Breakfast buffet at Sea Star Hotel made me realize that maybe there is a consistent theme with Vietnamese hotels. There is always going to be a noodle soup offered.

Here, they had pho ga. Since it was different from yesterday’s hotel, I decided to give this hotel a chance too. I ordered one bowl with less noodles.

I added gio and black pepper to it. To my surprise, the pho ga was pretty good! The broth was very light yet flavorful. The chicken was tender and savory. Even the gio and black pepper was good!

I then got two scrambled eggs, which he didn’t really scramble for me. It was whatever. I ate it with gio.

The fried noodles were decent. I liked Al dente texture of the noodles because they look like Mi Goi noodles.

Then we took a boat to Ha Long Bay and went into one of the caves on the island. The “floating” mountain looking rocks were beautiful up close. It was also nice to sit on the upper level and enjoy the nice breezes that came through. I love this weather so much compared to Saigon and Ha Noi.

We had lunch on the boat too!

Boiled shrimp. It was good! The shells came off easily and the meat was tasty. I had 2 pieces. I think these might have been the highlight.. You can’t really go wrong with shrimp.

Clams. The clams here are little!!! They’re so tiny! They were cooked with garlic and green onions. They looked clean so I ate a couple. Maybe ten.. Let’s hope I am okay..

Fish. Gosh I don’t know what kind of fish this was but it was definitely fresh! Cooked in a light tomato sauce. It was on the meatier side and not as juicy and tender as I would like.

Pork. The fattier pork pieces were definitely juicy and enjoyable with rice. It was tender and soft. The less fatty pieces were a bit more tough and too lean for me.

Boiled cabbage. I honestly didn’t even touch these. They didn’t look appealing to me..

Squid. I liked the squid! It was cooked perfectly and not too chewy or tough. I didn’t eat the onions that came with it but I’m sure they added flavor to the squid itself.

Egg roll. I’m starting to notice a theme with northern egg rolls. It’s made with a more crispy and “hairy” skin.

Canh Bi. My mom used to make this for me when I was a kid!! But theirs was bland today.

After a 3hr ride from Ha Long to Ninh Binh, we had dinner at a restaurant called Bong Lau. It specializes in all goat dishes because they eat goat here a lot.

Fish. This was a big fish in a big grill pot with seasoning and sauces and green onion and dill. The fish was very soft.

Cold goat. This goat dish was served cold and meant to be used to make spring rolls out of with the rice paper and greens provided. I was too lazy and ate it by itself. It was soft but tasted pretty bland to me.

Goat sauce. This sauce has goat bits in it and used to dip with the fire rice provided. It was actually pretty good. There were little bits of carrots and onions in it too.

Green vegetable soup. I didn’t even get to try this soup.

Goat. This looked like fried goat because the two pieces I got were fried goat wings. It was very tough and flavorless. There wasn’t a lot of actual meat in it.

Egg. I was excited when this came out because generally egg pancakes are one of those very simple dishes that I like to eat. But it was literally just planned egg and wasn’t seasoned well.

Goat. Another goat dish and this one was actually pretty good. I don’t know which part of this goat is but it was more soft and tender and juicy.

Rau. It’s funny how my mom also doesn’t know the type of vegetable it is but this one I really like to eat! I’ve definitely eaten it at Chinese restaurants before. It had a lot of flavor and was garlicky.

After dinner we went to walk around this golden temple that was lit up in gold lights with bridges and shops and boats and many pretty lanterns hanging from everywhere.

The plan was to get dessert after but all the oldies got scared it’ll rain. And it didn’t yet. Sigh.