Ha Long Bay-Day 2

Sunday, July 22, 2007

The wake-up call for today was just as harsh as yesterday. We met for breakfast at 6:30 to catch a 7:15 boat. We had bread, jam, butter, and sugar on a plate, but the Vietnamese teachers had a rice dish. We all got on the bus and headed sleepily down to the sea. There was a huge swarm of people and just trying to get through it to the gate was a challenge. The school had hired a private boat, so it was just our group on the whole thing. All the boats we crammed into the harbor, but you had to walk across the closer ones to board yours, if it was further out. We had to go up and over 2 other boats to get to ours.

Once we were all on board, we needed to get out. As we backed up, we did some bumping into other boats. There were men physically pushing one boat away from another. We finally got free and headed toward the open sea. We each had a ticket with 10 numbers on it to be punched off at various points. The first one was punched to get on the boat.

We crossed a large part of the bay and headed toward a dock by the Dau Go Cave. There were 20-30 boats crossing this section with us and we were surrounded by small fishing boats. There were several women who came along the boats to sell fresh fruit. At one point a small boat came up and rode along with us and one of the girls climbed up on our boat. It was the fruit sellers equivalent of being boarded by “pirates” except they were selling, not pillaging.

Disembarking was parallel to embarking in that we had to cross a boat to get to shore. When we got there, we were surrounded by a throng of thousands of people. We stayed together as best we could as we were swept along toward the stairs. We had to have our tickets out for punch #2 and we started to climb the stairs to the cave. It was a long steep climb up to the entrance. Once inside the Dau Go Cave, there were stairs and paths carved right into the cave. There were trash cans shaped like penguins throughout the entire cave and all over the island. This made NO sense to me, but apparently they got a really good deal on them, because they were all over…who knows? Maybe the penguin was indigenous to Vietnam. After all, they just found remains of a 5 foot penguin in Puru! We continued to be swept along and to just keep walking. You would expect a cave to be cooler, but when there are thousands of people in it, the temperature is comparable to the outside. We took many pictures and wandered through to the end. On the way out was another steep flight of stairs up. As we got near the light, there was a brief moment of hope that it would be cooler outside. I think it was—for about 3 seconds. We crossed several wooden bridges and then started a steep descent to the boats. The view was amazing, but the angle of descent was pretty amazing also.!

We re-boarded and headed out into the archipelago to look at different rock formations. Apparently, there are/were 1969 different rock/islands at last count. There is one famous one that is on shirts and tourist items from Ha Long Bay that looks like the sails of a ship (from 1 of the angles). “Ha Long” means “Dragon Descending” and they have their own version of the Loch Ness Monster story and how the dragons protected Vietnam from their enemies by putting the rocks in the bay and then scaring off the opposing ships. Supposedly, people still see the dragons in the water occasionally. On our way to our next stop, we pulled up next to a house boat and purchased fresh seafood for lunch.

At our next island, we were going to go swimming(the beach was punch #4, but we never found out what #3 or #5-10 were), but there was the opportunity to jet ski and parasail. Many folks (including Sandy) went up on the parasail and the Vietnamese teachers went for a ride on the jet skis. This was very atypical and one of them commented that, if her mother saw this picture, she would be upset. Sandy said she thought they were hanging out with too many Americans:-)

We were all a bit late getting back to the boat and our lunch which was now waiting. We had freshly steamed shrimp, but they all had eyes! I tried it because my rule is to try everything, but it wasn’t that great and couldn’t handle my lunch staring at me. We also had a freshly caught white fish, but, overall, this may have been my least favorite meal in Asia, which was disappointing. We did, however, have lots of fresh pineapple, mango, plums, and sugar cane (which tasted like a brown sugar cube), which made the snacks a highpoint.

On the way back, we were going with the breeze, so there was NO air movement. I don’t know when I’ve been so hot. I also didn’t know that the tops of my outer arms, near my shoulders, could sweat!! It was just as hot out on the deck as in the cabin, but out on the deck you also had direct sun! When we arrived at shore, we headed to the hotel to get a quick shower. Wow, did that feel amazing!!

When we came down to the lobby, the owner of the hotel (and one of the mother’s of a student who was along) greeted us and then gave us all presents to take back. We thanked her and told her again how lovely her hotel was and then we all got on the bus. When we were on the bus we unwrapped out gifts. Under the wrapping paper was a box for a battery-operated, singing dolphin. Though this had a lot of appeal for me, it turns out there was a small figurine of the ship-shaped rock formation in the box. Too bad, that dolphin was very intriguing for me…

On the way back in the bus, we closed the curtains and pretty much everyone was out very quickly. Half-way back, we again stopped at the rest stop from the day before. Trang said she wanted to buy me a treat and asked what I liked. She ended up buying me something that she translated as “milk candy.” It tasted like a slightly less sweet type of fudge, but it was white. As we pulled back on the road, we stopped by a stand on the side of the road and the English Department head bought a bunch of fresh pineapple. We had some on the bus and then it looked like she took about 20 back, probably for meals for the teachers later that week.

We passed several fields and workers on the road home. In one field, amid the workers, water buffalo, and labor, there were 2 kites flying high overhead. While it was too far from the road to see who was flying the kites, it gave a great sense of joy and playfulness.