Halfway Around The World 2017: Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
Hanoi is a great, massive and diverse city unto itself with lots of things to explore and lots of food to eat. But there is a super-touristy thing you just have to do, and that is a boat cruise on Ha Long Bay. Ha Long in Vietnamese means Descending Dragon. Legend has it that dragons flew around the bay and landed on the islands and swam in the water. I kept getting flashes of Daenerys riding Drogon here. In 1994, UNESCO recognized the heart of Ha Long Bay as being a site of Natural World Heritage and stated that âApart from Ha Long Bay there are no equivalent sites on the World Heritage List.” And it’s true, I’ve never seen anything like it and you just have to experience it in person to appreciate it. Take my pictures and add several hundred “Wows” and you’ll be close. There are about 1,600 small vertical limestone pillar islands, covered in lush vegetation, surrounded by jade green water.
Starting the morning, I managed to pay my so-far bill at the hotel with the ladies typing the number, expiry date and CVN of my US credit card into the machine and it worked! No need to physically swipe the card that’s sitting in an envelope in California! That’s a big sigh of relief and I’ve still got 6 million dong in my pants – get it?
A minivan picked me up at the hotel at about 8:40 am. I packed what I needed for 3 days on the boat in my backpack and kept the rest at the hotel. About a dozen of us rode for 4 fairly pleasant hours East to the marina in Ha Long Bay, with a brief stop at a truly amazing souvenir shop. They had craftspeople doing everything from embroidery to stone carving right on site. And of course they’ll ship your 3,000 pound stone water buffalo anywhere in the world, for a small fee.
Our guide Caow, which means Perfect, gave us some Vietnam information on the way. Rural Vietnamese families tend to be very large as they need lots of help on the farm, as is common around the world. Caow’s grandmother had 20 children. Some died and some were sold so she could buy food for the rest in the occasional famine. The average farmer earns about USD $300 per year. School tuition is USD $300 per month so the vast majority of Vietnamese have little or no formal education. There are 90 million people and 60 million motorbikes. Family houses are built very narrow but tall and deep because tax is applied only to the size of the opening on the street. As generations go by, houses are sliced and diced to house more people.
Hanoi is one of the most expensive cities in the world, some buildings cost USD $25,000 per square meter. Anyone with a car is very rich. There are 54 ethnic groups. Some jungle and cave villages are so remote they didn’t know there was a war with the Americans. Up to 1945 you could have multiple wives. The King had 500 wives and 200 children. There are “Love Markets” for singles. If you like a girl you gently touch her on the bottom – if she lets you touch her 9 times she likes you. I wonder what happens if she doesn’t like you?
People choose to be buried in their rice field since they lived their whole lives there, and the children can’t sell the land outside the family because you’d be selling your ancestors. Vietnam was formed by four groups or Kingdoms over time – China in the north, India in the center, Khmer in the mid-south and local Vietnamese (means People of the South) in the far south Mekong River delta. The relationship with the Soviets was dropped in 1972 when Nixon went to China – Imperialist Pig Dogs and all that. For the last 17 years the government has done well modernizing the country with electricity and Internet. The biggest issue still is corruption. It “costs” USD $10,000 to become a teacher or USD $30,000 to become a Policeman.
As we arrive, our guide tells us that the richest man in Vietnamese owns the whole island that the marina is located on. It’s connected to the mainland via a small causeway. Every tourist pays $4 to get onto the island, and in high season there are 20,000 people coming every day! As we drive through the marina, it’s just wall to wall with cruise boats, and not little ones either. They’re all painted white with black trim, that’s the rule. 300 of the boats provide overnight cruises and are generally beautiful wooden ships. Ours was called the Stellar and had 3 levels and was probably 100 feet long. Level 1 was my cabin floor, level 2 had slightly bigger cabins, level 3 was the restaurant and level 4 was the sundeck. No complaints at all about my cabin – soft queen size bed, mini fridge, bathroom with shower stall, aircon and WiFi.
We all meet up in the restaurant for lunch. I think the boat is only about half full at about 30 people based on the chairs in use. In an amazing example of customer service, they had seen the note the hotel ladies added to my reservation about me being veggie and no onions and they prepared an alternate dish from the standard menu as appropriate. I gave huge thanks to the staff for this!
We were then told to prepare for a visit to Amazing Cave. It was discovered and named by French explorers in 1901 with no sense of imagination. We board a small boat and putter over, then up 120 steps and into the cave. It was crowded due to several boats all arriving at the same time – this is the nature of the touristy aspect to it, you just have to live with it to enjoy the scenery. We then went to a kayaking area, climbed in and paddled for an hour through a small tunnel in the rock and into a large lagoon.
Back to the boat in glorious aircon – did I mention it was hot and humid? Yeah. Shower then up to the sundeck for drinks. Meeting other people in the group as the sun went down over the islands was fun. I met an Aussie couple from Melbourne and two engineering students from Switzerland who are into solar and 3D printing – they’re like Mini Me! After a really bad glass of wine, I switched to local beer.
At 7 pm we went down to the restaurant level and had a 10 course dinner, which was truly amazing with even more amazing substitutions for me for courses that had meat or onions. 3 of the couples on the ship were honeymooners so they each got sparklers and a cake.
