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Published: November 18th 2010
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Today we were picked up at 8 for a 3 hour drive to Halong Bay which is famous for its “dragon teeth”, otherwise known as rock formations that rise straight out of the water and huge caves. The road is mostly 2 lanes, dusty and pretty slow going. When you have a scooter in Vietnam no matter how slowly you drive you drive in the middle of the road – my half is the middle half. On the way we had an interesting conversation with our guide. He talked about his hope that Vietnam would continue to modernize and that there would be greater pluralism. At one point he said he thought Vietnam would have been better off economically if the US had stayed. Jack told him that for the US to have stayed, they would have had to lose the war. I’m not sure that was exactly what he had in mind. His father had been drafted into the North Vietnamese army, had walked to South Vietnam on the Ho Chi Minh trail and been mildly wounded which took him out of the war.
We are now on the Paradise 2 junk, which is anything but junky. Our room has
a little private deck and a marble shower. Rose petals were scattered on the bed when we arrived. The cruise (now we can say we have been on a cruise) is like a fancy camp on the water. Lunch is at 1:15, departing the boat to visit one of the largest caves is at 2:30 and at 4:45 we disembark for a 25 minute visit to a “typical” fishing village. Despite the traffic jam of junks near the cave, it truly was amazing and the bay is spectacular. Most of the people on board are French, Australian and from an unidentified Eastern European country. We are the only people from the US. Lunch was uck despite the round of applause we gave the chef during the introductions. When our “host” stopped by, I explained the gastronomical problems and I have my fingers crossed that we’ll get a better dinner.
The peace and quiet of today is a welcome relief from Hanoi. The only problem is that it is very hazy and Jack is really unhappy that it is not good light for photographing the bay.
After lunch we went through one of the large limestone caves. (I’ll post a picture.)
Around 5 we went on a boat ride to tour a local fishing village where everyone lives on the water in little houses on floating platforms. There are about 700 people in the village with homes that vary from tiny shacks to tiny houses. They have a elementary school, but nothing else and all food and water is brought in through weekly trips to the market in the closest town which is 15 km away. It always feels strange doing this type of sightseeing – looking at people who simply live radically different lives.
Back on the boat the chef did demonstration of how to make Vietnamese spring rolls which are stuffed with a lot of ground meet and are quite different from what I’m used to. They were about the best food of the trip.
Over the course of the day, we spent time chatting with 2 young couples from the UK – one from London and the other from the Isle of Man. Rebecca and Anthony had been married about 3 years and were about to move to London. Matt and Hoa-An, were a few years older. Matt was a manager at Accenture and Hoa-An who was Vietnamese
raised in Norway had the most interesting background of all of us. He had been a ballet dancer, an investment banker, worked for the UK government setting up a new AID agency and currently has a marketing and new media consulting firm. On my “brilliant” (everyone from the UK used this adjective as part of their jargon) suggestion, we had the tables rearranged to sit together for dinner and had a really fun evening. Before we knew it, it was almost 11 and Jack and I, the old folks, were about to fall asleep at the table.
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