11.5. – 16.5.2023
Thursday was time for a change of scenery, so the alarm clock woke us up at 6:30am, and an hour later we were walking towards Seoul Station. From there, we boarded a local train that stopped at every dairy dock before arriving at Incheon International Airport. It’s about 50km from Seoul to Incheon, so it took us a little over an hour to reach the airport.
There was no queue at check-in, so we got to the counter straight away. At the counter we faced a truly unexpected issue as we were asked to prove that Ronja and Risto were really our children. We were asked for some paper to prove that we hadn’t picked up the children of another Finnish family from Seoul, but that we were travelling with our own children. When this document was not found, the next question was whether we had travel insurance to cover the whole family. It would have everyone’s name on it. Well, our policy only says “Marko Aho and family”, so that didn’t work either. Finally, the officials had us sign a waiver saying that we were taking our own children out of the country. We signed the waiver and finally got boarding passes for the whole family. Even after that, we were still not allowed to go anywhere and had to wait in the airport lobby for five minutes. During that time they would x-ray our bags and then we could continue our journey.
Incheon airport is very large, so by the time we finally arrived at the departure gate, boarding was already underway. We had a whopping 15min before the departure gate closed and the plane taxied onto the runway. But we made it to the plane, which is the most important thing. This is certainly the first time in our entire air travel history that boarding has been so close.
It had been warm in Seoul for the last few days, but when we landed at Hanoi airport, the thermometer read +33C. That was a bit much, but thankfully not one of those Vietnam heat wave days that have been in the news. Immigration formalities went very quickly, and the taxi we had booked in advance was waiting for us at the airport, so we were able to continue our journey straight away. Our first destination here in Vietnam was Ha Long Bay. As rental prices here were considerably lower than in Seoul, we had booked ourselves a four-bedroom apartment with a sea view. The apartment turned out to be the penthouse on the 27th floor of the building. Apparently, even in Vietnam, English is also a bit difficult, as the sign above the entrance said “penhouse”.
As it was already evening, we had to go grocery shopping again and look for an ATM. We couldn’t pay for the apartment with a card, but had to withdraw a lot of cash from the ATM, 9 330 000 VND to be exact. It sounds like a lot, but in reality our apartment cost about €370. There were all sorts of restaurants in the area. At this point in the evening (and considering the level of hunger), we didn’t feel like trying anything too exotic, so we ended up at a place that had both pizza and burgers on the menu.
Finding a grocery store was again our number two challenge. This time we couldn’t find a real supermarket. We tried to go inside one shop that we thought was a supermarket, but a quick look revealed that they didn’t have anything that a Westerner would be used to eating for breakfast or evening snack. So we returned to the small market on the ground floor of our apartment. There we found fruit, drinking water, toast and yoghurt. The only thing we didn’t get was ham slices and real cheese. This was no longer a surprise, though, as it has happened very often in Asian countries.
We spent Friday mainly at the apartment, as we had to book a Ha Long Bay cruise for ourselves. The internet worked when it liked to work, so it took a bit more time to research and book the cruise. Marko also had his hair cut at a local barber shop. His hair looked good, although not exactly like the flat top hairdo in the picture Marko had shown the barber. Apparently, this type of a haircut is not known in Vietnam. It didn’t really matter, as Marko only paid 70 000 VND for it (a little under 3€).
After Marko returned from the barber, Jaana went to the market next door to buy some fruit for a snack. Luckily, she didn’t ask the kids to join her this time, because in the meat section she came across the fact that they eat dogs in Vietnam. It seems really strange, because here we have seen so many people with pet dogs. I don’t think they keep dogs as pets only to stick them in a pot and serve as a dinner one night. The market had a very good and cheap fruit section. There Jaana bought watermelon, pineapple, apple and mangosteens. She also managed to find some freshly baked buns from the market, so we had a really nice snack.
Due to the constant walking and not using lotions, Jaana’s feet (especially her heels) were in terrible shape. So after the snack she decided to go to the nearest beauty salon. The price for a pedicure was initially 80 000 VND, but a glance at Jaana’s heels brought the price up to 100 000 VND, which was also a very reasonable price, as in Finland it’s hard to imagine getting a pedicure for four euros. With these prices, beauticians are not likely to make a fortune here.
In the evening, we went out for dinner to a local restaurant downstairs. We studied the menu for a while, and decided that since all the dishes were relatively new to us, we would just pick one and see what it is like. We ended up ordering a barbeque. A charcoal pan with a griddle on top of it was brought to our table, and we could grill various cuts of meat which were brought on a large platter. We were also served grilled corn and spring rolls filled with (maybe) shrimp or crab.
There was also bacon, wrapped around what looked like a white shaving brush. We tried to taste what the white thing was, but we never found out. Certainly not a mushroom, as we first thought. Maybe some kind of spores. We didn’t eat them anyway, but we did grill the bacon. Apparently the restaurant employee found our grilling a bit pathetic, because she came to assist us. Shortly thereafter she came running to us when we were wondering how we were going to cut up the steaks we had grilled, without a single knife. We had gotten a fork (but only one) at a separate request. The woman showed us that the meat was meant to be cut up with scissors, which had been in the cutlery drawer all the time. How didn’t we think of that! Once we had mastered the proper dining technique, we ate almost everything. Only the white shaving brushes and a few lettuce leaves were left uneaten. We were surprised that even the kids liked this dish. They have been a bit sceptical lately about our ethnic food experiments.
