I was a bit “pressured” to provide a review of the Ha Long Bay cruise that we took by one of the staff members aboard the La Regina Grand cruise that we took. Since I find those create a kind of biased view and also because it was difficult for us to find useful reviews when trying to make reservations, I took the time to write a lengthy and unbiased review that I posted later instead of succumbing to the pressure. I’m reposting that—with some additional edits—here.

Overall, we enjoyed the 2D/1N cruise with included transfers to/from Hanoi. Our room was comfortable for a family of three, which included two twins combined and a single twin for our child as well as a separate soaking tub and large walk-in shower. The floor to ceiling windows and balcony were also nice touches. Not knowing what to expect, we thought the food on the cruise was decent at all of the meals — not unlike eating in the main dining room of large cruise ships — selection though was more limited at buffets and main meals (although it looked the the cruise line did a good job of handling dietary needs). Likewise, the prices and quality for drinks were reasonable, especially as guests are a captive audience once aboard the ship. The staff were all friendly and competent.

To give you a sense of the day: 

We departed our hotel in Hanoi around 8:30am. We arrived at the port around 11:15am, with the journey including a 30 minute “comfort stop” at a pearl shop which was only a few moments from the cruise terminal. That’s a waste of time and also less than helpful for anyone on the 2 hour ride between Hanoi and Ha Long. 

Once at the terminal, check-in was efficient but a bit chaotic with departing passengers and arriving passengers transiting about the same time. After waiting about 30 minutes, we boarded another ship (larger than the ship’s own tender) to transfer to the actual cruise ship. The journey to the area where the cruising vessels are anchored took about 45 minutes and was reasonably scenic.  

Upon arrival (around 1:00pm), we were sent to the lunch buffet while the ship sailed to our first destination. After lunch, we were given access to our staterooms and time to prepare for the first outdoor activity involving either kayaking (2 people, row yourself) or taking a bamboo boat (6-8 people, local rows you) out through a cave and back. This was very enjoyable and took about an hour transiting from the ship to tender and then spending ~40 minutes doing the activity. After this, the ship moved again to its overnight anchorage spot where swimming off of the back of the vessel was made available as an option before happy hour (5:30-6:30pm), a cooking demo, and dinner (seating at 7:00pm). In the evening, there was a squid fishing activity that we skipped — otherwise, not a lot of post dinner entertainment options. Wifi on the boat wasn’t great either, but I didn’t get good mobile data service on LTE speed from our overnight anchorage. 

Morning could start early with the primary activity being a 7:15am departure from the boat to shore, followed by a 15-20 minute (each way) bus ride to a cave. Return to the ship by 9:00am for check-out followed by a brunch buffet at 9:30. Then it’s a repeat of the prior process with a transfer from the mooring location to another vessel for the journey back to the harbor. We arrived around 11:15 back on land and were immediately whisked to our waiting transfer van (great!) but then wasted about 45 minutes driving around Ha Long city to pick up another family at a different cruise terminal (less good). In the end, we returned to the hotel in Hanoi around 2:30pm. 

Our cruise had a rather diverse set of fellow travelers from Asia (including India), Europe, and North America in groups of various sizes (couple to large family gatherings). This obviously varies by sailing; just know that the cultural differences might be pronounced (one large group on this particular sailing was rather boisterous). 

If you have the time (we did not), I’d recommend taking a 3 day / 2 night cruise instead of the single overnight — there’s just a lot of time spent on travel logistics vs. actual cruising on the single overnight voyage. I’d also try to get away from the armada of cruise ships to more secluded experiences. We were clearly on the “tourist trail” not “off the beaten path” (or whatever the nautical equivalent of those are). That said, we’re pleased to have both done the trip to Ha Long Bay and sailed aboard Le Regina cruise lines. I wouldn’t call it a “luxury” experience as described, but it was perfectly serviceable and met our expectations.

We landed in Vietnam early on Monday morning and went through the usual airport arrivals process — all very smooth with our newly minted eVisas (which I almost forgot to get!). Our driver met us at the designated place and time. We proceeded to drive into Hanoi in what I have to assume was rush hour traffic, which wasn’t very bad at all.

First impressions were positive — well ordered traffic and good infrastructure. As we made our way into the historic city center, Libby and I grew a bit more apprehensive of my hotel choice as the world seemed a little grittier — perhaps more “elegant decay” a la Venice — with the addition of all manner of street vendors and narrow, crowded lanes. But, really, our concerns were for naught. The location was fantastic. The streets were vibrant. The hotel (Hanoi Pearl)—while not a Ritz-Carlton—was a fantastic value, perfectly located, and service as personalized and good as we’ve experienced anywhere.

