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Tags: Vietnam Hotel Scene / Houseboats / Odd Hotels / Halong Bay Hotels / → All Tags

Floating Hotel Surrounds You In Natural Wonder, Wood Paneling

All this week our roving correspondent Claire Duffett will be sending back her reports on the Vietnam Hotel Scene. Any questions or suggestions? Send 'em our way and we'll have Claire answer them for you.

When we imagine living on a houseboat, it usually involves a serious amount of wood paneling, good scotch, and seriously outdated 70s furniture. So we were pleasantly surprised when, minus the booze, we discovered that a floating hotel on Halong Bay, Canh Buom 8, possessed these traits.

The tour boat shuttles travelers around the thousands of island jutting out of the bay. For boat standards, the cabin rooms--there were four on either side of the small, antique ship--were surprisingly spacious. We’ve seen cruise ships with more cramped cabins. And cruise ships certainly lack the appealing kitsch of these rickety ships. The entire trip from Hanoi, including the room, food, and transportation, costs either $32 or $56 depending on which “class” you select, although the difference between classes was indistinguishable.

Each room comes with a private bathroom, which had been recently renovated. While the water pressure was lousy, the hot water tank provided scorching, lasting hot water. This is impressive for a ship, since few hostel and budget-hotel showers offers as much. The restaurant area is spacious, with big windows that block the chilly February wind on the bay while still offering an incredible view.

There's no website but you can book a spot on a Canh Buom ship or on a similar boat with amenities that are just as oddly cozy, by visiting any reputable tour agents in Hanoi.

Tags: Amazing Race / → All Tags

Amazing Race 10 Hotel Update: Halong Plaza Hotel

Where: 8 Halong Road, Bai Chay, Halong Bay, Vietnam

The Amazing Racers spent last night's episode still hanging out in Vietnam. First, they have to gather some dong from an old Vietnamese man (don't worry dong equals currency.)

Then they had to fight the language barrier with cabbies to get themselves over to Halong Bay. Contestant Rob loses this battle and says one of the most Ugly American quotes uttered thus far this season--"I don't speak your language, bro!" which was followed up with non-payment and the "I'm done talking with foreigners" quote.

However, everyone manages to get to Halong Bay where they have to scale a rock formation but with only three pieces of climbing gear so the slow teams getting there will have to wait their turn.

By the end of the episode, the racers are still in Vietnam, so we're assuming they must stay over at least one night in the country. And if they are in Halong, then they should hit up the Halong Plaza, a "four-star" hotel which is #1 on TripAdvisor. The place has big bathrooms, walk-in closets, power showers and even a swimming pool. There's some good views too but the location may be both a blessing and a curse.

The location was good because you could walk to the ferry departure point but the downside was that you could get woken early by the sound of the boats leaving. However, the point of going to Halong Bay is to get on one of the boats so you wouldn't be sleeping in anyway.

However, the hotel web site doesn't really give you a good idea of how much dong you're gonna need here so make sure you hit up that old man for enough.

As always, Jaunted has the painstakingly-detailed Chasing Racers map and a full episode recap.

Related Stories:
· Halong Plaza Hotel reviews [TripAdvisor]
· Chasing Racers: The TAR map [Jaunted]