Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

Upon arriving at the Siem Reap airport, we discovered to our surprise that our flight to Hanoi on Vietnam Air was booked in Business Class.  Considering that we’ve never flown anything but Economy, we did not know what to expect.  Well, our bags got the royal treatment by being tagged Priority (first on and first off), and we were given a voucher to go to the Business Lounge.  Suddenly feeling a little underdressed, we went on in and were shown to some comfy sofa chairs and provided newspapers, magazines, and free drinks, food and internet access.  Being budget conscious, we took full advantage of this unexpected opportunity and loaded up on food and drink.  Being such a small airport, we were the only ones in the lounge and felt quite catered.  After a few hours of this luxury, we boarded the plane and got seated right at the front of the plane in the Business Class seats (once again alone) and were given peach scented warm washcloths to pamper our hands and faces.  Elbow room was more than generous and we were even shielded by curtains from the riff-raff in Economy.   ha ha ha.  And the front toilet was apparently only for us when we noticed one hapless passenger from Economy being pushed to the back toilet to stand in line while “our” Business Class toilet remained available.  Things we’ll never quite understand…….  We were served a hot meal during the 1 1/2 hour flight and upon arrival were presented with our own bus to transport us to the terminal, while every other passenger had to crowd into the next one.  Not something we would normally pay extra money for, but it was a funny little experience and we’ll see if we’ll get surprised sometime again in the future. 

Then we got our bags and hopped into a taxi to take the 45 minute drive into the city.  Entering the city around 10:00 pm, it was bustling with activity, motorbikes zipping by, people milling about and gold stars on red backgrounds adorning street corners and business signs. 

We just wanted to let some of you know that we are in fact millionaires here in Vietnam.  We are millionaires while doing budget traveling, it is very unique, and we thought some of you might appreciate that bit of information.  The exchange rate here is US $1 = 16,000 Vietnamese Dong.  Now on to the fun. 

Well, we spent about 3 days here in Hanoi, walking around the old town/French quarter plus some… We spent some odd hours looking for the various vegetarian restuarants around town that were mentioned in our guidebook.   Hanoi is a busy, fast-paced city with a lot of motorbikes on the roads, sidewalks, alleys, walkways into homes, etc.   Then we visited some museums like the Revolution Museum, the History Museum, the Temple of Literature (the oldest university in Vietnam, 1070 AD), and the Women’s Museum.  While there we learned a lot about how the women in Vietnam fought, supplied and raised children for the glory of Vietnam in the various wars they have fought in the last century. It was interesting, we were able to see pictures of them in the field armed, harvesting rice, cooking, and carrying supplies.  We got a different perspective about the “American War” (that’s what the Vietnamese call what we call the Vietnam War) in both the Women’s Museum and the Revolution Museum.  We have also read a bit about Ho Chi Min, the leader in gaining Vietnam’s independence from France, and his efforts to unite Vietnam during the period following and during the “American War”.  Uncle Ho as he is often referred to appears all over Vietnam, in the streets, on flags, in paintings for sale, on T-shirts, books etc.  We were also here for Vietnam’s local election day, which brought out a Vietnam flag on every house, and a lot of talk over the city loud speakers.  People did get dressed up and seemed to enjoy being at the polls.

The first night in Hanoi we went to the Waterpuppet Theater to see a performance. It was really nice, the show is performed in water with puppets, whose handlers are hidden behind the water stage putting on a most amazing show.  The music was really beautiful and the stories depicted were very interesting.  Water puppetry was developed out in the rice fields for entertainment, and is a real classic art from Vietnam.  We had a lot of fun, and were thinking of how much our nephews and nieces would have enjoyed it as well.

We booked a trip though our Hotel to go to Ha Long Bay and Cat Ba Island in the Gulf of Tonkin, just east of Hanoi City.  It is a world heritage site, as it should be, it was breathtakingly beautiful.  There are limestone cliffs that rise straight out of the water in the bay, some are sheer and gray, some green with vegetation, but most have these fishing villages nearby.  It was very interesting to see the fishing families that live on the water on these rafts with houses on them.  They even had dogs.  We took our big house boat to this amazing limestone cave in the middle of the bay among other cliff islands and were taken on a tour through it to the unique cave formations.

Then we took our boat to another uninhabited island where we hiked to the top and got a great view of the surrounding bay.  When we descended we jumped in the water for a cooling swim before getting back on our boat.  We sat on the top of the boat enjoying the sunset over the water with eagles soaring above, it was so peaceful.  I may have forgotten to mention the other 12 people on the boat with us.  Some from the US, Singapore, Isreal, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, and of course Vietnam.  We got our own little room on the boat and slept on the boat in the bay for the night.  It was HJK’s first time sleeping on a boat and we slept quite well.

The next morning we took the boat to Cat Ba Island and debarked, leaving more than half of the passengers onboard as they had only signed up for a 2 day excursion and we were on a 3 day.  The five of us took a bus across the mudflats created by low tide as locals were busy collecting and harvesting the creatures that lived there.  We were then dropped off with a local guide who was to take us trekking up the steep jungle mountainside.  He was a smiley 70 year old and his name was Chau.  We basically went straight up the side of the mountain in the sweltering heat and enjoyed every minute of it.  Chau was in great shape for 70 and was quite funny with his little notebook where he would write out phrases in English for us in case we did not understand what he had said.  We had a great time tromping through the jungle with Chau and our new found boatmates, Stefan (Germany), and Davide and Laura (Italy).  After learning “ta di tow” (let’s go!) from Chau, we hustled our way down the mountain and made our way to a cave that led straight through the mountain.  It was gated on both sides, but fortunately Chau had a key and with a 10 minute underground hike, we made it through.  Never had we thought we would be walking through a mountain inside of a natural cave. 

The bus met us and took us to our hotel to check in and then we jumped back in the bus and drove to the wharf of Lan Ha Bay to catch the small ferry to some kayaks waiting for us at one of the floating fishing villages.  For some reason, our ferry parked on one side of the underwater fish cages and we had to very carefully make our way across the rickety walkways separating the cages to the kayaks.  We were cautious crossing over as we were carrying our cameras and the fish in the netted cages were quite big.

Then we kayaked across and around Lan Ha Bay amidst the stunning scenery of immense limestone pillars and mountains rising straight out of the bay.  We kayaked through a natural tunnel to the other side where there was a quiet and peacefully beautiful part of the bay, connected only by this crevice in the rock.  Then we made our way to one of the many uninhabited beaches dotting the watery landscape and hopped out of the kayaks.  We were hot by this point both from the muggy heat as well as the exertion of rowing, and the water looked so inviting…….We all jumped into the cool waters and waded and swam in perhaps the most serene and ubdisturbed little stretch of sand and water we have seen yet.  We did not want to leave, but our guide insisted after 1/2 hour and the sun was beginning to go down.  So we paddled back to the floating fish farm (slowly so as to savor every moment), picked our way across the rickety walkways, and hopped back on the boat. 

That evening we got ice cream (HJK had two and a stomachache) and then played cards with our friendly boatmates until we could keep our eyes open no longer.  We slept there on Cat Ba Island, and the next morning we took our original houseboat back to Ha Long and then took the long hot bus ride back to Hanoi.  It was a great 3 days and we have some photos to prove it.

Now we are back in Hanoi after a day at the Perfume Pagoda and are waiting to catch our train ride south to Hue and Danang.  Next post will probably be the last before we return to the states as this adventure is drawing to a close in a week.  We will include the Perfume Pagoda and whatever treasures we discover down in middle Vietnam which went through a lot during the “American War”.