Happy Mother's Day in Ha Long Bay!
Halong Bay, Vietnam
May 10, 2009
Happy Mother's Day to all of our favourite Moms!
We had a shower and packed our duffel back with overnight items and our backpacks with the rest of our valuables.
I had banana pancakes with tea that were really good and Bill had scrambled eggs that he managed to get some down. I think he had too many Happy Hour Beers and wine at the restaurant!
While waiting for our pick-up I used the internet and Bill chatted with Nanh. He works the night shift at our hotel and was the one who let us in when we arrived the first day. Bill said that he is 24 and is a single guy, but did not know Ling's pilot reference. He really likes one girl, but does not know if she likes him back (same story the world over!) It doesn't bet any better than this!Story!.
Lok (the o has this symbol over it ^ and makes his name sound like Luck, it also means Good Luck) is our tour guide. He told us that Vietnamese people believe in the meaning of your name and he is invited to many villages to bring luck around the time of the New Year. Our driver's name is Quang.
Lok gave us some great information about Vietnam. He told us that there are 400,000 expats in Vietnam (so you can buy Western goods and foods in the major centers). He told us that before 1996 a motorbike from Japan would cost 35 million dong (the price of a large home). Now they can get motorbikes from China for 6 million dong; that is why there are so many motorbikes. If you want your license you have to pay 200,000 dong and take a class for two weeks. If you pay 400,000 dong, you do not have to take the classes. That explains a lot! He also said that there is a high tax on cars to limit the number of vehicles in Vietnam and you are not allowed to import a used car until 2007 (after WTO - World Trade Organization) Very cool!.
Some other interesting things that we learned from Lok is that bread is a sweet treat for Vietnamese people who live in the rural areas. People buy bread in the city and bring it home to snack on with fruit. He said that 15 years ago children were taught Russian (due to the assistance from Russians with technology), French and Chinese in school. Today children only learn English from Vietnamese teachers, so they have a Vietnamese accent when they speak English.
Lok also said that when you sneeze a Vietnamese person will say "good health" instead of "bless you". If you sneeze once - you will get good news, twice - someone misses you, three times - you need medicine.
We had a 3 1/2 hour ride, including a 20 minute rest stop. There are 12 people in our group now and 8 more will join us on the boat. We met Dillon from the UK, he is traveling with his girlfriend, Kerry and Jo from the UK, and Sue and Ben (coworkers) who are from the UK and are working in Hong Kong Kayaking at last!.
We arrived at the pier and had to board a small boat to take us to our junk. On board we were given a welcome drink of watermelon and ginger juice. Our room is pretty good, it has two single beds that are pushed together already and two down duvets.
We were able to go to the upper deck as we began our voyage. Lunch was served, we sat with Kerry and Jo. We found out that they are only on a 2 week vacation, but love to travel and have been to places such as: Peru, Bolivia and Russia. They have some great stories!
For lunch the food just kept coming and coming. We had soup, spring rolls, potato salad with dragon fruit, pineapple and papaya, fish with orange sauce, beef with pineapples, curry chicken, rice, veggies, squid, pork, pineapples and dragon fruit. We also had some calamari, tofu and prawns because Jo does not eat meat. Bill had several Hanoi Beers to wash it down, I had water and tea.
We went back to the upper deck until we reached the caves. The scenery is incredible and so unique, too bad it is overcast. The limestone hills (karst) are spectacular. There are lots of other junks in the bay. Ladies in row boats latch onto the junks and are selling snacks and drinks. We could buy a case of beer from them. The bay is a very popular tourist destination, I am sure they make a decent income.
In the bay there are around 2969 islands. There is a legend that a dragon is the father of Vietnamese people and a fairy is the mother of Vietnamese people. Together, they bore 100 sons from 100 eggs over 100 days. The oldest son is the 1st king. After a few years the parents split up. The dragon took 50 sons to the mountains and the fairy took 50 sons to the sea. Once when the Chinese were invading from the North the dragon came down and made the karst hills to block the invaders. I think there is more to the story, but that is all I could understand and remember. I am not sure how all the sons had children of their own...
We had to shuttle over from the junk to the cave. Lok says it is one of the largest and most beautiful in Vietnam and is called the Surprising Cave. The cave is surprisingly good. There are stalagmites and stalactites and the ceiling is pitted (from the rise and fall of the tides).
Lok pointed out some things that people have seen in the landscape of the caves: the laughing Buddha, a dragon, a woman, an elephant, a finger, a bear on a rock, a waterfall, Buddha's mother on a carp, a turtle (Lok said you can tell it is a male, because it is the most beautiful (ha, ha)), a dog or rabbit, and two frogs making babies.
When we returned to the junk we set sail for the spot where we are going to anchor for the night. We met some of our additional boat mates, Rhonda and John from Washington State and Sue and Mark from Australia. They have already been on the boat one night.
We stayed on the upper deck until we arrived in our private spot for the night. We are far away from any other junks and it is nice and quite. Bill and Ben were brave enough to jump off the upper deck into the water. I was only able to jump from the bow. The water was very temperate, but I did not like how salty it tasted. It was nice to cool down though.
For dinner we shared stories with Kerry and Jo and had pumpkin soup, muscles with lemon grass (yum), prawns, pork, fried chicken, bitter melon (yuck), tempura corn, chicken and veggies, baby crabs (VG) and fruit for dessert. Bill and I had a bottle of red, not bad considering it was our only choice. After the meal Kerry and Jo bought another bottle of wine and we shared it on the upper deck. We found out that Kerry's family owns a B&B in Wales, it sounds lovely!
It started to rain, so we all headed for bed around 10:30. Bill and I both fell asleep reading. Bill took the book out of my hands and turned off the light.
