Travels - Indo China Cruise (March 2008)
(Hong Kong, Halong Bay, Hue', Sanya)
Sometimes it can be a little tricky to figure out what to do and where to go for vacations here in Asia. First, there is the expense. Since airlines are not deregulated in Korea and there are no land routes off the peninsula thanks to North Korean relations, prices are usually terrible going anywhere from here. Second, the climate here is a touch and go thing. It might be pleasant in Korea but monsoon season in Thailand, bug season in Cambodia, high pollution in China, you name it. Third, there is simply the question of "what do you want to do?" Explore someplace new, lie on a beach, shop, experience something non-Asian, rough it and try new foods? Add all these together, throw in the limited windows we have with my work schedule and the kids school and that explains pretty much why we haven't left the Korean Peninsula for most of our vacations here.
We were determined to change that this time as we searched for trip to take over the Easter Holiday week and lucky for us a new option in the region found it's way to our attention. Last October, Royal Caribbean had decided to move a ship over to Asia to test their wares in the growing cruise industry here. Unfortunately for them, but fortunate for us, sales didn't catch on as quick as they hoped and their 5-night Easter holiday cruise from Hong Kong was being offered at very reasonable discounted prices to fill up the unsold cabins. So, after a quick check of airfares confirmed that Hong Kong is one of the cheapest destinations from Seoul, we signed up.
In the end our itinerary looked like this...
- Day 1 visit Hong Kong city
- Day 2 visit Hong Kong Disneyland
- Day 3 visit more of Hong Kong City and board the ship
- Day 4 at sea
- Day 5 visit Halong Bay, Vietnam
- Day 6 visit Hue', Vietnam
- Day 7 visit Sanya, China
- Day 8 arrive back in Hong Kong.and fly back to Korea
The trip turned out to be fabulous and exceeded our expectations on almost every score (some sunnier weather would have been nice as is evident in the pictures). The trip was a great way to see several interesting places and it's always hard to beat a cruise for fun and relaxing in my opinion.
Rather than try to list all the fun stuff we did and saw on 1 page, I'm going to set-up 6 pages you can look through to explain our trip. It's hard to show everything and really explain how much fun we had, but these do a pretty good job I hope.
Sarah and Josh at the railing of the Rhapsody of the Seas along side the pool deck.
Sarah and Josh at the Hong Kong Disneyland fountain.
