Out to Sea

Another day waking up at the crack of dawn…which suits us just fine, since we can’t seem to shake this jet-lag anyway. It’s asleep by 9 PM and up by 6 AM for us virtually every morning so far. We’d say we’re turning into our parents, but they are actually waking up later than us on this trip!

We scarfed down breakfast just in time to meet our arranged transport to Ha Long Bay. For those of you who don’t know, Ha Long Bay is the #1 tourist attraction in all of Vietnam. Its waters are home to over 2000 islands (well mini-islands)—all limestone karsts jutting out of pristine waters and covering an extraordinarily large area.

Let us back up for a moment: the ride there was interesting to say the least. Our driver spoke no English and handed us a piece of paper from his wife explaining our itinerary, which immediately reminded us of Yetta, the mute housekeeper from Murder by Death (random reference, but those of you who get it score extra points.) Problem was—the driver was from a different tour company than the one we had arranged our cruise through, so Billy immediately thought he had picked up the wrong passengers and we were heading to the wrong boat. Trying to clarify this with him was moot—as we kept asking to go back to the hotel to sort it all out, but he kept driving in the other direction. We started having flashbacks to our run-in with the Thai Charlie Manson taxi driver we had last year in Bangkok who drove us in circles around Bangkok for hours. To our relief, about halfway into the drive, we stopped for a pee break (and per our handwritten “itinerary”—written by Squeaky Fromme, we were convinced.) Our break, unfortunately, was at a “humanitarian center”...which was basically what we thought it would be: a sweatshop for young kids to make wares for hordes of tourists with a large pocketbook and no taste. We kid the tourists, we kid. But instead of looking at the lovely sculptures and paintings some of these kids were making, they were heading straight for the "I (Heart) Halong Bay" and "It's Not the Size of the Boat, But the Motion of the Ocean" t-shirts. Now, we're not saying anything bad about tour groups, but...yes we are.

Luckily, though, a nice lady there was able to call our tour company and confirm that Charlie was indeed bringing us to the right boat and 3 hours later we made it to our destination.

Billy had previously arranged a 2-night cruise for everyone on an amazing Chinese-style junk with 10 staterooms called the Ha Long Ginger. We were met by its staff upon our arrival in Ha Long and shipped off to a smaller dinghy which cruised us out to the mothership, anchored just off the coast. Everything we had hoped for really came true once we pulled up to the boat…all the images of cruising the ancient and beautiful green waters of Ha Long on a junk straight out of old Indochina (even if it was reproduced and retrofitted deluxe-style.) This was going to be a wonderful 2 nights indeed!

We were shown to our cabins and quickly settled in—and were promptly served an eight (!) course lunch fit for a king. We were literally gasping for air after about four courses, but somehow managed to make our way through everything, just to get to those giant prawns and spring rolls! We then headed out on the dinghy again for a side excursion to a small island for a stroll on the beach and, for the more brave, a strenuous hike up to the top of the karst, which had an amazing view of the entire bay. Afterwards, Billy and Mark were crazy enough to jump in the water and cool off in the refreshing waters.

Back onto the dinghy and back to the boat…we then headed out at sunset to explore a floating village, where the main source of income is fishing. It’s a really interesting juxtaposition from our experience on Tonle Sap in Cambodia, where the people live entirely off the water. The only difference in here from there is the level of poverty in Vietnam isn’t nearly as staggering as Cambodia.

We headed back to our ship and had a few hours to chill out, relax and take in the scenery before dinner. We started getting acquainted with our fellow passengers: a spunky couple from Australia (who've seen basically the entire world), a former flight attendant from Martha's Vineyard and best of all: we met a lovely couple from the UK…a really intelligent and funny older couple (he was British and she was from Sri Lanka originally) who we talked politics, culture, food and science with. It was one of those kind of talks we go on vacation for—to stay up all night under the stars chatting with really intelligent people who have experienced a lot of life. We finished off a few rounds of gin and tonics with them as the sun set on the horizon and were then beckoned to dinner. Needless to say, this is paradise discovered yet again. We’re so glad to be here!

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