Back in Hanoi

Having not made any plane reservations before setting out for Halong Bay, I was left with a day in Hanoi while I made arrangements to fly to Bangkok. After arriving back in Hanoi after the trip to the bay, I had found a place to stay. The next morning I attempted to find the cheapest flight to Bangkok in the next couple of days. Had I bought the ticket before I went to Halong Bay, it would have been about a hundred dollars. However, it was now going to be closer to 200 dollars because it was much shorter notice. Them's the breaks I suppose, but I would rather be sure of getting on the plane rather than having had something go wrong in getting back to Hanoi in time. Remote though the possibility might have been, of course.

While trying to figure out the plane situation, I decided to do a couple of the little things I hadn't done on my first day in Hanoi. I had also heard about Hoa Lo Prison that had started out as a prison used by the French during the colonial days, to hold political prisoners. After the French were sent packing, it kind of gathered dust for a while. Then in the final days of the war with the south (who were being propped up by the Americans), it was turned back to its original use, as a prison. But this time the prisoners were Americans captured during the final days of the American participation in the Vietnam War. But where many of the stories that are heard in North America of the horrible treatment of POWs by the Vietnamese, the portrayal (and the probable actuality) of the treatment of POWs in this facility was vastly different. The prisoners in Hoa Lo Prison were treated like visitors, albeit visitors who were not free to leave. They had three squares a day, they had reasonable clothing, and they participated in “cultural activities.” They even were permitted to receive packages from home and had a celebration at Christmas. Signs on the wall proclaimed that the prisoners ought to be honoured to be prisoners of the Vietnamese. Despite all the evil deeds of the American aggressors, the horrible treatment of the Vietnamese freedom fighters by the Americans, the Vietnamese were treating their prisoners humanely and with dignity and respect. At least in that prison. John Glenn was even a prisoner here. But I highly doubt that the POWs in the rest of the country were treated so well. I would also imagine that this prison was a propaganda site, to shine a good light on the communist regime in the north in the last days of the war, that they were going to win. It wouldn't do to be shown treating their prisoners savagely. I don't know how they managed to ignore the plight of the POWs in the rest of the country, but blinders can work wonders for what we don't want to see.

After the prison, I headed over to see something I had been scolded about not going to see, especially since I had been so close before. Near the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum there is a pagoda called the one-pillar pagoda. It's old and supposed to be very beautiful. And I had missed out on that the first day I was in Hanoi, which was a regrettable thing, I was informed. So I headed back to the Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum area and went to have a look. Unfortunately, I wasn't all that impressed. Oh well.

But near the pagoda was the Ho Chi Minh Museum in Hanoi. It looked shiny and big and new. I thought that having been to the one in Ho Chi Minh City, I didn't need to go to another one, but this one looked so interesting, and much bigger, that I decided to go and look at it as well. It was much the same in content as the one in HCMC, but there was much better presentation inside. I was quite impressed with it.

One of the parts of the museum was what they called Ho Chi Minh's costume. I had begun to notice that in most of the photos I have seen of Ho Chi Minh, he wears white or cream coloured clothes. This is particularly true of photos from the latter part of his life, when he had become a far more of a public figure. I think it must have been a conscious decision on somebody's part that he do that. I suspect that is gave him some kind of virtuous look, or perhaps angelic.

After the Ho Chi Minh Museum, I headed back to my hotel and got a flight booked finally. Then I went out to the lake to just chill out for a while. I walked around it and as I was just about finished I was approached by yet another student wanting to chat. She really only wanted to take a photo so that she could submit her assignment. I don't know how she was going to prove her assignment had been done, but I took a photo with her and then collected my fee, this photo of us together. And that brought me to the end of my time in Vietnam. The next morning, I headed to the airport and returned to Bangkok to make arrangements to get into India.

The Third Day on Halong Bay

The third day on Halong Bay was hot and hazy as we headed back to Halong City for the return journey to Hanoi. The previous night had been stormy with plenty of rain, lightning and thunder to make it an exciting stay on the boat. By morning the storm had blown past and left a nice day behind it. Unfortunately, it was a bit too hazy and so the colours of the bay were somewhat muted. The farther islands were kind of ghostly in their appearance, however, so all was well.

