We are still reeling from the wonderful trip we had. What an incredibly cool experience.
Hanoi - Hotel la Siesta Classic Hang Thung. The hotel was very nice, super centrally located so we could walk everything we wanted to do downtown. Rooms totally fine, nice pool for the kids, breakfast top!
We first took a street food tour. All a little tired due to jet lag, but that didn't spoil the fun. How cool was this! We had a really HUGE meal, the kids loved and enjoyed it too!
Our guide, Tom, we had an immediate and mega fun click with that. What an incredibly sweet, caring and understanding man this is. I'll come back to this later.
The next day we did a city trip through the city, which was very interesting and fun. We with our blonde kids also got a lot of attention. Lots of selfies, boxing and high fives. Super fun.
In the evening we went to the Water Puppet theater and walked through the city (market).
The next day we went to Mai Chau, Ecolodge. Beautiful place among the rice fields. Very nice hotel, super authentic and original. Delicious food. What a beautiful walk we had here and lunch with the locals, super fun and delicious. Visited village in the mountains, which was mega impressive. Exactly seen how people live here. Tom even arranged a house tour for us with a local resident. This was, even for the children, mega interesting.
Wonderful to see how they live, grow food and keep animals here.
Then to Ninh Binh, did super fun rowboat tour. Then a bicycle tour (very nice! We were very tired but glad we did it!) After that day we were very tired from all the impressions, arrived late at the Emeralda resort, went to sleep immediately because - busy program 😉 So I cannot tell much about this resort, except that we slept well.
Then did the cruise through Halong Bay. Was really beautiful to see. Unfortunately for us, the weather here was a bit disappointing. The morning of departure did see some sunshine for a while 🙂
Then picked up again by Tom and taken to the airport. We have never had such a fun guide. How much he knew how to tell and how sweet he was to us and the children. Everything was tip-top. Just wanted to explicitly compliment him because really deserved. I begrudge everyone such a fun travel guide!
Ho Chi Minh City - Caravelle Saigon - What a fantastically beautiful hotel and what a wonderful room we had here. It was nice for a while to recover from all the trips and get used to the warm weather. Super beautiful city, although we ourselves found Hanoi much more beautiful and authentic.
Then we drove to Ben Tre. Had a room at Mekong Home. What a MEGA fantastic place this was! Cottage super nice, all nice details, in the middle of the jungle (that's what it feels like, haha). We went fishing, biking, made our own spring rolls and enjoyed a delicious Christmas dinner in the evening. We would have liked to stay here another night!
Spent the next day on the Mekong Dragon Eyes, which was incredibly cool. For us, this was even more beautiful than the Halong Bay cruise. So special to see how everything grows here. Cool hike, kids played with locals, really super cool. The food on the boat was also very good. Super-de-Luxe to have such a boat all to yourself. Really a cool experience.
Also did a boat trip, in a small rowboat, this was also really BEAUTIFUL. What a beautiful area here!
Then traveled on to Can Tho, this one we certainly wouldn't have wanted to skip either. Again, a beautiful hotel (Victoria Can Tho) and we took a really cool bike tour.
In the end, we spent many hours on the bus with our guide and driver, but we did not find this boring at any time. We were able to rest ourselves, kids sleep well or just relax and watch a movie. Flying (waiting especially ;-)) took longer and took more energy.
The next day we flew to Phu Quoc, where a beautiful house awaited us. New World Resort. What a resort. Beautifully maintained, MEGA beautiful houses, breakfast fantastic(though incredibly busy, queues everywhere). Lovely weather we had with it. This hotel was really by far the nicest, but we ourselves found some things a bit "childish. For example, that you are not allowed to use the kitchen (which is therefore in the house), you are not allowed to bring in food or drinks from outside the resort, there were penalty clauses on everything. This left us (and many other guests) quite irritated. That's a shame for the overall picture, though.
In short: we made our dream trip. This would never have been possible without your help. Michel, how well you helped us and how incredibly nice that our wishes were listened to so well.
Thanks so much and we will definitely come back to you again - no doubt about it!
Joey, Iris, Ea, Hugo and Lumi