Since the rooms were so affordable, I splurged on paying for an extra night on both ends to give us a guaranteed early check-in and late check-out. This also entitled us to breakfast, which is what we did first after our overnight flight. We then took a nap, grabbed a drink on the roof deck lounge, and prepared for our evening tour / dinner featuring the street foods of Vietnam.

Wow! What can I say about the cuisine?!? We wandered the neighborhood (probably never more than 5-10 mins from the hotel) eating all kinds of new and delish dishes. Unlike Chinese, Japanese, or even Thai food, our exposure to Vietnamese cuisine had been limited. Now we’ve been spoiled by the subtlest and most flavorful pho I could imagine, delighted by all manner of spring rolls, eaten bun cha (with a beer) like Obama and Bourdain, munched on a delightful banh mi que, and innumerable other dishes.

Tuesday started with a walking tour that I booked of the Old and French Quarter, which started by meeting at the local cathedral before heading to Loading T’s for coffee (amazing!) and a chat about Vietnamese coffee and history. As an American of our generation (born after the end of the Vietnam War, or as the Vietnamese call it, the American War), I found our expectations of and beliefs about Vietnam to be refracted through and colored by a lens of history that is very different than that of the Vietnamese people — not unlike our first experience to Eastern Europe in visiting Prague. For Americans, the Vietnam War was a seminal event for at least one generation that has rippled through our culture and politics to this day. For Vietnamese, the American War was but one of a 50 years long string of conflicts (involving at least the French, Japanese, French again, Americans, civil war, Chinese) and not even the worst of their experiences (that distinction goes to the famine during the Japanese occupation in WWII). I’m no expert on this subject, but it feels like the country has sort of “moved on” from it all with a sort of communism/capitalism that works for them.

Anyway, we cut the walking tour a bit short as Emerson’s stomach was upset — nothing serious — probably more to do with time and dietary changes versus any sort of real illness. By the late afternoon, everyone was up for seeing the delightful Thang Long Water Puppet show. Although performed entirely in Vietnamese, we were able to “follow the plot” of the various scenes and enjoyed the show more than expected.

Wednesday and Thursday were basically dedicated to Ha Long Bay, which is a place I’ve always wanted to visit. I have a separate post reviewing that cruise experience, which outlines it in detail. Overall, it’s worth the visit, but I’d suggest spending more time there and trying to get a bit further off the beaten track (or whatever the nautical equivalent of that would be — I kept thinking “this would be so much better on our own boat”). Back in Hanoi, we replicated our usual pattern of coffee at Loading T’s followed by a happy hour cocktail at the roof-top lounge.

Dinner was at a local Vietnamese place that had excellent reviews on Google — it was good but not as much as the street food / sidewalk vendors. One lesson we learned: staff in some Vietnamese establishments really pimp for online reviews, ask for you to mention them specifically by name, and actually tend to hover over you while writing the review on the spot. As a result, I would approach any tour/restaurant/activity with a seemingly disproportionately high number of excellent reviews with skepticism, especially if they repeatedly and consistently call out the same staff members by name.

On Friday, we were on our own and explored the Old and French Quarters. The primary highlight was a visit to the Vietnamese Women’s Museum, which outlined the role and contribution of women not just to the family and agriculture but also socially, politically, and militarily. Amongst certain ethnic communities within Vietnam the cultural is matriarchal, but I got the sense that equality for women is reasonably deeply rooted in at least modern (post-colonial) Vietnam.

After the museum, we had a late lunch at a local microbrewery (this seems to be a global phenomenon) with excellent beer and food, followed by a final trip to Loading T’s for their delicious cinnamon-flavored coffee with evaporated milk, and a stroll through the Old Quarter. We returned to the hotel to finish packing, get cleaned up, check-out, and leave for the airport around 9pm.

Today’s box score: +1 country (Vietnam)

We left the Hong Kong Disney Resort around 6:30am in order to have a full day to explore Macau. Being familiar with the journey, I didn’t even bother to book ferry tickets in advance — just taxi to the pier, buy the tickets, hop on the boat. You’re there an hour later. In Macau, the MGM sent a limo to pick us up (unsure of why, really).

I’m always fascinated by Macau, though this time it was far more familiar and thus less of an unexpected delight. Nonetheless, the mash-up of Portuguese and Chinese cultures (and architecture) with the Las Vegas casino gaming overlay (only with far more gaming revenue) makes it quite unique. To me,

This is where the original draft ended. I’m now completing the recollections en route to Qatar in June 2023…

From what I recall for this part of the trip, we wandered around the historical Portuguese center, visited the primary casino area (Koti Strip?) for mostly “retail therapy” where Libby “discovered” a new (to her) handbag brand (Moyant), and ate some enjoyable dim sum at the MGM Grand (which also gave us a complimentary room upgrade, also for no clear reason).