On Saturday, we set off for a two-night cruise around Ha Long Bay. We had initially considered just a one-night cruise, but as there seemed to be very little to do in Ha Long city itself, we decided on a two-night trip. This turned out to be a really good decision, as there was a lot of organised activities during the cruise. In addition, all meals from breakfast to dinner were included in the cruise price, so we didn’t have to think about finding somewhere to eat for a few days.
During the cruise, our main guide, Bruce Panda, and the day trip leader, “Tom Cruise”, spoke reasonably good English, so they were able to explain us a lot about the area, which was great. On the first day we went kayaking and took a dip in the jacuzzi on the top deck of our boat. In the evening after dinner, Marko and the kids went squid fishing. Marko caught one almost immediately. The squid was so big that even the staff on the boat took photos of it. The other participants didn’t have any luck that night.
On Sunday we went a little further out of Ha Long Bay to Lan Ha Bay using a smaller day boat. On this trip we also got to know some other passengers better. One couple was from Australia, one from Germany and one from Spain. Jaana was able to practice her Spanish skills for the first time in a long time. Surprisingly, Jaana still remembered the language, even though she hadn’t used it for almost a year. We spent a lot of time with the German and Spanish couples. At the end of the trip we exchanged contact details, so hopefully we will meet again sometime in the future.
Our day boat parked at the harbour of Cát Bà Island, from where we started a 5km bike ride to a small inland village. Fortunately, the route was not very hilly, as our bikes weren’t exactly Cannondale quality. We all really enjoyed the bike ride, especially Risto. He said many times how he liked cycling in the countryside listening to all the sounds of nature. We stopped in the village café for a while, where we were told a bit more about the area. Finally, we were introduced to snak-, honey and banana “wines”, which we could also taste if we wanted. Marko, being a brave Finn, took a drink of each. Almost all the rest of us were just happy to watch Marko’s facial expressions with each drink.
We also visited a fish spa in the village. This time, the fish in the pool were much larger than in Brunei, so Risto and Ronja hesitated for a long time before they dared to put their feet in the water. Even though Jaana had just had a pedicure the day before, the fish still found something to eat on her feet. Marko’s feet, however, were the most popular among the fish. After this experience, we cycled back to the boat where we were served a traditional Vietnamese set menu. For the kids, some of the dishes were a little too exotic, but nevertheless, each of us had our stomachs full.
After lunch we visited a local floating fishing village where we went kayaking again. We were not allowed to swim, as the water was said to be quite dirty. Well, no wonder, as the sewage system in these villages is a hole in the floor straight into the sea. The Vietnamese government has actually started to work on getting people still living in floating fishing villages to move to the mainland. The cleanliness of the bay is one reason, but schooling is also a problem for the children living in the villages. They have no education available except for the first five grades. If they wanted to continue their studies after that, they would have to travel to the mainland, but families won’t do that. They have neither the time nor the money to transport their children to study elsewhere every day. All their time is spent earning a living. In addition to fishing, the families in the villages grow oysters. I wouldn’t think of buying oysters from them, though, knowing what kind of water they grow in.
Next we moved on to slightly cleaner waters, where we all got to swim. The kids were especially excited to jump off the deck of the boat into the sea. It was nice to get into the water, because it was getting too hot even though the sun didn’t shine all the time.
In the evening we returned to the larger boat where after dinner Marko and the children tried their luck at fishing again. This time both Risto and Ronja almost got a squid each. Risto even managed to get his squid up out of the water, but then the thing got loose. Ronja’s squid was just following the bait to the surface, but then disappeared back into the depths.
On Monday on the way back, we stopped at another small fishing village, where we took a rowing boat trip into a cave. The tour was marketed to us as a “dark and bright cave tour”, but in reality the “bright cave” was just a large tunnel formed in the limestone cliffs. We couldn’t even get into the dark cave, as there had been some incident of tourists getting stuck there at high tide. Now the opening of the cave is blocked with a net. Both children got to try rowing, but both little skippers just steered the boat in circles.
Ha Long and Lan Ha bays were indeed incredibly scenic places. There are over two thousand limestone rock islands in the sea, and the area covers over 1500 square kilometres. Even though the area is vast, you don’t have to sail there alone. Especially in the evening, all the passenger ships park in the same area for the night. Then it’s like a small town with lights all around. The number of tourists certainly contributes to the fact that there is a lot of rubbish in the bay in places. But apparently most of the rubbish come from the local people themselves. The locals should do more to clean up the bay, as it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Of course, it would be even more important to make people understand how wrong it is to litter in the first place.
In the evening we had dinner at the buffet restaurant downstairs. It offered mainly seafood, but there was something for the kids to eat as well. The buffet was priced according to the height of the customer. Customers under 1m could eat for free. 1m – 1m 30cm tall paid 7€ and “fully grown” 12€. The price was really cheap because as you can see from the pictures and videos, there was a really wide variety of options available.
