Ha Long Bay: How I Love Life on a Boat
Trip Start
Sep 24, 2008
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23
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Trip End
Jul 21, 2009
Halong Bay,
Vietnam
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
After lunch, we stopped at the Surprise Cave, which is a mammoth cave full of stalagtites and stalagmites, reminiscent of Jenolan Caves outside of Sydney, but with a distinct Disneyland effect
Mural in Pagoda
. There are multi-colored lights everywhere illuminating the cave, tons of tour groups and faux fountains meant to add to the natural effect. There is a second cave adjacent, which is even larger and deeper, lacking colored lights and much more beautiful. Every inch that receives any natural light is covered by trees and moss. We then boated our way into the bay proper to see all of the limestone cliffs, floating houses, fish farms and villages - it reminded me of the opening scene of Jurassic Park when they arrive at the fictional Isla Nubar. We passed by the Incense and Cock Fighting Rocks - two distinct rock formations that are found on all of the Vietnamese currency. There was a pier at low tide that was heavily exposed and was the road to Cat Ba Island - the biggest island in the bay with resort accommodation. There was a lady selling beers far cheaper than on the boat, so I tried to procure a bunch. Once the captain got wind, he pulled away while I was on land, forcing a leap back to the boat and they tried to slap us with an import tax that they neglected to mention before. Defiantly refusing to pay, I was forever on the captain's sh*t list. Close by, we anchored for the night, along for kayaking at sunset, swimming and one of my favorite activities - diving off the three decks of the boat. During dinner and drinks under the stars, I formally met the rest of my fellow passengers: Brad and Esther (couple from Sydney), Kirrily and Brenton (couple from Melbourne), Richard and Raza (friends from UK), Jono and Libby (friends from Melbourne), Patrick and Oli (friends from Germany and in London), Les (older biker from UK) and Gina (older Brasilian living in the UK)
Mural in Pagoda 2
. We sat up on the roof, under a brilliant starry sky jamming on Brad's guitar, sipping on beers, and watching a near full moon rise on the horizon in a fiery orange glow. Everyone was discussing politics, travel, Peace Corps, economics, the demise of the US auto industry and the bailout, Cuba, sustainable development, political freedoms, etc. I had a late night conversation with Rich and Libby on the back deck on criminal justice after I found out Rich is a criminal barrister in London. It was fascinating - the worse part of his job is defending innocent people, not guilty folk or all of the heinous things that he sees. He loves defending organized crime guys as they are businessmen and know when to cry uncle. The morning of Nov 17 saw more rooftop dives, swimming and catching up with the boat crew. Many of us were heading to Hoi An and thus was born my Vietnam travel crew. Brad, Esther, Dana, Anne, Rich, Raza and I arranged to meet up when we would all be in the town in a couple of days. On the return trip, we stopped at a grotto that was entered on a small motorboat through some small cave tunnels. It was stunningly beautiful and adjacent to the cave was a relatively large floating village. It was fascinating to see people living on small plots of floating wood - providing for their livelihood, water and food. They also have a floating school and we saw the kids in session as we floated by
Pagoda at bottom of hill
. Despite floating in water, most of these people had generators, TVs and satellite dishes. I met a mom and kid on the boat named Tristan who joined us on the motorboat ride through the grotto. Too young to speak much, he would always reply "Buzz Lightyear" and flap his arms out like wings whenever I talked to him because his carseat is from Toy Story. Back on shore, we had lunch at a restaurant that had several jars full of pickled snakes. One of the most grotesque sights ever, this is a common thing in Viet Nam. I don't know how I'm going survive traveling in this region - every single person has come across one of this slithering savages at some point in this region.I had a great conversation with Dana on the return coach to Ha Noi about religion and her career/academic pursuits. I met Heidi and Manouk for some drinks at Funky Monkey that night back in Ha Noi (Manouk was leaving to go back to Holland the next day). We caught up on our various travels apart, our joys together and our frustrations thus far with Viet Nam. While I am open-minded, my experience with a tour where everyone pays tremendously divergent prices and you don't get what is advertised kind of soured me after my first week in the country. Everyone has to earn a living and I have no fault with persistent businessmen that you find in developing countries. However, there is a certain level of integrity, honesty and ethics that is lacking amongst many tour operators and business people in this country that should be a universal rule of business
Pagoda at bottom of hill 2
. The tremendous boom of tourism in the country is partly to blame as all tourists care solely about price and not about the actual quality of the product delivered. Word of mouth doesn't do much to ruin someone's reputation. That being said, there are tremendously unethical folks the world over. It is a beautiful country, but people don't treat you like a guest in their country, but just as a dollar sign. As I said, everyone's got to make a living, but in most country's I've traveled to, people want you to return home with a glowing opinion of the place you visited. Needless to say, I will maintain my open mind as I head down to Central and Southern Viet Nam.I took a one-day tour to Perfume Pagoda on Nov 18 before my overnight train down to Hoi An. A couple of hours from Ha Noi, you have to take a row boat up a river for an hour to get to the steep stairs leading up to the natural pagoda built into a massive cave. The boat ride gave me a sense of what Me Kong Delta life is like as we constantly passed by Vietnamese on small boats picking vegetables from the river. Similar to Ha Long Bay, there are limestone mountains surrounding the river and it is incredibly picturesque with brilliant greens everywhere. The pagoda itself is set deep in a large cave and there are strings of Buddhist prayer flags coming into the mouth of the cave. It is a site to behold and a tremendous location for a spiritual site
Pagoda at bottom of hill 3
. On my return to Ha Noi, I met Heidi for a last meal together (for now) at my favorite joint Pho. She enjoyed her first bowl of Pho immensely and we rendez-voused with Nadav and Tom for a few drinks above Hoan Kiem Lake in the Old Quarter. I sadly said goodbye to He Heidi for now as she was off for a tour in China and I jetted to the train station.
Once again, I enjoyed a monumentally smelly travel experience as one of my cabinmates was a Czech man named Petra. A nice dude on holiday, he does not understand the finer qualities of showering, deodorant and not wearing socks with sweaty sandals. I had to pass out with a bandana tied around my face once his socks were off and he was down to his undershirt. My god, I can still smell him now. The morning on the train was amazing as there were cute kids running all over our car and out the window was the brilliant coastline awash in torrential downpour. Surrounding us were incredibly lush hills and overflowing streams leading down to the thundering South China Sea. While wet - the first rain I've come across in nearly two months on the road - it was beautiful and I was excited to begin the next leg in Hoi An.
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Comments
What an experience?
World is so different. We in USA can not imagine, what a luxurious life we lead here. We are proud that you are safe and still getting all kinds of experiences.
Love,
Sharad uncle and Poonam auntie
TWO!!!
I love it, man. And a lifetime total of 3, n'est-ce pas? You're my hero.
Keep on keepin' on, mon ami.
travels
hanj, glad to hear that no matter where you are you're always thinking of your boy anvar ;-)
anyway, i think lifetime total is 4 now, but who knows with hanj.