After dinner the crew set up squid fishing off the back of the boat (the stern I’m told) with bright lights but only one squid was caught. I saw 3 jellyfish float by with 6″ white bodies and 3 meter long tentacles – wow! There was supposed to be a magic show but I either missed it or it was cancelled…
Sunrise at 5:30 am. Tai Chi class at 6 am. Breakfast at 7 am. Nope. Being me, I just caught the very end of breakfast.
Since you can also do 2 day / 1 night cruise on the same boat, these people left in the shuttle boat to a beach then back to the marina, so we were down to 11 people on the 3 day/2 night. We got into another shuttle boat and went to Dragon Cave. It’s much smaller and more primitive than Amazing Cave yesterday. There’s evidence that prehistoric man lived inside.
From there another boat took us to a floating village. This exists because years back the government forced the native people living on the islands and in the caves onto small boats, so they made floating villages with boats tied together and made small fish farms. 4 of us got into a small “bamboo boat” which was oared by a local man. He floated us around the boats and back.
At an oyster farm, they explained the three kinds of oysters they use, from small to medium to large. They showed us rows and rows of floating growing oyster racks. They then showed us how they implant a round nucleus of mother of pearl and a small piece of membrane from a “donor” oyster into a new oyster. The membrane stimulates formation of layers around the nucleus, making a pearl. The pearls are harvested after 2 -6 years depending on type. For a demonstration, a lady opened an oyster and found a beautiful aqua-colored pearl about 5 mm and almost spherical, which is quite rare, lucky us! At the end of course we walked through a large display of pearl jewelry for sale, including a single pearl worth 72 million dong.
We then went to a man-made beach, the only area approved for swimming in the bay to try to preserve the environment. We splashed around for about an hour and then got back onto the small boat. Big dumbass move, I realized I left my shoes under a chair on the beach as we were halfway back to the ship. We’re going there again tomorrow morning so I hope I’ll be able to get them.
Went down for dinner, not as good I think as the first night. I had french fries for one course, and boiled garlic potato slices for another. Maybe they’re running out of ideas for me.
Watched the highly touted magic show at 9 pm. The bartender did several card tricks, then did a trick getting a cup handle off a loop of string. He was pretty funny but dragged 3 card tricks out to 15 minutes.
In the morning, confusion reigns on the boat because of the load of new people we got last night. We’re now on the last day of our 3 day/2 night trip. Others are starting a 3/2 or a 2/1. We each have different activities scheduled and the new head man that came on board is not good at all at giving correct and concise instructions for each sub-group. All I cared about was getting over to the island to get my shoes. Our little group built up some resentment to these new people who were on “our” boat…
Our group piles into the small boat and heads over to the beach at 8:10 am. I check the area for my shoes, nothing. The sand looks like strong rains hit it last night. I checked with a vendor lady and she didn’t have a clue that I was asking if anybody found my shoes. She sends me to another guy, I tell the story again, he calls over another guy who walks away. I wait, guy comes back no shoes. Yeah, I think somebody is wearing shoes today that are far too big for him.
We spend an hour on the island, most of my group hikes to the top of the limestone tower, a 45 degree angle path about 500 feet up. I have only bare feet so I float in the water for a while and take another pass looking. I also check with the main ticket office at the entrance, nope. OK, so stupidity event #2. But this one is easily solved with a cheap pair of shoes back in town or flip flops worst case. They were approaching End Of Life and I had a new pair on my To-Do list, but this was a really inconvenient time to be shoeless. I’m making rookie mistakes. Maybe I’m getting too old for this. I wonder…
We head back to the big boat, have a shower and check out of the cabin by 9 am. We then sit around in the restaurant chatting. They serve brunch then give us the plan for going back to Hanoi. We all pay our bar bills, I had 6 beers and 2 Diet Cokes the whole trip so my total was VND 374,000 or only $17 so I feel good.
The big boat heads back to the dock, we unload and it starts bucketing down rain as we wait for the various shuttle buses back to Hanoi. Mine stops at yet another souvenir shop, this one even more high end than the first. I felt weird walking around in bare feet. We get back in and head back to Hanoi.
Reflecting on the whole trip, it was super touristy and I felt bad contributing to the boat traffic and general crowdedness of the place. It feels like some of the activities are just made up to keep the tourists happy and make them feel like they’re getting value for money. Unless you really like seeing a second cave or going swimming on a small beach with a thousand other people, skip those activities and stay on the boat and relax on the sundeck. But in the end, you should just not miss it if you’re anywhere near the area.
I’m dropped at the hotel and ask the ladies at the front desk where I can buy some shoes. I’m directed to Hang Bong street (yes) around the corner and walk on the grimy sidewalks and streets to get there. I spot a shoe shop and they have canvas boat shoes so I buy the biggest pair they have, size 44 and they’re tight across but I’m hoping the the fabric will stretch slightly. I paid VND 512,000 or USD $23.27 and think it’s a great price.
One additional problem of losing the shoes is I’m leaving for a two day trek through jungle and rice paddies tonight. Not a good idea with new shoes, so I buy a 30 pack box of big band-aids at a pharmacy and will use them liberally to prevent blisters.
I wander around, looking for two light t-shirts to wear on the trek. There’s a Nike shop with a shirt that fits but it’s USD $45, hell no. Wandering further I find a generic t-shirt shop run by a nice lady. I buy two UnderArmour XXL shirts for USD $9 each, now that’s a good price. Sorry Shana Verstegen if they’re not legit!
Back to the hotel, I submit a bag of laundry and apply the band-aids to my Achilles tendons.
Next up: Trekking in Sapa.
