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We had another nice buffet at the hotel. The Vietnamese (and I think Asians in general based on my experience in Hong Kong) know how to put on a breakfast buffet. They have food for all the nationalities so there’s western and eastern which means a big variety.
We were headed to Ha Long Bay today and an overnight on a junk. We had packed our duffel bag (which we had brought for potential overflow due to gift buying) with our overnight stuff so we didn’t have to bring our big bags on the boat. I wasn’t going to bring my laptop but we realized we wouldn’t be able to charge our phones without it, so I ended up bringing my whole electronics backpack.
It’s a 3-hour drive to Ha Long Bay. I was hoping the scenery might be interesting but it wasn’t really. Hanoi suburbs mostly. Although there was an occasional rice field with a water buffalo to spice things up.
Anna was getting too cold and announced that the temperature should be turned up, without bothering to check with the rest of us who were just fine thank you very much. After it started to get a bit warm Marion said something and the A/C was turned back on while attempts were made to block the air to Anna. With that and a drape she was placated. But the sense of entitlement continued.
Conveniently, about halfway, there was a souvenir store (a big one) where we made a restroom stop. Funny that. It was manned by victims of Agent Orange during the war so people with birth defects and such. No guilt there. They were making hand embroidered ‘paintings’ and lacquered things. Clearly hard work but we didn’t find anything we liked enough to buy. They shipped everywhere and had their prices up. I noticed it was more expensive to ship to Portland than to Philadelphia. That didn’t seem right.
We were going to be a bit early to the boat so Khan suggested we stop at a Pearl Farm to see how that worked. “It’s very interesting”. Could it be an opportunity to buy pearls? Yes, yes it could. But it actually provided our first real view of the bay which was nice, and the discussion of how pearls are made and the different types of oysters that make different colors and sizes was actually interesting.
We of course ended up on the sales floor where 6 or 8 women in bright red dresses tried to sell us pearls (we declined). But, they had shown us little pieces of mother of pearl, some shaped like bows, and Marion wanted to buy a couple. This is a $1 purchase. You’d think it would be reasonably straight forward, but no. It was like buying a house. First, there was the person to take her back from the sales floor to where those items were. Then the three people who collectively needed her to write her name and country and sign the sheet of paper that was the bill of sale. Then she was taken to the back of the store where yet another person took her money. Crazy.
I should also mention that about 10 minutes before all this, Anna announced to no one in particular (I just happened to overhear) that she’d had enough of this and turned to Khan and said “we’re ready to go”. Must be the royal we. But too bad for her, she had to wait for Marion to complete her purchase process.
We got to the boat office and still had about 20 minutes to wait to board. Meanwhile Marion is getting hungry and time is a ticking on her food clock and she’s getting anxious. The boarding process wasn’t too tricky though. We got on a little tender that took us out to the junk. It’s a pretty boat. Lots of wood, like all the boats we’ve been on so far. Fiberglass has not made its way to Southeast Asia yet.
Our group has got our own table in the dining room as do the other guests, each with a flag from their country. There’s one other table of Americans and they’re from Pennsylvania (We are, <clap clap>, Penn State.. <clap clap>).
We got the key to our room and lo and behold the room is decent sized. We weren’t expecting that on the boat. Something more akin to the Mekong River barge. But it’s got a queen bed and some room on either side and a decent sized bathroom. Plus, the ceiling isn’t 7 feet. And a balcony. Swanky.
We headed up for lunch. We sat around for a while, then drinks are served, then we sit some more. Marion is getting extremely anxious. And in the midst of all this, Anna and Joyce get into a discussion about trying to change their flights. And it’s Keystone Kops. Joyce: We need to change our flights. Can you (Khan) change our flights? Khan: No, call Road Scholar. Anna: We called them and they said it was $800. Khan: Oh, they told me $300. Joyce: Oh, so you did talk to them? We need to call them. We can’t call them now. What number do we call? No not that number. That’s the emergency number. Khan: You (Joyce) need to call them and tell them this that and the other. Anna (to Joyce): But not this and only if that and what if this other. This went on for 20 minutes. And it was driving me crazy because the solution to at least this situation was simple and clear – one or the other of them needs to call Road Scholar sometime tonight. There’s nothing that can be done now. The office is closed. The rest is all speculation. There’s no need to have any further discussion about it at this point. So just SHUT UP ABOUT IT. But since there’s no food to eat… Meanwhile I’m waiting for Marion to either burst into tears or take someone’s head off. But she was good and maintained. I got Marion her emergency peanuts from the room, then stepped out on deck to take a picture or two so I didn’t say something I’d regret (and only because I’d have to deal with the fallout for 3 more days).
The food finally arrived (and was quite tasty). Meanwhile we’re motoring along passing all the beautiful scenery and I’m having conniptions because I can’t see it very well (not sitting by the window) or photograph it. So I started taking a walk out to the deck between courses. The experience is so much more powerful when you’re surrounded by it vs a thin slice of window. But as it turns out, the midday light wasn’t great for photos and I did much better in the evening anyway.
After lunch we got on the launches to go to see the floating village. The village is only about 20% of its former size because the government has been moving people out. They were not taking care of the environment and trashing the place. So out they go. The people with the boat tour are losing a bit of the incentive for this piece but I’m glad to see they’re protecting the bay. We went to a little man-made island and were deposited on bamboo row boats that are oared from the back by (in our case) a little Vietnamese woman. They row standing up, pushing forward. It looked hard but since we were sitting in front we didn’t see it much. To us it was just a slow gentle quiet ride through some gorgeous scenery. And boy it’s been nice not hearing a constant cacophony of scooter horns. We could actually hear birds!
The village was in a little hidden ‘valley’ with a narrow inlet entrance on one side and a tunnel exit on the other. A very pretty spot. I could have stayed out there another hour or two. It was peaceful and beautiful.
But back to the big boat with a few hours to kill before dinner. The sun was setting and I was hoping for some color and dramatic lighting on the kasts (the limestone formations) but no such luck. It was pretty tame. But still very pretty. I sat up on the sun deck for an hour and a half or so snapping pictures every so often. I was surprised by how few people came up to do the same. Just a couple. I don’t know what they were doing instead but if I had to guess, I’d say drinking.
There are lots of other boats plying the waters but it doesn’t feel overcrowded. And happily they aren’t all blasting music or something. It’s been quiet.
We moored in a cove-ish sort of area along with about 5 or 6 other boats. We were hoping we’d be able to see the stars but there were just too many lights on the boat.
At dinner we discovered that Anna was sick (throwing up and diarrhea). So she didn’t come to dinner and Joyce only showed up briefly to grab a bite and went back to take care of her. Marion couldn’t have dinner either. It was past her food time. So it was just Nancy, me and Khan. It was a little stilted but we did ok.
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