I (Ryan) wrote a review of the Annam Junk we stayed on and have repurposed it (read:copied) for the blog. As you will see a good time apart from the food...

Before you board the junk you need to provide the company a bunch of personal details, the address of your hotel and any dietary requirements. We provided this over 48 hours before departure as requested.

The minibus picked us up at our hotel on time. The minibus was clean and sparse. The minibus could seat around 14 passengers and there were 6 passengers in total so we had plenty of space. The Journey to Halong takes around 4h30 which includes a 'break' of 40 minutes each way at a different craft centre. The toilets at the stops were very clean. The craft wares appeared to be a reasonable price (for touristy crafty things in Vietnam) and if you are into that kind of thing as the other passengers with us were then buy away. Staff, thankfully, were not pushy and didn't try any hard sell. Food was available with some mediocre Vietnamese and Western dishes for between 40,000VND and 60,000VND and drinks at around 20,000VND. After our stop we continued to Halong Bay. The journey is a bit tiring due to the ropey Vietnamese roads and the adventurous Vietnamese drivers on them. Our return journey, stopping at a different but very similar stop, was very similar to the outbound leg.

When we arrived we were met by our guide, a friendly 20 year old university student and shuttled on a small boat to our Junk which was anchored about 300 metres away from the wharf.

Once onbard we had welcome drinks which was a sweet lime flavoured tea. We had booked a double but the suite room was free... We were given the generous offer of an upgrade for $30 but while the room was larger with a better shower and a balcony but we decided not to go for it.

We weren't given the hard sell but we were led to have a look around the suite before our standard room and there was no option to go directly to our room with out looking at the better room.

Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast and Lunch were provided. Apart from the welcome drinks, no other liquids were provided. Soft drinks 330ml were $1.50, beer 330ml $2.50 and wine 750ml $30. Very expensive by Vietnam standards - Our guide mentioned that the crew are relatively poorly paid but that profits from the drinks are shared amongst the crew and that is where a considerable amount of their income comes from. If you bring your own drinks there is a corkage charge.

Food was a little problematic but I'll cover that separately.

The itinerary included a visit to an island where it was possible to climb up 400 or so steps for a great view across the bay. There was also a 'cooking class' which was stretching the term considerably. This involved taking a premade filling and rolling it in rice paper, then handing them back to the staff to actually cook. We also went to 'Pearl Villiage' which is a large raft where you visit, see some nets with oysters, go round a museum which consists of different types of oysters in boxes and have the opportunity to purchase some pearls - To expensive for our backpacker tastes, no hard sell though. We also visited 'Surprising Cave' Which is a cave with three increasingly sized chambers which you can walk through with 200 or so other tourists, The cave is 'surprising' as you can supposedly see figures in the shape of the rock. It was a bit of a stretch for me to see such wonders as 'the turkey' and 'the lovers' but a good way to waste and hour none the less. This was all included in the price of the room/trip.

Our guide was a 20 year old university student. He spoke pretty good English, certainly enough for us to follow things and have points explained to us. We were with some Danes and they had some trouble with the accent so we did a bit of re-pronunciation along the way. The guide didn't appear to be particularly knowledgeable about the bay but we did really like his relaxed and friendly manner and he was one of the things which really made the trip. As there were only two groups on the boat, us and the four Danes, we had lots of opportunity to talk with the guide and in the 2 hours or so that we chatted across the trip we learnt far more about the country than on the rest of the 3 weeks we had in Vietnam.

The food, however, was where things came a little unstuck. We informed the contacts at the company that we had a Vegetarian with us (not quite true she eats Beef and Chicken but not Seafood and Pork - Vegetarian is usually easier to explain). This message reached the company but not the crew until the last minute. We were called whilst on the bus to the boat to confirm this and explained what our 'vegetarian' could eat It seems that when this message went out the only shop within a 50mile radius was a speciality Tofu shop as in the first meal tofu dish after tofu dish was produced, each a different type of tofu. The highlight of the tofu overload was an 8cmx3cmx3cm block of plain steamed tofu. Even if you REALLY like tofu, it's a bit much. This came with stir fried tofu and tofu covered in tomatoes. It felt rather pythonesque: "Well, there's tofu egg sausage and tofu, that's not got much tofu in it." and perhaps if the pythons had been on this tour we would all be getting tofu emails. The meals got progressively and slowly better i.e. less tofu but it did turn mealtimes into a bit of a stressful situation. I could hardly enjoy my perfectly lovely seafood dishes when I was concerned that my wife would not have enough palatable food served to be satisfying.

Then again if you are a true omnivore then the food should be no problem. Nothing which blows you away but plenty of tasty seafood and other dishes.

All in all recommended if you don't have any special dietary requirements but be very wary if you do.