First and foremost, V’Spirit Cruises wishes you a Happy New Year, a year big with success and achievement, a year rich with the affection of those who are dear to you, a year with mellow with happiness and contentment!
Just a few days ago, the world said good bye to a memorable 2015 and welcomed a hopeful 2016. And this year, V’Spirit Cruises has the honor of sharing this magical moment with more than 80 passengers of V’Spirit Classic. The V’Spirit New Year Gala Dinner is once again marked the highlight of New Year Eve. With the theme: “The Space of Vietnamese Culture”, the dinner had brought our passengers a glimpse into the diversified culture of Vietnam. This diversification is well embodied in all components of the Gala Dinner: from the decorations, to the cuisine, to the musical performances. V’Spirit took its passengers on a journey to discover rich and unique culture of Northern Vietnam where from the imposing mountainous beauty to peaceful beauty of countryside have attracted the hearts so many travelers.
Last year dinner took us to dream-like Soi Sim Beach. This year, our destination is Trong Grotto which is one of the very few large and accessible caves of Halong Bay. Situated opposite to Trinh Nu (or Virgin) Grotto, Trong (or Male) Grotto has a stone statue of a boy who turns his face to Trinh Nu Grotto. For young lovers, it is considered as the symbol of truly love. And like many other caves and grottos of Halong Bay, Trong Grotto has its own interesting story about the name it carries. It is said that once the boy knew that his lover was exiled to a remote island, he was looking for her and came to this area. He saw her but could not approach her. He then used a piece of rock to knock in to the wall of cave so that she could be aware that he is around her. He knocked and knocked until he was exhausted and died there. Nowadays, Trong (or Male) Cave, as known as “Drum Cave” is a good place to operated amazing dinner for tourists.
After a full day with kayaking, swimming, visit floating village, all passengers went back to the boat and relaxed on the sundeck, or just enjoyed some drinks. Meanwhile, all set-up and arrangements for the dinner were prepared at the cave. Vases, candles and ornaments are selected, prepared and decorate exquisitely. Buffet dinner on the beach was prepared thoughtful by professional chefs of V’Spirit Classic Cruises. Attractive and mouthwatering dishes decorated with beautiful natural details like a bird from kohlrabi, a butterfly from watermelon skin, etc. When the last ray of sunlight disappeared, all three of V’Spirit boat met at the entrance of the cave to deliver our guests to the dinner. Arriving in front of the cave, the candle light led you to the place where the tables were set- up, the food was well- decorated and ready to be served, the staffs welcomed you. It was like to be in a different world of romance and privacy.
Apart from the decoration and the cuisine, the theme of the dinner was presented by the Vietnamese traditional dance and music performances. This year, V’Spirit wants our guests to take a closer look the ancient and unique beautiful of Northern Vietnam. Vietnam is home to over fifty ethnic groups which creates an extremely diversified culture. Most of these 54 ethnic groups resides in Northern part of Vietnam, especially in Northwest and Northeast mountainous areas.
Throughout four amazing performances, V’Spirit would like introduce to our guests four highlight of Northern culture. First stop was blossom covered hills of Sapa. In here, we will find the H’Mong girls doing their celebration dance for New Year. Their colorful costumes with cheerful dance moves had captivated the hearts of so many audiences. Next, we visit a village of Thai people where for hundreds of years the tradition bathing ceremony has taken place. To prepare for the New Year, Thai girls will go to the spring and wash off all the bad luck of the previous year and they pray for a new year full of luck and happiness, for their parents’ longevity and hopefully for a new love soon to blossom. Saying good bye to the lovely Thai girls, we come to the village of Khmu people where everyone is dancing in celebration of a good crop. We wanted to send our guests the happiness of highland souls through the cheerful rhyme and active dance moves. This dance routine is one of the most ancient celebration in Northwest area of Vietnam.
After a great journey across the mountainous areas of Northern Vietnam, we will go down to the Red River Delta where spiritual culture is also an important part of the lives of people. “Hầu đồng” is a ritual of spirit mediumship practiced in the Vietnamese indigenous religion and Đạo Mẫu, a Vietnamese mother goddess religion. It’s unique religious culture of Vietnam. One feature of this dance has bewildered our western guests: Money Tossing ritual. But don’t be alarmed, this is just simply an act of granting luck and happiness to the prayers. After an explanation from our MC, many guests even came close the stage to receive the lucky money. The musical performance ended in round applause from the audiences.
One thing we can’t forget about the Gala is the games and this year we had such an amazing crowd. The support and interaction we had from audience for each game was the key to the success of the night. In the first game – “The Lord of the Rings”, the challenge was simple: get the rings into the bottle. But all three of our players had quite a hard time to accomplice this goal. The second game required our guests to stretch their muscle and their imagination. “So you think you can dance” had brought laughter to everyone. Some of our passengers surely know how to break the move. We closing the night with the most anticipated moment: The Lucky Draw. Lucky number “7” was shouted out for the biggest winner of the night.
And then, 10…9…8……3…2…1…Happy New Year!!! We welcomed 2016 among the close embrace of friends and family.
We would like to send our most sincere gratitude to all 86 passengers of V’Spirit Cruises that evening. Without you, we can’t have such an amazing Gala Dinner. And to everyone who was and will be V’Spirit Cruises guests: Thank you so much for your continual trust and support. It’s such a great honor for V’Spirit Cruises to be your host in Halong Bay. You are our valued customers, we would always be available at your service.
Once again, We wish you a Happy and Successful 2016.