Hạ Long Bay.
Today is my one day trip to Hạ Long Bay, and an excellent day it was.
I got picked up from the hotel at 8 am, but the bus couldn’t stop in front of the hotel, so I was surprised to find that getting to the bus meant riding on the back of one of these crazy motorcycles. What would happen if someone was unable or unwilling to get on the back? And my guy was one of those drivers who was on the phone half the time for our five or six minute ride. But I did get a bird’s eye view of riding these streets and weaving in and out of traffic. That alone was worth the price of the tour.
Once on the tour bus, which started to fill as we made several stops, our tour guide gave us an entertaining view of the day ahead, starting with a pearl farm we’d first be visiting on the way. We had a tour at the Viet Pearl Center, and an overview of the process for growing and retrieving pearls, including the Hạ Long blue pearl, which was interesting. But the rest of the visit was a “wouldn’t you like to purchase some pearl jewelry in a vast and upscale showroom with very polite and friendly sales women wanting to show you (i.e., sell you) something at every counter. But it was an impressive place, with beautiful and diverse jewelry and other pearl products, although definitely not inexpensive.
Then back onto the bus for the remainder of the ride to Hạ Long Bay, and the main event, the boat cruise. It included a pretty impressive buffet, and quite delicious, with incredible shrimps and oysters, among many other foods. Actually, the entry deck was basically a giant buffet with surrounding tables.
Hạ Long Bay is incredible, with cliff after cliff silently rising out of the water, one after another, after another. The bay is in the Gulf of Tonkin, an arm of the South China Sea, and is filled with around 2000 limestone islands and karst cliffs, topped by tropical limestone rain forests. The cliffs are limestone, but karst describes the landscape that forms as the limestone erodes over millions of years. Many are hollow, with caves and grottoes. I visited one of these caves later, Sung Sot Cave, which was pretty amazing.
Hạ Long means “Descending Dragon.” Legend (and legends are always true) tells that the bay was created by dragons who spat out jewels that transformed into islands that defended the land from invaders.
Our boat was one of many cruise boats of various sizes on the water. This is a visitor crowded destination, and especially as this is a holiday week in Vietnam, but large enough for all. Once our cruise boat anchored, after weaving its way through the amazing cliffs and formations, I took a fast speed boat ride, which was great, with screams and wows from passengers each time the driver banked hard to the left or right, dropping the side of the boat close to water level and sending up huge sprays of water. Fabulous.
Then a ride in a paddled bamboo boat that passed through Hang Luồn cave, an archway carved through a cliff, filled with massive stalactites, as well as many other bamboo boats and kayaks, leading into a quiet turquoise colored lagoon flanked by cliffs, where Golden Rhesus Macaque monkeys were hanging out on the cliffs by the water. Lots of the boats and kayaks were in a partying mood, with singing and laughter, and it was evident that people out here today, myself included, were having an excellent time.
I think I was probably one of the only people, and perhaps the only person, traveling solo today. I’m used to traveling alone, and do like traveling solo, but it was good traveling with Laurence, and having a partner to share with and have a laugh. I sure do miss Bev, and still can’t believe there’s no Bev in the world.
Back to the cruise boat and on to our next stop at Sung Sot cave, or Surprise Cave, because it’s a surprise to learn how enormous it is once inside. It was crowded, with a steady and unrelenting stream of people going up the many steps to the caverns, almost like a conveyor belt on this one way route through the cave, although there were plenty of opportunities to stop and enjoy the vast caves. It takes about 35-45 minutes to pass through the caves, which have several chambers, and the pathway through the cave is a work of engineering. The cave is dramatically lit, and really a wonder. I’ve certainly never experienced anything like it – but, then again, I’m not sure I’ve been in another excavated cave.
