Descending Dragon Bay

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Drifting around on a Junk boat (minus the actual sail) through limestone mountains soaring out of the waters, 20 million years in the making, Descending Dragon Bay (as Halong Bay literally translates) was certainly one of the highlights of my month long trip to Vietnam...

As a UNESCO World Heritage sight, Halong clearly attracts a lot of tourists... Initially arriving at the bay from Hanoi we are herded by charmless, dead eyed tour company workers like cattle onto the numerous boats lining the docks, overcast grey skies looming above and a thick blanket of fog covering the bay... However, shortly after setting off, the mist clears and a splendid sun illuminates the ancient karst peaks, which are reflected in the brilliant crystal waters which suddenly make the prospect of swimming and Kayaking significantly more appealing...

There are numerous other tour boats scattered across the bay, but not so many that the experience looses any of its charm. We manage to avoid the infamous Hanoi Backpackers Booze Cruise and, sitting off on the top deck, sinking a few beers and occasionally propelling ourselves into the water below but essentially just relaxing and enjoying the sunset, the relative tranquility is only disturbed by a Vietnamese karaoke barge...

You have never truly heard Zombie by The Cranberries until you have heard it sung by excitable, half cut Vietnamese tourists attempting to mimic Dolores O'Riordan's broad Irish accent...

"It da same owd teme since nineteen-sixeen / In you head, in you head da still fightingggggg /With da tanks an da bombs / An da bombs an da guns / In you head, in you head, da are dyinggggggggg..."

Initially merely bewildered at hearing it perhaps for the first time since they did away MTV Europe (glorious days) and then purely amused at the bizarre Irish republican/South East Asian accent drifting across the balmy evening breeze, it occurs to me that if you give an Asian a mike and song lyrics they will sing absolutely anything such is their love for karaoke... Seemingly mistaking it for some 70s Disco inferno, I am pretty sure they had no idea they were actually singing about the Easter Rising but hey, bringing up that it is about British suppression is hardly going to get the party started I guess...

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