Overall, our sense at the time was that the visit to Macau was fine/good but not as thrilling as our first time there — whereas Hong Kong was much better. In that way, the trip reminds me of our 1st and 2nd visits to Vienna and Salzburg, which were one was “great” and the other “meh” and then vice versa on second trip.

Well, sort of “Hong Kong,” if I’m being honest…

We spent these two days at Hong Kong Disneyland, which admittedly seems like a waste of at least one day. However, there are good and valid reasons for this:

• The protests / riots in Hong Kong led me to want to avoid the city, especially on the weekend when an election was being held.
• Our flights were originally scheduled to only leave Shanghai after noon on Sunday — so, we expected to have minimal time in Hong Kong on that day.
• Disney was running an insanely cheap promotion that enabled us to get a two day ticket for almost no more money than a single day admission.
• We planned to leave Hong Kong early on Tuesday anyway in order to enable us to visit Macau overnight.

So, my logic was: let’s just stay on Disney property, reduce any risks of getting caught up in violence, and take advantage of the cheap second day that evening.

Then our flights changed (a couple of times actually — not sure what was going on with China Eastern), which had us arriving in Hong Kong closer to mid-to-late morning. So, that’s how we ended up with two Disney days instead of one.

The park itself is small in scale compared to others. It’s also very well planned with good flow between areas (despite significant construction going on). Crowds were rather light on Sunday (little to no queue for most attractions) and nonexistent on Monday (when every ride was basically a “walk on” without a wait). The girls had an absolute blast, and I actually enjoyed myself too on both days (which pleased me, as I thought the second day might put me in a bad mood — I hate “wasting time” on vacation). We’ve also all now been to every Disney theme park in Asia (visiting them all worldwide has become a goal, especially for Libby).

Our hotel, Disney Explorers Lodge, was a bit more of a mixed bag. The outdoor and indoor public areas are very nice. The room was rather basic, not wildly comfortable (overly firm mattresses and no chair aside from one by the desk), and thus objectively the worst of our trip (which is a bit unfair given the quality of hotels). However, the accommodation was serviceable and a fair enough value (thanks to deep discounts to attract wary visitors).

My biggest complaint was the food at the resort. It too was generally serviceable (at best), but it seemed extraordinarily expensive relative to quality and portion sizes (more than any other spot on the trip). Disney dining options often strike me as poor value… though there are some notable exceptions (the breakfast buffet at Animal Kingdom, many of the small dishes / drinks at Epcot festivals, etc.). But, this was kind of a buzz kill… not because I can’t afford the meal… but just because I’m annoyed spending something like $9 for a bottle of still water in a place where you can’t otherwise drink the water.

By this point in the trip, we’d made it fully onto local time albeit with an “early to bed, early to rise” bias, which ultimately proved helpful given our itinerary.

Days 1 & 2 were really all about the journey, having left home around 7:00am on Tuesday morning and arriving at our hotel around 8:30pm on Wednesday night. Given a good deal for miles on DeltaOne, we flew to Shanghai up front, which was a real treat for the gals (despite it being in one of Delta’s old 777 cabins before adding the suites).

I also booked us a 1 bedroom suite at the Marriott City Centre. Very nice room. This also proved to be a wise decision as some of us could sleep while others used the living room.

The transfer from airport (usual dystopian environment after spending half a day on a plane) to the hotel was very smooth. After dropping off our luggage, we went to Starbucks for a coffee and headed out to the neon lights of Nanjing Road to find some dinner (ate some really good, spicy Sichuan dishes).

The big challenge with this journey is getting onto the right sleep schedule. Emerson suffered the worst, as she got the best night’s sleep on the way over. Libby and I managed to fall asleep by 2 or and were up again by 6 or 7 (after a pretty restless night). Emerson didn’t sleep at all.

Day #3, which was Thursday, started with complimentary breakfast at the executive lounge (a great perk of my Marriott lifetime status). We then returned to the room and let Emerson sleep for about 3 hours before waking her up (really unwelcome!) and heading out for the day.

We didn’t do too much on Thursday — explored the area around The Bund & People’s Square and visited the Shanghai Museum. Honestly, our main mission was fighting exhaustion and staying awake during the day. Dinner was less successful this night–not that the food was bad. It’s just difficult to enjoy a meal on the verge of collapse. Indeed, even walking back to the hotel a few short blocks felt like a struggle.

