organized tour and an Avalon tour. A this point I am not saying one is better than the other; they are just different. Having a small group size is very nice to allow for more flexibility with a change of plans as we had today.
We leave Tam Coc at 8:30am tomorrow as we head directly to the airport in Hà Nội. We have already determined there is a Priority Pass lounge that we have access to with our Scotiabank Visa Infinite card, so that is a nice perk as we do not want to be sitting for 3 hours in the terminal before our 3:30pm departure to Siem Reap on Vietnam Airlines.
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