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Published: February 24th 2006
It's Friday evening the 24th of Feb. I know because I just asked someone. I'm writing this after an incredible day on a boat in HaLong Bay. There is traditional VN music wafting up from the bar. Sure beats American piano bars!
Last night we spent the night in HaLong City which is about a three hour drive from Hanoi. This city is going through rapid development. Lots of big hotels going in right on the bay. There are ferrys going and coming through the bay and a very large bridge going up as well. Much of this development as well as a significant amount of the development we have seen thus far comes from countries such as Japan, Italy, China .
We had a seafood dinner last night across from the bay. After dinner Michelle and I went to a "night market" which is the same as a flea market except just about everyone is selling the same things, silk pictures and clothes, wood carvings, jewlery, tee shirts and of course food of every kind. Michelle was very proud of herself for driving a hard bargin on the items she purchased.
We started our day being directed to our boat. We had a private junk to take us through the bay. My guess is, the boat was in the 40-50 ft range. We were told that these boats rent for $10 per hour for the boat. Most had whole tour groups on them. Ours just had Michelle and I plus our guide and crew and a cook since we planned to eat on the water.
For those of you that have been on the log boom for Seafair Sunday in Seattle that is what it was like as all the boats left the harbor. Pure bedlam.
First stop was a series of caves that, believe it or not" were not discovered until 1993 when a fisherman fell through the entrance. They are surprisingly large with foot paths throughout and the ceilings in the 100ft plus range.
After we were done with the caves we had to make it back to our boat which was no easy task. Every boat captain is vying for space as close to shore as possible with easily 50 - 100 boats competing for their spot. We ended up having to walk about a 1 foot wide plank from the shore to a boat then climb over two other boats to get to ours. Michelle wasn't too excited about this but she did fine.
After we left the caves we began our cruise around the bay. The cruise was incredible probably my number 2 highlight of the trip thus far behind our water coconut jungle trip in Hoi An. To picture the bay and the islands think about the San Juans. Now, imagine each island jutting out of the sea almost straigt up. Many were the size of Mt. Si or larger. Some were smaller but equally spectacular. The locals have named some of the rocks after ducks or cats or dogs because of their shape.
We pulled along side a fisherman to buy seafood for our lunch. We chose live crab, clams, squid, and some other sea creature we did not recognize. While the food was very good we definitely were "ripped off". We paid an obscene amount by VN standards but our judgement was clouded by what we would have paid in Seattle for the same thing. We had already paid for food that was to be cooked for us so this was an added insult. As we came back into the harbor our cook came to us and asked for even more money for the extra gas and time spent cooking the extra food. Oh well, I guess its not a real trip unless you get ripped off at least once.
Our drive back to Hanoi was fairly uneventful except for one incident. We had our first real close call driving this afternoon. We have become accustomed to driving 4 abreast on a two lane highway so nothing surprises us anymore. Today however, an old lady on a bicycle almost bit it in front of us when she darted in front of our van and then stopped. We were going 50 -60 at the time. We missed her by no more than a foot thanks to our great driver. We also were very lucky that no one plowed into us from behind. Our driver said that was close and since he has seen it all we have to believe him.
Michelle and I walked around Hanoi a bit this afternoon then went to a less than spectacular dinner. I don't know why, but we are getting served pumpkin soup a lot.
Tomorrow we plan to go to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum and pay "Uncle Ho" a visit. His body lies in state perserved for all to see. We also plan to go to the old quarter of Hanoi.
Our train leaves at 10:00 tomorrow night so we will sleep (maybe) until we get to Sapa.
Before I sign off here are your road rules for the day!
Road Rule # 24 Crash helmets are for putting in the basket in the front of your bike.
Road Rule # 18 "No left turn" signs are usually inconspicuous and can be moved from time to time.
Hope all is well with everyone.
Until next time,
Tom and Michelle
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Steve
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Uncle Ho
Why bother? Old Hanoi much better use of time.