 Ha Long Bay, one of the most spectacular UNESCO World Heritage Areas and the world’s largest marine limestone ‘karst’ landscape is one of the must-see highlights in Northern Vietnam for most of visitor come to Vietnam. This is an inspection to the Red Dragon Junk I when it newly opened in April 2008. Since then, it becomes one of the best cruises in Ha Long Bay and 99% of our feedback ended up with good comments.
The Red Dragon Junk I belongs to the Indochina Junk, the mother company which owns many small luxury cruise like Princess I, II (only one cabin and individually designed for honeymooners), Prince I, II (two and four cabins, individually for families or small groups), Red Dragon I, II (five cabins). The Indochina Junks Company and its cruises are highly recommended for Ha Long Bay thanks to their luxurious facilities and amenities, good services and an unique cruise map in Bai Tu Long Bay.
The drive from Hanoi to Ha Long took us around 3 hours and 30 minutes with a short stop in Hai Duong for driver’s break. Not like other cruises do their check in at Ha Long Tourist Port, the Red Dragon’s check in area is at Bai Chay Port, sharing the same check-in area with Baya Cruise and Emeraude Cruise.
On arrival in Ha Long, we were greeted by the boat’s supervisor. We inspected the Lagoon Explorer before got in the Red Dragon Junk. The Lagoon is a 4-cabin cruise which also managed by the Indochina Junk too. However, the cruise is quite old and the design is not very attractive, we decided not to use this for our clients. We also took some photo of the Lagon’s sundeck and family cabin.
We also had a quick look and took some photos of the Princess Junk. The cruise is very nice with only 1-cabin cruise which individually designed for honeymooners and couples. The cabin always decorated by flowers and honeymoon gifts.
All of passengers in the Red Dragon were welcomed by a lovely welcome drink and cold towel; we then got the key to our cabin while the cruise started cruising. The cruise was unique passing through residential area of Bai Chay to Bai Tu Long Bay, through the man-made pearl rising area of local people.
Lunch was served at the open-air restaurant with some special dishes like squid salad, hot-rock prawn with champagne, smoked oysters…
After lunch, we continued cruise to Cap La where we had a pleasant and funny kayaking in the sea to a floating village seeing the daily life of the local fisherman. We also stopped by a floating house which used to be a school and a family who made man-made pearl. We then back to the cruise for swimming and relax before the dinner.
The dinner was better than lunch with many nice food decorations. The crew member was friendly and smiling. They sang us some good song in Vietnamese. It was memorable joining the squid-fishing at night with the crew member, however, due to of the Lunar cycle, we did not get much, but it was lots of fun! In general, the today’s route is designed to avoid the busy areas and includes a very quiet location for your overnight stay.
Got up early in the morning to enjoy fresh cool air in the Bay, relax in the sundeck, we had a short Taichi class, guided by the cruise’s tour guide. Breakfast was served with bread, fried egg, sausage and tea or coffee. The cruise then stopped at Amazing cave, the biggest and for many people, the most amazing cave in Ha Long Bay. If you don’t want to see the cave, you can choose to do the kayaking around the cave, of course, with a kayaking guide.
We then back to the cruise and continued cruising through in the emerald water of Ha Long Bay seeing thousands of limestone standing in the water. We have been to Ha Long Bay for many times but each time left different memories.
Lunch was served at around 10 am at the indoor-restaurant, quite early for most of Westerners with A la carte menu. You can choose two main courses in 4 served main courses. The lunch for this day was very good as well.
We disembarked at around 11.45 and said goodbye to the cruise member and other passengers. Our car was waiting to take us back to Hanoi and 2-day cruise with the Red Dragon Junk ended with fondest memories of Ha Long Bay and its beauty. See you again! |