We did have one of the funnier moments of the trip at the restaurant. The wait staff didn’t speak English. But, our waitress really wanted to ask us a question. When we didn’t understand the Chinese (despite speaking it too us more loudly), she got a piece of paper and then proceeded to write the question down in Chinese for us (as if that was likely to help). LOL

Thankfully, the Internet came through with real-time translation. Thus, we established that Emerson did not want ice in her water. And, as it turned out, she didn’t want the water either since it was “with bubbles.”

We were all fast asleep by 8:00pm or so.

Day #4 started early… I was up at one o’clock in the morning, and the girls weren’t too far behind me a couple of hours later. Today was our visit to Shanghai Disneyland. I booked our tickets online (quite cheap compared to US prices) and paid a bit more for early access to the park. This paid off as we were able to do many rides (some twice) first thing in the morning and then spent the rest of the day at a more leisurely pace moving around the park.

We had a late lunch at a Wolfgang Puck’s in their version of Disney Springs, called Disneytown. We also did some shopping there and had salted custard egg bao from Crystal Jade.

We left the park around 5:30 and made it back to the hotel by around 7:00 (traffic was heavy). Emerson fell asleep in the car, despite our best efforts to keep her up. We then fell asleep in the car, despite our best efforts to keep each other awake. Dinner consisted of snacks from the nearby convenience store, as we mostly just wanted to go to bed.

Day #5 saw us awake fairly early, which enabled us to grab coffees and a light breakfast at 6am. We then relaxed for a bit before heading out on a dumpling tour and class, which started at 10:30am. This was a blast. The food tasted excellent (the pan-fried soup dumplings were especially revelatory), and the dumpling-making class was a lot of fun too. We also had a nice, small group with us including a New Zealand / South African expat couple living and teaching in Shanghai.

After the tour, we wandered back to our hotel through the French Concession, which felt far more “Upper East Side” than “Midtown” to us. We didn’t see a lot of hotels (at least not big, international chains) in this area, but it looked like a nice spot for eating and drinking (not to mention a short walk to the exquisite dumpling and bao spots). We came upon a market that was oddly celebrating Thanksgiving, as well as a number of historically important sights related to the founding of the PRC (which admittedly were largely meaningless to us).

Dinner was a light meal from room service, as we still had many dumplings in our belly.

Overall, Shanghai was a joy despite our being in a bit of a jet lag induced fog. It’s probably not a fair comparison because I go to Beijing for business, not pleasure, but I personally liked it Shanghai a lot more. We could have probably used one more day to really see the city, but this worked out well. We’d happily come back here.

Today’s just a travel day: Tampa to Atlanta, Atlanta to Shanghai.

Due to the length of the flight and departure time from Atlanta, we left Tampa around 9:45 in the morning, which meant driving to the airport in rush hour. Thankfully, that was the only real “lowlight” of he day.

We boarded our plane in Tampa on time, and Emerson was very pleased to see that we’d secured first class seats. She also quickly tumbled to the fact that that might mean we had first class seats to Asia too. And, she was right! I’d booked us in Delta One on the route over, which was a real treat for the gals.

In Atlanta, we visited the Sky Club before boarding our flight aboard a Delta 777 (sadly one of the planes not yet retrofitted with the Delta One Suites). It’s probably Delta’s worst business class hard product in my opinion, as I prefer even the 767-300s. But, the ladies were happy, which made me happy.

Getting a somewhat late start to the day, not knowing the city well or how to navigate it, and recognizing the weather might be suboptimal (rain was likely most of the day), I planned for us to stay close to home today in order to get our bearings (how exactly to get to Disney tomorrow?), visit the gardens of the Imperial Palace, tour a couple of the nearby museums (as it happens we only made it to one), and generally just get a feel of the place and what’s around us.

The rain was generally steady but fairly light. It didn’t really pose a problem to our navigation. Although, I learned that when Columbia says “water resistant” about a jacket they mean “entirely and completely permeable in anything other than the lightest and briefest of rain showers.” Oh well. I bought an umbrella for around 500 yen (~$5) at the museum and retired my nearly worthless raincoat.

We first stopped at Tokyo station where I (eventually) figured out how to buy a train ticket from the automated machines and oriented myself to navigating to where we’d need to go. Although the language differences may make it seem disorienting at first, it’s really little different than dealing with London’s Paddington or Victoria stations at a big station in Japan, which has transport connections via subway, local and long distance rail, and buses.

Tokyo Station is also a wonder in terms of shopping (everything you need and many things you don’t) and eating (it has restaurants galore).

Emerson loved the kawaii (“cute”) merchandise on Character Street.

