Vietnam Visited

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Cruising the South China Sea brings back memories of news stories of the 60’s as the US strengthened its interest in Vietnam. The NPR speakers on board present a wonderful prospective on the history of this land and what to expect when we go ashore. While some of our passengers brave the narrow, crowded highway to Hanoi to see Ho Chi Min’s Mausoleum and the “Hanoi Hilton” prison, we enjoy tours of Ha Long Bay, with its many monoliths, or islands, protruding from the still waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. Different shapes have been given names by the local fisherman to facilitate their return to port. The warm breezes and sporadic sunshine makes for a wonderful cruise on our motorized junk. The afternoon tour takes us through the crowded urban area of Halong City and rural countryside on our way to the relatively new Yen Tu Monastery. Centered around Buddhist statues in a variety of rooms, the monastery provides a home for monks maintaining the facilities and offering prayer, education and accommodations for the next generation. Offerings are brought in the form of food and money (used by the monks to assist the local poor) and the solitude welcomes the prayerful of all faiths. Welcoming us to this shrine is a perfectly round 6 foot stone ball, resting on a circular hole carved from stone and fed by an underground fountain. The ball continues to rotate while supported by the water.

Some of the interesting features of this land are the 12 foot wide, three and four story standalone houses revealing the effective use of expensive land. The ornate wooden front doors of these narrow houses open to a living room on the first floor with bedrooms above behind overlooking balconies. Small stores crowd the sidewalkless and gutterless streets as motorbikes, scooters, bicycles, pedestrians, cars, trucks and taxis all vie for space with horns blaring. The traffic rule here seems to be to push your way into traffic, announcing your presence as you force your way in. There are neither traffic lights nor stop signs except in the major urban areas. Only the rich seem to drive cars so the motorbikes and cycles predominate.

A couple of days at sea allow us to continue learning from the NPR speakers and play the usual shipboard games of passageway golf, bocce, top toss, and baggo. We also have another lifeboat drill, replicating the one held before we left port, since Carnival Cruise Lines disasters have generated a new maritime requirement of a drill every 14 days. Next stop will be Saigon – Ho Chi Min City.

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