Halong Bay, a UNESCO World Natural Heritage Site, is located in northeast Vietnam about 3 hours east of Hanoi. The Bay has 1,969 islands spread across an area of about 600 square miles, and is famous for its beautiful karst rock formations. Halong Bay has become a major tourist attraction in Vietnam and there are literally hundreds of boat companies offering one- and two-night cruises. Indochina Junk promises an off-the-beaten-path approach, and apparently has exclusive rights to sail and anchor in a remote part of the Bay away from the crowds.
Arriving at the dock was a bit like Ellis Island for tourists. We and the other folks arriving from Hanoi were ushered into a giant waiting room, as groups returning from their cruises were saying their farewells and being loaded into the minibuses. After being divided into groups of about a dozen and meeting our guide, Thinh, we jumped aboard a skiff and headed out to the harbor.
Our home for the next 3 days would be the Dragon's Pearl junk boat:
The boat, which is only a year or two old, was beautiful --comfortable cabins with hot showers, a great sun deck, and spacious indoor and outdoor dining rooms.
Our room:
Because you're basically stuck on the boat for 3 days, it makes a difference who happens to be assigned to your group. We lucked out with a nice assortment of about a half-dozen Australians (including a beekeeper and his daughter, two young scientists, and a retired couple who had worked in the civil service), a young French couple and another American couple about our age from the West Coast. We had a great time getting to know everyone and swapping travel stories; we thought we were reasonably well-traveled, but were put to shame by some of our cruise-mates, who had amazing local knowledge about basically everywhere you could imagine, including our little neighborhood in DC!
After an initial briefing from Thinh, we were off!
The Bay's thousands of karst formations are amazing--pictures just don't do them justice.
After sailing for a few hours, we reached a fairly remote part of the eastern Bay where Indochina Junk has a base of operations, including a beach with a fleet of sea kayaks, for our first afternoon's activity!
J and I loaded into a double kayak. (If you haven't tried this before, it's a pretty effective form of marriage therapy . . . you either figure out how to paddle together in synch or go in circles all day!)
You get a great view of the karsts from down at the water level, and there's no noise except the birds and splashing of paddles.
As you can see, the water was totally flat, and the kayaks were pretty stable. Still, Dave (the beekeeper) and his daughter somehow ran into a bit of rough water. No worries, Thinh and crew to the rescue!!
After sunset we headed back to the boat for some swimming, followed by the first of an amazing series of Vietnamese meals prepared by the talented chef and his staff.
The next morning was bright and clear; even though this was the low season, we had great weather the whole cruise. We started the day with a visit to the Vung Vieng fishing village.
As we turned the corner into the village's harbor, the staff cut the engine and raised the sails. J thought the captain was powering down for a quiet approach to the village. Nope! Thinh told us the sails were way too small to move a boat of our size--they just look good in pictures!
We were ferried to the village by young women in wooden fishing boats, rowed standing up and face-forward.
We had Vietnamese straw hats to keep off the sun. And while J may have been making fun of me for constantly taking pictures when he took this picture (this is only one of a series of about a dozens pics of me) it turned out really cool--look in my sunglasses!
On the way to the village we passed through a secluded cove...
The village has a couple hundred residents, all of whom live on floating structures. There is a community center that doubles as a school, but no sanitation facilities (just dump it in the water) or electricity. Villagers buy fresh water and essentials from boats that come through periodically. Children have access only to primary education, as it is too far (several hours by boat) and too expensive to go to the City for secondary school.
Young boy paddling with his feet!
At the community center we met a local leader, who served us tea and answered questions about life in the village. In connection with its tourist boat visits, Indochina Junks has undertaken a major project to help the residents of Vung Vieng, working on environmental protection measures (waste disposal, etc.), building a new school, and providing funds for various community projects.
We then headed back to the Dragon's Pearl and got underway to our next anchoring spot, where we had a second round of kayaking and some swimming off the boat.
One of our Australian friends jumping off the top deck...
The highlight of the cruise was dinner the second night, served in a cave discovered by several fishermen on a remote island. Indochina Junks has an exclusive permit to use the cave, which it has fitted out as a luxury dining room.
The chef had worked all day on our meal, which included several fruit carvings of Halong Bay themed things, including a dragon. (Vietnamese lore has it that Halong Bay's karst formations are the remnants of a mother and baby dragon sent to defend Vietnam against foreign invaders.)
After dinner, the boat captain came out with the staff to express appreciation to the guests. After the speech, Thinh broke out a guitar and led the staff in a couple of traditional Vietnamese songs.
We were all sitting back and enjoying the show until Thinh announced that the only way to conclude the evening was for each of us to share a traditional song from our own country! Although I tried to convince J to take one for the team and sing a solo, we and the other American couple wound up politely humming our way through "This Land is Your Land" . . .
Finally, Thinh announced that the last song of the night would be a national Vietnamese anthem honoring Ho Chi Minh. Thinh and the staff took the verses (which we presume had something to do with celebrating Uncle Ho's achievements in driving out foreign forces from Vietnam), and then directed all the guests to sing along with rousing choruses of "Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh!" (There wasn't much singing-along from our corner of the table!)
After the show, we headed back to the boat for our last night aboard the Dragon's Pearl.
Our last morning was bright and sunny like the others, and we enjoyed the two-hour sail back to the port before heading back to the hustle and bustle of Hanoi.
No comments:
Post a Comment