March 25 - Ha Long Bay

After sailing from Da Nang we headed northwest into the Gulf of Tonkin on our way to Ha Long Bay, our last stop in Vietnam.  For those of my era the Gulf of Tonkin  has some historical significance; for those younger but interested in history it’s worthwhile googling the “Gulf of Tonkin” resolution. It played a pretty significant role in some of the events of the 60’s and 70’s.

We began sailing through Ha Long Bay around two in the afternoon and it was a spectacular few hours as we made our way to the port for an overnight stay.  I had seen pictures of this place but they didn’t fully convey the beauty of being here.  Ha Long Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The name means “descending dragon” in Vietnamese and there is a local myth about how this bay was formed.  The versions I heard varied but all involved dragons who helped local people in their battle against invaders.  Ha Long Bay covers an area of about 600 sq. miles and has close to 2000  limestone rocks and islets scattered throughout the bay.  It was cloudy and misty as we sailed along and rocks and little islands which have been eroded by millennia of wind and water would appear as we glided by.  In the photographs I’ve seen the Bay was always shown on sunny days which probably brought the colors out more, but in some ways I thought the mist and low clouds added a little touch of magic to the place. Some of the islands are hollow and have large caves.  Others have arches which have been created by the action of the elements.  Almost all the islands that I saw were topped with lush tropical vegetation.

There is evidently a community of people, mainly fishermen, who live in the Bay. I think there may be as many as 1500 people who live on floating houses and make their living fishing and doing marine aquaculture like cultivating pearls.  As we passed I saw a couple of boats that looked like people were living on them.  The provincial government of this part of Vietnam has a program to relocate the inhabitants of the Bay to the mainland and a few hundred people have already been moved.  I suspect that in the not-so-distant future most of the population will be removed leaving only a token few to man the tourist sites which exist because it is a very popular destination.

I think someone lived on this little boay.

Around four in the afternoon we docked in Ha Long city where we spent the night.  From the ship I could see a very large cable-stayed bridge crossing an inner part of Ha Long Bay. Next to the bridge is the Queen Cable Car.  This runs parallel to the bridge with two towers that are close to 600 feet high. Between the two land stations the system runs two two-story cars which each have a capacity of about 220 people.  At the opposite end from where we were docked above the cable car station was a large ferris wheel.  I’ve seen ferris wheels in every place we’ve stopped here in Vietnam.  I guess they must be very popular. 

We were able to go ashore in the evening but I didn’t.  A few friends who did said they took the shuttle to a modern 3-story mall where the lights kept going out so they came back pretty quickly. Instead I had dinner and went to a show with a wonderful Australian tenor named Mark Vincent.  It was the first show with a guest entertainer that I really enjoyed in the last couple of weeks.  I hope we’ll have more like him in the upcoming weeks.

The cable-bridge in the bacjground with the Queen Cble Cr in front of it.

On Monday morning the 25th I had to get up early to go on my “Deluxe HaLong Bay Junk Cruise.”  When I hear the word “junk” I think of something that looks like this.

This is what I think of when I hear the word junk

This was our "junk"

Instead we boarded a boat that looked like this and we set off to cruise around the bay. There was a cabin with seats and tables downstairs and an open deck on top so we were able to go up and take photos or stay inside and watch the rock formations go by through the windows.  It was still cloudy when we started but as the day progressed it eventually became sunny.  We had a guide who was very congenial but spoke very accented English and I had a hard time understanding lots of what he said.  There was a lot of debris in the water and there were some things that looked like the kind of floats people in the US use to mark where they have crab pots or lobster pots.  Some of these things looked like they were in a line so I asked our guide.  I don’t think he understood what I was asking and he told me they were just trash floating.  Given that the people living in the bay area do some aquaculture I’m not sure that was the real answer but I guess I’ll never know.

I'm pretty sure these were some of the residents in the bay

Eventually we got to our first stop which was a little fishing village on one of the larger islets.  There all but a couple of us got off our boat and went for a ride in little bamboo boats that held five people and were rowed by a resident of the village.  I guess I’ve become a chicken in my old age but I opted not to go.  I find that my balance isn’t as good as it used to be and the boats looked a little tipsy to me (that was later confirmed by a couple of my friends who did go).  I did get some pictures of them when they were rowed back and a friend got a photo of me taking shots of them.  Apparently during their ride they passed some of the rocks which have been eroded into interesting shapes.  Also where we docked there was a shop which sold pearl jewelry made of the pearls cultivated by these fishermen. One of my friends bought a lovely necklace but pearls aren’t really my thing so I passed.

The little bamboo boats

One of my friends got this picture of me taking pictures of them

After everyone was back aboard we had lunch.  We were served a multi-course feast of fried chicken (sort of Vietnamese chicken nuggets), fried fish and squid, sweet and sour shrimp, stir-fried noodles and stir-fried vegetables.  There was also bread, some delicious grapefruit slices, and tea.  It was way too much food but all tasty.  After lunch we came to our next stop.  This was a place where people could go and see a small beach and a cave in the limestone island.  The guide had shown us photos of the steps to the cave (120) which looked rough and of varying heights and with minimal or no handrails.  I had no problem deciding I wasn’t going to either place and many of my shipmates made the same decision.  I got some pictures from the ones who did so I’ll put them here.

Some of our feast

A photo of the cave taken by my friend Matt

And another

Then it was time to head back to the dock.  Our guide played a kind of Vietnamese history game as we puttered back.  We were women playing against men and he had a wacky scoring system which I don’t think any of us understood.  It did pass the time but I think we were all happy to get back to the dock.  I ought to mention that there was a tour offered that went to see the sights of Hanoi, the capital of the country.  I didn’t choose to take it because I wanted to see Ha Long Bay up close, but also because it was a two-hour ride to Hanoi.  We set sail around 6 PM and we’re now on our way to Hong Kong.  

I forgot to mention there was an adorable dog on the junk.  Her name was Lily ans she was a white min-poodle with hot pink ears.  She wore a diaper most of the time.

Lily the boat poodle

I’ve been on the ship now for 63 days!  That’s a record for me and I still have a long way to go.  I’ve stopped at 6 countries including five I’d never visited before.  I can stick lots of little pins into the map Katie and Stan gave me a couple of Christmases ago.