1

I'm so happy you posted I think I've wet myself with excitement. Can't wait for your Sapa update.

2

DD is still chasing his sister through Tasmania.

3

Map of Tazzy??

4

was just a poor attempt at humor :)

I jumped from the top of our boat into the water several times a few weeks back...Now I have a massive head cold and an infected foot.....not related though.

5

Thanks for that, I have looked at their website and it looks really good, cant wait to hear how ye get on in Sapa !!!

6

chillipepper, then getting back on the damn boat was a mission and a half. Just the bloody gang plank thing dropping down from the front. Ours was just the el cheapo sort of boat.
If you want somewhere else to swim, try swimming in the river at Kanchanaburi. Swam there in front of Jolly Frog GH. amongst the weed with a few monitors cruising around.

7

Have you been to Varanasi?? Taken a dip in Ganges??

Are you a West Aucklander WW??

8

South Auckland or Island??

9

Not Island!! Head down Roscommon Rd to last road on the left, turn left into it then left again.Lol!!

Edited by: westwood

10

Just curious..with your handle and all :)

I would love to live in the South Island....NZ's best offering and hardly anyone around!!

I'll be avoiding ChCh though.

I hope you're not a Blue's supporter? - That's a train wreck in slow motion...even following it from afar :)

11

Been so long I've forgotten how it came about. Have a lot of their computer games floating around so may have had something to do with it.
Not into Rugby--motor sport's my thing.

12

We just came back from a 2 day / 1 night tour with Christina Deluxe booked via the highly recommended Singh Cafe just behind the St. Joseph Cathedral in Hanoi. We liked the tour though "our" tour guide dissapeared with the guys staying for 2 nights and we were assigned a new one which changed the experience significantly.

While our old guide was helpful and present we didn't know the new guide until she ushered us into the boat to the harbor. From there we had to walk without announcement where we are going or what we are going to do for 5 min. along a street until we reached a restaurant.

Again, no information was given and after having lunch we went back to Hanoi. Although this was a specific problem of the guide we had a bitter aftertaste after paying for our drinks on the boat as the crew tried to cheat on us. They tried to charge more VND per Dollar and "forgot" several times to give the whole change back.

This is insofar sad as we were pretty happy with the service up to that point. Concerning the quality of the ship we had nothing to complain about but note that there are hardly any ships with AC before dinner while electricity stops to work for them around 6:30am which might give you a warm morning if you tend to sleep longer : )

The food was very good except the breakfast which consisted of either coffee or tea, gummy toast and marmalade - we thought that fresh fruits would be fine. Aboard you have to buy the drinks, which are coke 1.5$, big water 1.5$, fruit juice hefty 3$ and cocktails 5$.

Although we've been fine so far, we didn't like the second day which consisted of going back to the harbor - the pictures showing picturesque ships with set sails are fairytales, the sails are hardly set since all ships use the motors and the ships are for whatever kind of insane reason all painted white and the paint comes off in chips. The water quality where you swim is below what you know from a decent beach while near the beach where they bring all the tourists is a nice pagoda with superb views over the bay.

All in all we probably would try a another company and go for a night more since the program seemed very promising but we had no time - beware and shop around before you buy a ticket. Responsible agents will agree on paying half the price on the ship after you ensured that you get what you paid for. Again, the guy of our Singh Cafe (there are several, "ours" is directly at the eastern end of Ngo Huyen Str between Holiday Silver Hotel and Love Cafe Travel) was great and openly addressed any problems he knew about as well as offering to pay 50% later.