The trip to see the bay had been a good choice, and was a nice way to cap my visit to Vietnam before returning to Bangkok and preparing for my trip to India.

My Day On Halong Bay

I had taken a three day tour on Halong Bay in the hopes that I might have a less crowded experience of the area. Little did I know that it would exceed even my wildest expectations. It seems that most people only do a two-day excursion to the bay. Only about 20 percent of people go for a three-day tour. Of those well over half choose to to have one day on Cat Ba Island, which is an island in the bay and has resorts and a national park for trekking. And only a few people actually choose to go on a boat excursion further into the bay for their extra stay in the area.

Breakfast on the boat was about 7:30 in the morning. We all got up and ate our breakfast, which wasn't all that good, truth be told. Then we got prepared for our days. A small boat approached our junk and I was told to get ready to go. I had to take all my stuff with me as the company was switching junks this day and I wouldn't be returning to this one. I got my stuff and went down to the small boat to meet with the others who would be going on the extra day. Only there was nobody else. Hmmm... Really? Just me? Cool!!!!!!! There were three or four people who were going to stay the second night on the island, but I was the only one who was doing the second night on the junk and doing the boat trip farther for the second day. It was going to be a good day!

As we headed out, there was some thunder that rumbled quietly, and I thought it was going to be even better. I thought I might get to watch a storm raging through the fantastic landscape. However, the thunder receded and it remained just cloudy. Then a bit of rain started to fall. My guide for the day was Thanh. He was a nice guy.

The itinerary called for a stop in at a little village and tourist outfitting area, where Thanh rented a kayak for later. Then we headed off into the farther reaches of Halong Bay. We had been supposed to go first to do some kayaking at another floating village, then some swimming, then some more kayaking amongst the islands. Finally we were supposed to stop at a pearl farm before heading back to join the new junk with the new passengers. But it was raining. I think that Thanh didn't really want to get wet. Or maybe he thought I wouldn't want to get wet. Whichever it was, he decided to change the order of things. We would go to the pearl farm first. Now I really could have done without the pearl farm. I knew it was going to be just a thinly veiled opportunity to get more money from me by convincing me to buy some pearls. But that is the way these things work and so I didn't bother trying to fight it. Thanh told me it was going to take 45 minutes or so to get there. That, of course, would mean that I would have 45 minutes or so of the stunning scenery to admire. I could put up with the attempt to sell me something. And stunning the scenery was. Because of the clouds and rain, it was a bit colourless, but it still had atmosphere, and the shapes of the hills rising from the waters was amazing.

We arrived at the pearl farm and I was shown around. They showed me the three different kinds of oysters that were farmed there. Then they showed me how they grow the oysters and seed them at the appropriate time. And they opened an oyster that had a pearl inside and insisted that I take a photo of it. Then I was led into the shop where there was a bunch of jewelry made of pearls, where I was exhorted by the three attractive shop girls to buy something. But I am not a real fan of pearls and I don't really buy much these days, since if I buy it I then have to carry it around. I have enough to carry. They were good-natured about it and waved to me nicely as I left on my chariot.

Then we headed to the floating village. This village is a group of 50 or so floating homes. They community lives out in the bay and is self-sufficient. They fish for their needs. Anything extra they take to Halong City and trade for more of what they need. They also grow another kind of oyster for selling as well. There is a small school to which a teacher comes twice a week. The village is in a serene little protected area among a few sizeable islands that protect the village from violent weather and tides and such. Thanh and I paddled our kayak through the village for 45 minutes or so.

Then we headed back to the boat and it was almost time for lunch. I swam for a bit while Thanh and the boat captain prepared lunch for me. Then they called me back to the boat and it was lunch time. Or rather, I should say feast time. I don't know if they had prepared food for more than one person, or if it was just what was presented to people on the extra day, but there was so much food, I couldn't finish it all. And Thanh just kept bringing more and more food out to me. There must have been 10 or 12 different dishes that I was eating, from French fries to shrimp to some Vietnamese spinach-like vegetable. And it was all delicious.

Then we headed to a secluded lagoon for our last stop. We would be going kayaking again here, but Thanh suggested a little rest to recover from the huge meal before we went. That was fine with me. It was in this spot that I finally saw more people again. Three or four more boats arrived, each with only a couple of people aboard. It seemed a bit wasteful to me to have all those spacious boats with only a couple of people each on them, but then I was quite happy as the lone passenger on my boat, so I guess I shouldn't make a big deal about it. We rested for about an hour.

