Afternoon

Check-in was at a proper lounge at the cruise port — cold towel, a welcome drink, a quick safety talk, and then we were off. Lunch started almost the second we left the dock, course after course, while the boat slid past limestone islands with names I kept mispronouncing (Am Tich, Mat Quy). By mid-afternoon we'd pulled in at Sung Sot Cave — the Surprise Cave — which is genuinely huge inside, like a cathedral. I'll be honest though: even in the quiet bay this bit gets busy, because every boat visits the same cave at the same time. After that they dropped us at Titop Island, and I made the mistake of climbing the steps to the viewpoint in the July heat.

You climb a few hundred steps in thirty-odd degrees, then the whole bay opens up beneath you and you forgive the steps immediately.

The cabin did a lot of the heavy lifting — floor-to-ceiling window, a little balcony, a bath Claire claimed on sight. But the thing that actually got me was how empty the water went once the day boats cleared off. In the main Ha Long Bay you anchor up with a hundred other ships lit like a car park. Out here it was a handful of boats and then just dark water and the shapes of the islands. That's the whole reason to pay a bit more for Bai Tu Long, and nobody really tells you until you're on the balcony working it out for yourself.

By nine at night it was our boat, two others in the distance, and about a thousand stars. That's what you're paying for.

Night

Dinner was a long seafood spread — prawns, a whole steamed fish, clams, more than the four at our table could get through. Afterwards they run the night activities: a bar with actual European wine, a karaoke room down in the belly of the ship (we didn't; our neighbours very much did), and squid fishing off the back deck. Here's my one real gripe — we sat out there with lines for a good half hour and caught precisely nothing, and when I asked, the crew laughed and said July isn't squid season, come back around December. So we sat and drank a beer over black water instead, which was honestly the better activity anyway.

We caught no squid. We were told, cheerfully, that this was entirely our fault for coming in July. Fair enough.

Morning

They offer Tai Chi on the sundeck at some indecent hour; I watched it from the cabin with a coffee, which felt like the spirit of the thing. Breakfast was slow, the boat drifted back toward port, and the famous sunrise was more grey than gold — July haze, nothing anyone can fix. By late morning we were back on dry land and back in the van to Hanoi.

Two things I'd tell you. It's one night, so it goes fast — if you can stretch to two, do two. And pay the little extra for the quiet bay. We booked the whole thing, car from Hanoi and all, through TGROUP after a mate used them for a golf trip, and the only moving part I had to think about was which shoes to pack. If you want the emptier water rather than the postcard traffic jam, that's the one to ask them for.

Sea Stars Cruise, Bai Tu Long Bay — 9/10, would lose a night's sleep to the karaoke again. Just under seven million dong a head, and worth it for the dark and the quiet.