Day 1:
We took the complimentary hotel shuttle to Ho Chin Minh Complex where the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, The Presidential Palace, The One pillar pagoda are all located.
There were some shops by the One Pillar Pagoda and we did some souvenir shopping there.
We walked along the Ho Chin Minh mausoleum along the length of the street. After reaching the President Palace we turned back.
It was time for lunch and we hailed a cab back to the hotel. Cabs are very cheap in Hanoi and a very good means of transportation in the city.
Late afternoon we took the hotel shuttle to Hoan Kiem lake and walked around the neighborhood.
From Hoan Kiem Lake we walked to Old Quarter and after doing some window shopping, we ended up at Gia Ngu restaurant. We had some traditional Pho soup for dinner there. After that we did some souvenir shopping at the Old Quarter and then took a cab back to the hotel.
Day 2:
The main reason I added Hanoi to our itinerary was to visit the Halong Bay. Ideally, one should book multi-day Halong Bay cruise so as to really enjoy the scenery with leisure. However, due to lack of time, I had booked a day trip from Hanoi with Vietnam Awesome Travel (from Tripadvisor Reviews). It takes about 4 hours from Hanoi to Halong Bay but I found that Vietnam Awesome Travel Tour company offered a premium experience on a luxury van that used a newly built (and very expensive) highway that cut the journey time to 3 hours. Our van picked us up from Hanoi Opera House at 9:00 AM and we reached Halong Bay just before 12 PM.
After boarding the boat, lunch was served. There was a variety of items such as shrimp, calamari, fish, Chinese egg roll and rice.
While we were eating lunch, the boat departed from the docks and made its way to the limestone cliffs in Halong Bay.
After about an hour, we approached Ba Hang floating village where bamboo boats with a rower were waiting to take us on a ride below some of the caves.
The tours are timed such that the ships reach the floating jetty at a time when there is high tide. During low tide the water around the caves gets shallow enough that the boats will not go through them to the lagoon.
After about a 30 minute boat ride, we were back on the ship.
Our next stop was a cave tour at Thien Cung cave (Heavenly Cave).
There are some parts of the cave tour that require climbing several steps of steep stairs and so might not be suitable for those who have mobility issues.
After getting back to Tuan Chau terminal, it was another 3 hour uneventful journey back to Hanoi. It was a long but very exciting and memorable day on our Halong Bay tour and should never be missed if you are in South East Asia. I was lucky that I had finally checked off this destination from my bucket-list.
We were pretty tired by the time we reached hotel and went to bed soon after. Next morning we had an early morning flight to Singapore, our last stop on this itinerary.