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Halong Bay
With a floating village and another junk (First, just mention that photos have been added to previous post)
We arrived in Hanoi early Tuesday morning on the overnight train (4:15 a.m.), to a completely deserted city (what a contrast to Bangkok!), and dozed in our hotel lobby until breakfast at 6:30, then some more until our 8 a.m. departure to Halong Bay, a 3-4 hr. ride. For me, Halong Bay was anticipated to be the "crown jewel" of the trip. It did not disappoint!
Arriving at the Halong docks, we were taken by tender to our private "junk" moored in the harbor. There were probably 300 other such boats, of all sizes and descriptions, designed for groups of 1 to 50(??) The scenery was incredible as we set out among the (reportedly) 1969 islands of the Bay. (I'll never forget that number because of Bryan Adams' song, which could easily have been written about me and my fellow high school grads of that year.) These islands are what geologists call "karst towers", highlands of limestone sculpted out by water, leaving the veins of stronger materials behind as islands. The landscape was surreal--just like the photos, but better-- you never can really get the full magic of
a place from photos; you have to experience it in person. I would rate Halong Bay among the top five most spectacular natural wonders I have seen. (I might do a blog post on that topic in the near future).
The crew of about 6 (including our special guide for this tour) served us a great Vietnamese lunch almost immediately. Then we headed out to explore two caves on one of the islands. There are hundreds of caves; the whole landscape being formed the same way caves are formed. It was interesting the way the numerous boats jostled for position at the landing docks, bumping each other to nudge them aside. The caves were really nice, but probably didn't trump the one at Marble Mtn. Then we headed off to an area where we our boat was all alone and jumped into the warm water and just swam around for quite awhile. Eventually we headed for a spot to anchor for the night, and the crew put on a big dinner spread for us. With a few clouds in the sky, we got the bonus of a sunset over Halong Bay. After dinner we played cards and just relaxed
until we felt like retiring to our cabins for the night. Wednesday morning, we did it all over again, mostly just sunning ourselves on the rooftop deck chairs, but also going for another swim. They served us both breakfast and lunch, then dropped us off for the trip back to Hanoi. I found out later that a cruise like this (a standard cruise) is worth about $35-$50 per person, although you can also buy luxury cruises.
Hanoi was much cooler (just comfortably warm, not stiflingly hot), and a little less chaotic than Ho Chi Minh city, but moreso than the other places along our trip. By now we'd seen so many pagodas and temples, that most of the group just wanted to do their last minute souvenir shopping. One other client and I decided to see the Ho Chi Minh museum (a tribute to Ho Chi Minh and major propaganda tool for the communist revolution) and several other sites, though we were unable to see the biggest tourist draw, the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum. HCM is a huge hero in Vietnam--and deservedly so, in my estimation, not because of communism, but because he liberated Vietnam from foreign powers (China,
France and America) and united the country. The people reluctantly accept communism because to them independence trumps everything else, and they are afraid that full democracy will bring them back under foreign domination.
Our official trip ended with our farewell dinner Thursday night, and Friday we went our individual ways. Except that, three of us had flights that left Hanoi only shortly before midnight Friday. So two of us chose to do a day tour to the countryside on Friday. It involved two more temples and a pagoda (apparently pagodas are built for gods and temples to honor leaders), but the highlight was a rowboat trip boats powered by 1 or 2 Vietnamese, carrying 2 or 3 clients each. The trips followed one channel of the Red River delta, through what they dubbed "Halong Bay on land," weaving between the karst towers and eventually through three tunnels.
Another Hanoi highlight for me was that I met an Australian friend from my Africa trip 2 years ago. This was also his first overseas adventure since that trip and we just happened to be in Hanoi at the same time. So I was able to spend a delightful hour or
so reconnecting with him and his girlfriend.
Unfortunately, my camera broke down after Halong Bay, so I don't have much to show for Hanoi, but may add some more photos later from another client whom I spent time with in Hanoi and on the day trip. And so endeth this adventure (after another short day layover in Bangkok on the return trip.)
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