On leaving our Hanoi hotel at 8.45am after another difficult sleeping night, we boarded a bus for Ha Long Bay. A four hour drive and the opportunity to see the countryside and villages along the way.
Jen mentioned that we have had a new tour leader and gained four new companions. Let’s just say that the dynamics have changed. 🙁
A new phase.
The new tour guide, his name is Long. Young and enthusiastic but having spent yesterday touring around Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum and being thoroughly inducted into the country’s recent history by another guide, we, or at least I, was not interested in hearing another rendition on the bus journey. It made me cringe a little, thinking of how I may well have bored my passengers with Maori and early NZ history in my tour driving days.
On the journey we stopped for a retail opportunity. We have become a little more commercially focused. In 1994 a rehabilitation centre was created for those crippled with disease, or by war, and/or just orphans who are taught skills such as weaving, pottery etc. and we were given the option of purchasing their endeavours. We purchased a silk woven scene. So many beautiful offerings. Very expensive but it will find a place on a wall somewhere.
Kirsty holding one of the silk thread items.
Some of the ornate creations
Ha Long Bay
On shore, there are dozens of incomplete or unoccupied hotel buildings, to assumingly cater for the tourist boom? Halong Bay is Vietnam’s largest port. The bay is made up of myriads of limestone islands of similar height making a beautiful scene. I suspect the multitude of vessels moored, have rendered the land based hotels, irrelevant. * update. Covid, it seems saw those developments fold.
On arriving at this magnificent natural phenomenon, to find the harbour littered, literally littered with boats of all sizes many of them floating multi storied hotels, huge barges, low in the water and we suspect carrying coal mined nearby.
There Are 29 other Junks, Super yachts or floating hotels around us. Loud music playing from the decks of the cruise boats.
Our motorised Junk and Michael, our quintessential English companion.
Enterprising woman plying her wares between boats
Our accommodation for the night, a motorised Junk. How aptly named, though our cabin is not uncomfortable.
Saturation tourism.
Once anchored Out in the bay(we counted 29 other vessels}, we belatedly decided to participate in an optional dingy rowing experience. Our tender, being towed behind, ferried us to a floating wharf. Tied up, cheek to jowl, there must have been 20 similar disgorging their cargo, mostly Chinese. Our tender pulled in and the guide alighted to arrange our row boats. Thankfully he returned to say “we’ll try again tomorrow”.. Obviously a cock-up in catering, too many people or no boats. There will be no tomorrow rowing for us.
The whole exercise was made worthwhile by a trip to some amazing caves. Vast in size with lighting featuring the many stalagmites and stalactites. I didn’t take my phone, but my camera. Trouble is, without the Mac, I have no way to transfer the photos to the iPad…bugger! (I’m working on it and have now solved it)
Our evening meal, elaborately presented lacked flavour of any kind. So it was early to bed as it’s going to be a big day tomorrow.
Next day
Up at 6.30am and after a pathetic breakfast, (in my opinion) we were ferried to an island to climb hundreds of steps to view the scenery.
Next a freshen up back on board to be returned to shore. All around us, boats with same agenda. Disgorge this lot for the next lot.:)
First stop another retail opportunity. a pearl factory. The gold pearls were beautiful, but ….
Jars full of pearls, not ball bearings..:). There was a demonstration of how the oysters were opened and a tiny piece of pearl shell inserted to start the process.
Another 3ish hour drive back to Hanoi where luggage was uplifted for a 13hour train ride south. Some interesting information regarding the recent evolution of local politics. Vietnam is staunchly communist but they are now embracing capitalism. The inequality of the communist system being exposed. US politics watched avidly!!! The future for them will be challenging. China have built their major infrastructure. Their future direction will also be interesting as with their 100m population they are an emerging industrial power house.
An observation, as a generality, perhaps harsh but the Vietnamese people seem to lack the warmth of their Thai and Laotian neighbours?
The female Vietnamese traditional dress is very elegant..
Back in Hanoi and reunited with our bags stored in the hotel. A cab ride to Train Street to watch the train thread its way through bars and cafe’s. Everybody moving back to let it past.
At 8.20pm we are all allocated 4 berth cabins. Phil and Cathy our roommates. It’s a very different ride compared with the Thai overnight ride. Non welded rails and older rolling stock but the bunks more civilised. Arrival in Hue scheduled for 8.30am. It will be interesting to learn more about Hue, scene of fierce fighting and heavy bombing during the war.
The night was a …nightmare. No sleep for me.
Arriving in Hue.
Hue is a regional, and once the nation’s capital. There are magnificent buildings and former seat of royalty. With a huge palace complex. Hotel Saigon another impressive building built by the French.
We are given a local guide for a tour of the many once royal buildings. Unfortunately he will remain nameless as neither of us can remember it. However, he wont be forgotten as he was exceptional. Bursting on our bus with a chubby round face beaming an unforgettable smile. The photo doesn’t do it justice.
He took us around the vast walled royal palace complex. Much of it destroyed in the war. Those of us old enough will remember the Tet Offensive. Slowly the buildings and walls are being reconstructed. Built in the early 1800’s before the arrival of the French, the palace is surrounded by a series of walls and moats
There was a period of Japanese occupation between 1940 & ‘45. Their influence remains, in Bonsai trees
The above (slightly blurry) map was on the wall of a cafe. The source of the American involvement in the originally French Vietnam war, was bought about by a ‘false flag’ operation in the Gulf of Tonkin. JFK forbade escalation but on his assassination, Johnson pledged full support to the military invasion following the Gulf of Tonkin “incident”. Very little has changed.
Another days end.
So ended a long but very interesting day and after an early dinner close to the hotel then had us in bed early. Jen was out like a light in seconds.
The journey will continue tomorrow when we head south to Hoi An and Jen will update soon..
PS. Photography for the blog has become fraught. I am relying on using a phone as yet I have no way of transferring photos from my camera as the iPad has no SD card port. Tomorrow I will look for a lead or adaptor that will resolve the matter.
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