Then we took to the kayak once again and paddled around the lagoon. We headed through a cave-tunnel into another lagoon, and through yet another one after that. Other than the sound of the paddles in the water, there was a serene silence that reigned. Then some of the people from the other boats also came along. But the scenery was amazing and it was almost all mine. I felt quite special to be experiencing this pretty much all to myself.

Then we headed back to the boat and it was time to return to the junk. By this time the sun had come out and there was more colour to the islands as we headed back to the spot where we had rented the kayak, and then the junk. It was impressive scenery, from the start of the day to the end.

At the junk, I met my new shipmates and we had dinner. Then there was some karaoke, which I ducked out of early. I was below when the storm came. An impressive amount of water poured from the sky, and lightning and thunder wished us to sleep to cap a thoroughly enjoyable day. It doesn't happen often that I make that kind of exactly correct choice that gives me such a special experience on a tour. But it does happen once in a while. I'm really glad I am not on a particular schedule, and that I was able to take the time to do that extra day's excursion.

Ha Long Bay

I decided on the easiest course for going out to experience Ha Long Bay. This is one of the famous areas of Vietnam for spectacular scenery. There are many options for visiting the bay. There are two day excursions, three day excursions and one day excursions. They can be booked Hanoi or from Ha Long city. One day excursions just go and come back. I discounted that immediately. If I was going to go, I was going to stay there. I also figured that two day excursions would be very touristy and I didn't want to just go and be around a lot of people all day and not be able to fully experience the beauty of the bay because of the hordes of others there as well. So I decided on a three day excursion. These excursions also have a couple of options. There is a fairly large island in the bay and one kind of excursion includes a stay in a hotel on the island. Then it is possible to visit a national park and do some trekking and that sort of thing before returning to the mainland and going back to Hanoi, or wherever. The other option is to stay two nights on a boat and the second day is moving further out into the bay. I decided that since my goal was to experience the bay, I would go with the two nights on the boat. Then it was just a matter of price. There are cheap options for 40 or 50 dollars, middle range options for about 100 dollars and then extravagant options for two, three, four hundred dollars and more. The cheap options can work, from what I understand, but it can be hit and miss. I went with the middle range and hoped for the best. One thing that bothers me about this sort of arrangement is that the excursion operators often treat you as hemmed in, kind of hostage. They agree to provide meals, but will charge for drinks and then forbid the bringing of outside beverages. They can thus charge whatever they want for those drinks. I was a bit worried about that. But there was no help for it really.

The trip to Ha Long Bay was about four hours and we arrived at the wharf at about 12 noon. The sight of the bay was a bit obscured by all the junks waiting to take eager sightseers out to the islands. I was somewhat discouraged by that, hoping this was not going to be overly overrun by tourists, even though I also know this is such a famous area that lots of tourists come here.

Then we headed out to the sights. And of course, our first stop was a desecrated cave. Caves are very interesting and in the absence of what the Chinese, the Vietnamese, the Thais, and all the others do to them, it wouldn't be possible to go in and experience them. But there are lights all over inside and concrete pathways, and this is something everyone is “supposed” to do when they come here, because all tourists love to go in caves. (Hmmm... Sarcasm.  Maybe I should stop that.) So we duly lined up with the hundreds of others and trode up to the cave entrance to view how fantastic it all was with the lighting that had been added to the amazing stone features of the cave.

The best part? The sunlight streaming through an opening in the top of the cave. That was amazing. And natural.

But then, it got better. We went out into the islands and all the boats were on different sorts of schedules, so they thinned out a bit. We could view the scenery without pesky boats in the way. And it was breathtaking. We stopped for some swimming and then we headed to the congregation area for the junks for the night. I don't know if there is just a safe place at the one spot and other areas are just too vulnerable, or maybe the administrators of the bay only allow the parking of the junks at this one spot, but it kind of spoiled the experience of being on a boat in a stunning natural setting when we had to share it with all those other boats. But that's how it goes I suppose.

The sunset was quite inspiring.

And the moon rose over the bay and, even though there were all those other boats, it was quite a nice night time scene.