We woke up after getting a few hours of quick sleep. Had a nice breakfast in the Hotel and then it was off with our guide and a driver. Hanoi is the capital of Viet Nam and the 2nd largest city. We had our first look at the city after breakfast but really only there briefly as we were driving to Ha long Bay which is about a 3 hour drive from Hanoi. The first impression of the city was that it was a third world, simple, cluttered looking city. Lots of open shops, lots of bikes, motor bikes etc. Lots of poverty, lots of bad smells and in someways a lot like Shanghai in a very small way.
Along the way to Ha long Bay we stopped at a tourist shop. Inside the shop they had lots of souvenirs to buy. The interesting part was they had some workers on display as you walked in. They didn't allow pictures. There were rows of people doing embroidery work. Very beautiful work and each piece must take a ton of hours.
We arrived on our boat around noon. We boarded the "Emotion Boat" along with 40 other people. There are about 17 rooms on this boat. We were assigned to a table in the dining room and had our meals with a young college couple from Norway. After a Vietnamese lunch we boarded a smaller boat and we explored one large cave called Sung Sot Cave. It is the largest cave in Ha long Bay. Means"cave of surprises" After that we were brought to another island called Titop Beach and climbed to a look out area. We stayed one night on the boat and the next morning at 6:00 am Mark practiced some Tai Chi on the deck. After breakfast I attended a cooking class, but they were making the exact same thing as the cooking class I attended in Shanghai, pork dumplings. Later we all went on a smaller boat and went by some floating fishing villages and went to see where some Monkeys decided to hang out. Then it was back on the big boat for brunch and we cruised back to the tourist wharf. There we met up with our guide and driver again to drive back to Hanoi. Along the way we once again stopped at a tourist shop so we could shop. This place specialized in making pottery and we got to see the different steps in the process. Again no pictures allowed. From there we were driven to the airport in Hanoi where Sara and Jessica gladly met up with there missing suitcase and we were off to Luang Prabang, Laos.
Some interesting information:
Ha long Bay is in the gulf of Ton kin. It includes some 1,600 islands and islets. These islands are made of limestone. The limestone caves are an important feature of Ha long Bay. Several islands are hallow with enormous caves. Ha long Bay has a Vietnamese meaning "descending dragon bay" According to local legend, when Vietnamese had just started to develop into a country they had to fight against invaders. To assist Vietnamese in defending their country the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors. This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Under magic numerous rock mountains abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of the invaders ships. The ships hit the rocks. After winning the battle the dragon were interested in peaceful sightseeing on earth and decided to live in this bay.
A community of of around 1,600 people live on Ha long Bay in 4 fishing villages. They live on floating houses and are sustained through fishing and marine aquaculture. There are 200 species of fish and 450 kinds of mollusk.
People are worried about the environmental damages done by fuel,oil, liter and human waste. You will see in pictures that there were a lot of boats around us as this is a peak season for them. This area was also nominated as one of the worlds new 7 wonders of nature.
Mark's Vietnam observations (guest writer): I asked our guide, Tao, what the Vietnamese think about Americans, and he gave a guarded answer, something like Vietnam is interested in tourism and US visitors are a major source. The boat guide was a bit more harsh about it, showing there is still pride among northern Vietnamese that they defeated the most powerful country. In Hanoi, there were very few modern buildings, most of what we saw was quite simple, including water-buffalo pulling single plows through rice fields. Tao described how the government assigns each citizen a space of land equal to a measure of annual rice it could produce. Otherwise, there is no property ownership. Tao described southern Vietnam as more "capitalist", but even there only by joint venture with the government. Tao, like all our guides, seemed fully aware of global issues, and was honest about the economic and political hardships in Vietnam.
Kids eating breakfast. They were given swirly straws to drink their morning juice.
View of Hanoi from our hotel room
Our hotel
View from our hotel room
Opera house in Hanoi
Our boat we will be cruising on. The Emotion Boat.
Lady cleaning her boat by the wharf.
Fishing boat in Ha long Bay
Ha long Bay
Ha long Bay
Kids at look out site on Titop island that we hiked up to.
Ha long Bay
When our boat stopped many little boats would come right up to the boat trying to sell food. This one had the cutest little girl with her. If they were selling something other then food I think they sales would have increased as the boats meals were included and people and didn't feel the need to buy food.
We walked through this cave. Sung Sot Cave. It was huge and really amazing.
Sung Sot Ca
From our big boat we took a little boat to this boat landing. We had to wear life jackets for the first time. We didn't really know where this boat was taking us...but off we go.
No motors allowed. We were paddled under this rock tunnel.
To the cutest wild monkeys. Some other boats had bananas to feed them. Smart monkeys to hang out in this area. They were so fun to watch.
Monkeys cleaning each other.
Baby monkeys...so cute!
Fishing/house boat in the area
Cruising back to Hanoi from Ha long Bay
Jessica and Sara
Bryan, Jessica and Sara "heading out"
Small town along the way back from Ha long Bay area to Hanoi
Working in the garden (not a rice field)
Plowing the rice fields to get ready to plant. This guys actually had a machine, but many times we saw it being hand hoed or with the help of animals.
Two lane road. Driving here was really interesting. I found it better just to look out the side window so you didn't have to witness the chaos.
Traffic accidents waiting to happen.
We should really just quit looking!
We should really just quit looking!
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