If you've seen "Indochine," you've seen Ha Long Bay, filled with limestone karst islands (1969 of them) and caves. The bay is part of the Gulf of Tonkin, which is part of what Vietnamese call the East Sea, as opposed to the South China Sea. Ha Long Bay has twice been named a UNESCO World Heritage site, first time for natural beauty, second time for its geomorphology. It is also one of the more recently named Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
Our itinerary had us spending close to 24 hours poking around the bay on a "sailing" vessel called a junk. After a 4-5 hour drive from Hanoi, we arrived at the dock in Ha Long City, and boarded a tender that took us to our junk, a boat remarkably similar to the dahabiya in which we "sailed" up the Nile. Like the dahabiya, the junk was Instant paradise. We admired the cabins we would be assigned to after lunch, opened a beer, snapped a couple of photos, and enjoyed a late and fabulous lunch.
After lunch, Hank said, "I have good news and bad news." The bad news was a hurricane warning meant the harbor master (or his Vietnamese equivalent) was ordering all boats off the bay. The good news was OAT had found us a place to stay in Ha Long City. After a quick visit to Surprise Cave, which was being visited at that exact same moment by dozens of junks which had also been ordered off the bay, we returned to port, and checked in to our generic hotel. Today will be spent slowly working our way back to the Hanoi Airport to catch our 6 p.m. flight to Hue.
Ha Long Bay is uniquely beautiful, and invites leisurely exploration. Most important for me, after four or five days of traffic, crowds and fumes, the wind, water, air and wide open spaces were exactly what I craved. As Tatti (Great Aunt Toni) often said, "Nature recharges my batteries."
I'll leave you with a digression on the for-me impenetrable Vietnamese language. As Westerners, most of us don't realize every syllable is crawling with diacritics, accent marks heading in various directions, both above and below the vowels. As I understand it, the diacritics determine tone, and tone determines meaning. To make matters worse, there are 29 letters, including 11 vowels. Depending on the inflection (or tone), a syllable can have six different meanings, leaving lots of room for misunderstanding. For example "xin chow" is the universal "hello." But chow with a backward accent over the o is the word for "porridge." I leave you with my favorite Vietnamese phrase, phonetically "Oy choy oy!", meaning "Oh my God!"
Ha Long Bay is uniquely beautiful, and invites leisurely exploration. Most important for me, after four or five days of traffic, crowds and fumes, the wind, water, air and wide open spaces were exactly what I craved. As Tatti (Great Aunt Toni) often said, "Nature recharges my batteries."
I'll leave you with a digression on the for-me impenetrable Vietnamese language. As Westerners, most of us don't realize every syllable is crawling with diacritics, accent marks heading in various directions, both above and below the vowels. As I understand it, the diacritics determine tone, and tone determines meaning. To make matters worse, there are 29 letters, including 11 vowels. Depending on the inflection (or tone), a syllable can have six different meanings, leaving lots of room for misunderstanding. For example "xin chow" is the universal "hello." But chow with a backward accent over the o is the word for "porridge." I leave you with my favorite Vietnamese phrase, phonetically "Oy choy oy!", meaning "Oh my God!"
Sorry, no photos. Although I took a few before the front rolled in, the wireless here isn't up to the task. Maybe tomorrow.
Love, Toni
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