13

My review of Christina Deluxe Cruises:

I’m having a hard time deciding whether or not to recommend this company. It wasn’t terrible compared to all the horror stories about other cruises I’ve heard BUT for $83 for a three day/two night cruise, it should have been a lot better and it definitely wasn’t as good as their brochures made it out to be. If I were to do it all again, I would just do the two day/one night cruise or maybe even just the one-day trip. The first day is definitely the best and going to Cat Ba island was totally a waste of time and money
Issues:
The food is gross, super greasy and probably MSG-filled
Rooms aren’t very clean and they only give you a fitted sheet and a used, dirty blanket
No hot water (although, it’s hot outside so this wasn’t devastating)
My bed was the hardest I’ve ever felt (and I’ve endured two years of Asian beds)
Air conditioners are only turned on from 7:30pm – 5:30am (but there are fans) – this wasn’t an issue for me but some people were suffering
Our boat had no cockroaches (that I saw) but we heard another Christina Deluxe boat was infested
2nd night at Sunflower hotel: no wifi/internet
Our tour guide was pretty nice but definitely not fun or interesting or particularly informative
When we left Cat Ba island, they crammed 44 of us on a little boat with about 20 seats. The rest of us had to go up to the sun deck (that had no cover) – luckily it was only raining a little bit!
There are no free drinks, even during meals (well, except for a thimble full of coffee or tea in the morning). Drinking water costs 35,000 ($1.75) for a big bottle on the boat (their brochure says you get free water but that’s just because when you get on the bus, they give you one tiny 10oz bottle). If you bring five bottles of water like us, they try to charge you 10,000 for each bottle as a fee for bringing your own drinks – we refused and it wasn’t an issue
Vegetarians/vegans: you’re not going to be happy. For both lunch and dinner they gave us gross French fries, nasty over-cooked, goopy ramen noodles and this deep-fried tofu that had absolutely no spice or salt or anything to give it taste. I usually love tofu but this was SO gross. For breakfast, there’s nothing vegan available except for one centimeter-thick slice of dragon fruit per person. For the Catba Island meals, there’s some ok vegetarian dishes but definitely don’t have high expectations
Pros:
-This isn’t a booze cruise and this isn’t one of the “Asian cruises.”
-It’s fairly well organized (for Asia) and there wasn’t a ton of sitting around and waiting
-Seeing Halong Bay is worth dealing with all the problems
My review of Sunflower One Hotel (the place where they put you for the second night):
Three stars?! HAAHAHAHAHAAA!!!! Out of how many? 20? We came here with the Christina Deluxe Cruise - this place is one of those very Asian, smoke-filled hotels with over the top, tacky, gold decorations, 100% broken wifi and absurdly rude employees. Our room was quiet and the AC worked but it definitely wasn’t as clean as we would have liked and if we were at a $15 Super Eight Motel in America, I would have been appalled and left. HOWEVER, it wasn’t unbearable and our room was an escape from the cigarette smoke. As for the food, it’s the greasiest, cheapest quality food ever BUT we shockingly didn’t get food poisoning so that’s amazing. Oh my god – the first lunch there was so ridiculous! We showed up right on time with our group – they had 8 of us sit at one table and 4 of us sit at another. The group of eight got served their food, then seconds and our table just had to sit and wait – WE WAITED 40 MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!! The eight of them finished their food and left before we were even served despite us repeatedly asking. Then, they gave us BARELY any food – definitely not enough for us to fill up where as the first group got tons. WHY???????????????????????? There were no free drinks either – even water cost money. If you’re a vegetarian like me, you’ll survive – there’s rice, morning glory, vegetarian spring rolls, a gross corn dish, two kinds of fake meat/fake seafood (these were too gross for me though), and peanuts but I’m sure they’re covered in MSG ( but all the food probably was) and a little bit of fruit. The breakfast was better – vegetarian soup, fried noodles, pineapple rice and watermelon. As for Cat Ba island itself – gross. It’s dirty and there’s nothing to do or see. I’d definitely recommend NOT doing the three day/two night tour that sticks you on Cat Ba – just do the two day/one night cruise or maybe even just the one-day trip. The first day is definitely the best and going to Cat Ba island was totally a waste of time and money

14

Just wondering what the clintele is like on the Christina cruise - I am 27 so feel like I am in a middle ground of not wanting to go with only 19 year old gap year students but not wanting to be with just family groups. Do you have a recommendation of if Christina might be up my alley or a different company to look at? Thanks!