One final stop after Sung Sot cave, was Ti Top Island, which features a small sandy beach on the bay, and a very steep mountain climb of about 400 pretty steep stone steps. They’re the kind of steps that you go up and up, and just when you think you’ve reached the top, or hope you have, you realize it’s just a plateau, with many more steps to go. Not for the weak hearted. The observation area at the time was pretty crowded, but offers a wonderful panoramic view of the bay and cliffs below. Getting down was a whole lot easier, and faster.
Then back on the boat, heading back to the marina, where we returned to our tour bus for the journey back to Hanoi. Now the sun was starting to go down, with some even more beautiful shots of the bay, with the lowering sun reflecting beautifully on the water, and a warm breeze blowing as I sat on the upper deck at the prow of the boat, heading into the sun. Heavenly.
The bus drive back was pretty long, starting at 6:15 and taking almost 2½ hours, as city traffic slowed us down once we neared and entered Hanoi. I kept wondering whether there would be a motorcycle ride awaiting me upon our return, but the bus actually dropped me off about a minute from the hotel.
I hadn’t really paid much attention on the journey out this morning as I was busy reading, but on the way back I noticed how contemporary and modern Hạ Long is, as well as the highway and various points along the way. As we neared Hanoi, coming from the east, we entered a very contemporary Hanoi, with many high rise apartment and office buildings, and, now that night had fallen, many beautifully lit, and some with patriotic themes, perhaps because tomorrow is the Reunification Day public holiday, commemorating the end of the Vietnam war and the reunification of the country in 1975.
Hanoi is a pretty huge city, far larger than the area where we’d stayed and visited, and that was clear coming into the city by taxi from the airport when Laurence and I first arrived. On my ride back this evening, we passed through many newer and more contemporary areas of the city, which are in sharp contrast to the narrow, winding, and crowded streets and alleys of the Old Quarter. These parts of the city are very contemporary and in some cases upscale, including the Vinhomes Ocean Park mega high rise residential development, beautifully lit up at night, which itself looks like small city, and the very modern Aeon Mall shopping center. To the west, the modern city skyline was visible, standing in stark contrast to the Old and French Quarters and those parts of Hanoi we’d visited (and I prefer). This is new Hanoi, rapidly developed since the late 2000s. The modern highways throughout the city were jammed, even at 8:30 in the evening. I prefer the Old Quarter, French Quarter, and the other districts and neighborhoods where we stayed and visited, where the history and traditions of the city are preserved, serving as the center of Hanoi’s culture.
After getting off the bus, around 8:45, I heard music not too far away, and made a beeline for it. There was a stage set up in Vạn Xuân park, minutes away from my hotel, where I’d previously visited twice, and where the Monument to the Fallen Heroes statue is located. I realized I was seeing a public celebration of Reunification Day, marking 51 years of peace and the reunification of north and south Vietnam.
The park was filled with chairs, which in turn were filled with a large and very appreciative audience, enjoying the patriotic music and dancing taking place on the brightly lit stage, where various singers and dancers, male and female, performed in front a giant screen showing patriotic and nationalist videos. The music and dancing were both very good, with swelling and patriotic music. I caught the last 30 minutes or so, and I felt lucky to be here, witnessing the show. Like the large and highly engaged audience, I felt pretty stirred myself. I also felt sad about what the United States did to this country and its people, all in its own self-interests, just like the French before it. It’s happening still, in Iran.
As Monday was Kings’ Commemoration Day, celebrating the Hùng Kings who founded the Vietnamese culture, dating back to 2900 BCE, and this Friday, May 1, is International Labor Day, this makes for a week of holidays and celebrations. No wonder I couldn’t get a seat on the train from Ninh Binh to Huế this weekend.
I bought a street sandwich and headed back to the hotel, and went to sleep around 12:30. Tomorrow morning, I get picked up at 10 by the bus for Ninh Binh, called the inland Hạ Long Bay, where I’ll be staying until Monday. I guess I’ll find out why.
I’ll pack in the morning, and back to the Hanoi Grandeur on May 11.