I, meanwhile, was mesmerized by the food.

We moved on to the Imperial Palace and its gardens, which provided a lot of green space that frankly none of us imagined to exist in central Tokyo:

Next, we visited the National Museum of Modern Art — Tokyo (MOMAT), which traces Japanese (and some Western) art history from the late 1800s through the present. I found two things especially fascinating:

First, the dialogue between East/West — we tend to think of the artistic influence of “Americans in Paris” in the early part of the 20th century and beyond, but their Japanese contemporaries were also there, which strongly influenced artistic expression here too:

Second, the artistic response to the Pacific War (WWII) and its aftermath — a rare, direct view into the psyche of the “other side” and of personal interest given my family’s history in the Pacific theatre during the war:

I didn’t see much hard-edged abstraction and/or minimalism by Japanese artists, but I was captivated by some of the more organic forms of Japanese abstract art:

After the museum, we continued to walk around the Imperial Palace. I’d hoped / thought about visiting the Craft Museum, but it was closed for some reason (changing exhibits, I believe). The structure was originally built in the Meiji Period, which introduced Western influences and rapid societal changes through the emperor’s explicit edict to search internationally for (and presumably apply) knowledge that might strengthen the empire.

Having lapped the grounds of the Imperial Palace, we wandered into the Ginza district, which is just south of our hotel. Like 5th Avenue in NYC or the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Chuo Dori in the Ginza is a premier shopping drag for international brands. We stopped in only a couple of shops to search for more kawaii items, as well as clothes at UNIQLO, for Emerson.

For dinner, we ate at Eggs ‘n Things, which seems to be a popular Japanese outpost of this Hawaiian restaurant. The highlights included my ahi poke rice bowl (perhaps the best version of that dish I’d ever eaten) and Libby’s Hawaiian fried rice (with Spam! — of course). The meal prices were surprisingly reasonable too….

A few items of interest…

We flew over the western end of the Himalayas. Since it was day time, nice weather, and the plane had a camera view on its belly, I was able to capture these interesting (to me) views:

Overall, the flight was pretty smooth, but we hit a couple of pockets of light to moderate turbulence. The last bit—about two hours out of Tokyo–made Emerson air sick (a first… though not unheard of for her on a plane or boat). I’ve been there, and I felt bad for her. But, she’s a trooper.

The food was exceptionally good for Economy class on this flight, especially the breakfast. Unfortunately, due to her illness, Emerson skipped the dinner (as did I out of solidarity, I suppose). So, she and I ended up eating (surprisingly good) Caesar salads from a 7-11 in the middle of night after checking into our hotel.

Immigration, baggage claim, customs, getting cash from the ATM, grabbing a taxi, and checking into the hotel were all pretty standard fare and done easily and efficiently. My sense was that we are off to a good start…

Sightseeing? No. Too long of a drive from Nusa Dua.

Swimming at the pool or beach? Nope. The doctor banned Libby and Emerson from water-related activities for a couple of weeks.

We spent the day doing basically nothing. And, it was surprisingly blissful. Emerson played happily with her dinosaurs in our hotel room, and Libby and I got caught up on work. Plus, I could leisurely get us repacked and organized for our return to a cooler climate (as Sydney should be in the upper 40s to upper 60s this week). That was a real bonus as I’ve been previously prepping us during the darkness of night for our early morning flights.

We checked out of the hotel around 2pm today. The bill was $800 for our pool-side room, airport transfers, a number of meals, full day private tour, and the aforementioned doctor’s bill. And this is the peak tourist season! Bali is a great value…

After checkout, we returned to the Bali Collection and wasted some time. Libby had a “fish foot spa” that she really enjoyed. Basically, you stick your feet in a fish tank, and the fish give you a pedicure. We’ve seen it malls all over the world… Stockholm, Dubai, etc. She says she’d do it again.

We then returned to the beach and explored the temples and statues on the point:

After this, we returned to our hotel, had dinner, said goodbye to Adi (the friendly waiter), collected our bags, changed into our travel clothes, and left for the airport. We had the same driver as yesterday. Check-in was painless. We had to pay 450,000IRP as a departure tax (about $15/pp USD) to leave the country. This was on top of our $25/pp entry visas. This is still better than some countries like Argentina and China.

If all goes well, my next update will be from Australia. It’s the final country of this trip (#84 overall) and completes our visits to all seven continentson Earth. Very cool!

The distance we’ve traveled so far seems to play with put sense of time. It seems like we left Tampa ages ago. London too seems in the distant past ( though it’s really been only a little more than a week since we landed in Asia). It will be fascinating to see what effect another long, overnight flight has on our perception of time/space.