Halong Bay, Vietnam
We
left Hanoi and headed to Halong Bay for a 3 day cruise with
http://www.glorylegendcruise.com/. We arrived at
Tuan Chau marina and got settled into our cabin. It was a pretty sweet room,
decorated with dark wood including the private bathroom. We even had a
small balcony; sadly it was too cold to enjoy it. There were only 10
cabins on the boat, so we were a very small but fun group. The crew were very
young and friendly, however most did not speak English. We had a nice lunch as
we set sail on this adventure.
Our first stop was an island called Ti Top. If you hiked up 400 steps, to the top, you got an amazing panoramic view of the bay. I opted to only go halfway, but the view was still spectacular. It was very beautiful, but eerie. The weather was overcast and damp, so the whole bay was shrouded in a spooky grey mist. Normally when you do a trip like this, you pray for sunny weather, but I think in this case, the mist gave everything a very mysterious feel. The island had a beautiful beach, but of course it was empty on our visit. The whole bay was packed with boats just like ours and it felt like we went everywhere as a strange herd. 10 to 15 boats pulled in to the island and disgorged its passengers. An hour later, the same boats left together and sailed to the next spot. We kept seeing the same people over and over again at the various stops.
Not
only was it drizzling off and on, but the weather had turned cold. Since it was
much warmer where we had been, we didn't have any warm clothes. We each brought
two outfits for the 3 day trip and ended up wearing everything, just changing
the order so we looked fresh. I did have a light rain jacket, which I was
grateful for, but it didn't provide much warmth. The crew gave us all towels,
which most of us just wrapped up in. At one point, 2 members of the crew gave
Caron and I the jackets right off their back as we headed out on a particularly
cold morning. I can assure you the tip at the end reflected that kind gesture!
Instead
of the nightly sunset party on deck, everybody huddled in the dining room until
after dinner, when we retreated to our rooms instead. That was the only place that actually had
heat. Sadly for one Danish couple, they didn't know that and froze the
first night. They offered a sunrise Tai Chi session at 0630. Despite the
cold, Caron was determined to give it a try, so she climbed the steps to the
sun deck the first morning, only to find no one there. I of course was in my
nice warm bed, asleep. After waiting a few minutes, one of the crew came
staggering sleepily up the stairs, clearly freezing as he had no jacket. When
Caron offered to skip the session, the young man gratefully said "oh thank
you very much!" and they both went back to bed.
As we cruised around Halong bay, we saw many
small fishing boats. Our guide told us each family lived on their boat
full time. We could see signs that indeed the boats were home; laundry
hung out to dry, small children playing on the deck, a few scraggly plants, and
women cooking the daily meals. There was basically a small compartment on
deck that housed a burner for one cooking pot. When not in use, a
platform covered it and it was part of the decking. The boats were mostly
open; at night they made use of tarps to wrap and enclose enough space for
privacy and to keep warm. They had no heaters against the cold, but in summer,
this openness allowed a breeze, which was relief from the heat and mosquitoes.
At night you would see 3 or 4 boats tied together or lone boats here and
there for those who weren't in the mood for socializing.
We
saw row boats where a single person was out fishing. These boats all
looked homemade and had one plastic chair to sit on. The bizarre thing was,
they used their hands for fishing and their feet for rowing. Now that
takes a lot of coordination! Their fishing gear consisted of fishing line
wrapped around a plastic tube. We also saw boats taking the odd passenger from
here to there. They still used their feet for rowing, while their hands rested
on their lap. All the tour boats presented an opportunity to make some cash.
One morning a lady came rowing up to us in a small boat. She had all kind
of items for sale, - fruit, sun screen, bug spray, souvenirs, drinks, etc.
If she made a sale, she used a net with a long pole to collect the money
and deliver your purchases. We saw other boats laden with goods, like you
might see in a general store, but in this case, the store went around to the
fishing boats.
We visited a floating village, nestled in a small cove with a breathtaking backdrop of heavily forested karsts. About 200 families lived on the water in simple wooden homes, built on platforms floating on 50 gal drums. Most houses had a front porch complete with hanging plants and a colorful hammock. A few had quite extensive yards, if you think of the floating platforms as yards. The houses were connected to each other by wooden planks, also on the floating drums. In the middle of the village was a school room and a community center. Under and in front of each home were fish farms, basically underwater net cages. There were also larger fishing vessels tied up out front, with huge nets that looked like sails. Kids go to grade school in the village. If they want to go to high school, they have to go live in another village, on land. The houses were colorful and looked pretty well maintained, but we were told this particular village was owned by the government and used specifically to show tourists. The inhabitants mostly worked in the tourist industry. Fresh water and all goods had to be brought in by boat.
We
had some really nice traditional Vietnamese meals but sadly never my favorite
Bun. The chef gave a cooking demonstration and showed us how to make
decorations out of vegetables. One night we were told to report to the
lower deck for some squid fishing. Just as it got dark, we made our way down to
find our guide shining a flashlight into the water to attract the squid. He
then cast a fishing line into the light and we waited. And waited.
And waited. By now some of the others had their own light and
fishing line, but after about 15 minutes we were convinced he was taking us on
snipe hunt. There was one family with 2 small boys and they had more patience;
eventually catching a small squid, which they threw back after taking a lot of
pictures. For those who don't know what a snipe hunt is, in the US, older
kids take younger ones into the woods at dusk to hunt a tiny bird called a
snipe. You catch them in a brown paper bag. The little ones will search
around the bushes. Eventually an older kids will come to 'help' when
suddenly something jumps into the paper bag. The child will be sooooo
excited and want to look but no, if you do, the snipe will get out. So
everyone heads toward home. When eventually they are allowed to look,
instead of a little bird, they find something like a rock or pine cone.
The little kids are mad and the big ones are hysterical.
Except for the cold, it was an excellent trip. Even though we didn't have sunshine, I thought the bay was beautiful and mysterious, almost outer worldly at times when the mist was particularly heavy. We seemed to be moving the whole time and the islands and karsts all looked so different, I felt like we saw quite a bit of the bay. The caves were interesting, but not that different from caves everywhere. What made them nice was how warm they were compared to the outside temperature. Some were quite massive, but were not underground, rather you usually had to climb quite a few steps to get to them.
Time
to go back to Hanoi and see what the city has to offer.
Link to pictures: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zTkaiNplUC7IgtEA2
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