lloydnalex's blog - a new life in Peru: 5. THE HA LONG BAY PACKAGE

OFF AGAIN; Having recuperated from our Sapa (including a bout of unidentified food poisoning for Alexandra), and following a very enjoyable French music evening in hanoi, yes French, we were off again, this time to the picture postcard tourist destination of Ha Long Bay. 4 hours east of Hanoi by minibus.

THEIR ALL WHITE NOW; As a boy i was fascinated by a scale model chinese junk that we had in the lounge room. It was hand made of unfinished timber and had 3 working green canvas sails. Today, there are about 500 tourist junks plying Ha Long Bay. Though they are all motorized, some have "working sails"... Working in that the crew hoist the sails in the morning and lower them at the end of the day. It's pretty evident by their proportions to the lumbering vessels that they are just for looks. They provide a good sentimental photo opportunity.

Alexandra's postcard photo

Speaking of sentimental, it seems the authorities are not. If you look at all the photos of these junks pre-2012 they have always been dark brow. All of a sudden, all 500 junks have turned white. Why on earth? Our guide explained that it was for "advertising reasons". Mmm, not much of an explanation??? According to that infallible information source, the internet, the People’s Committee of Quang Ninh Province ordered that the boats be painted white in order to "renew their image" following the bay’s designation as one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. Seems an unusual decision when your selling a "sentimental journey" to tourists, but that is that...

Anyway, our little junk was quite comfortable. Granted, it needed a little TLC here an there... Don't lean on the guard railing if you know what's good for you, type of thing, but it was just fine for us.

Outside

Inside

Our cabin... "Where have I seen those towel arrangements before?"

Having minibussed from Ha Noi to Ha Long, we were glad to be on board and setting off on another adventure. Only question was, what sort of people were we going to spend the 2 days and 1 night with???

PLEASANTLY SURPRISED; It's the "off-season" so our junk was only about half full. We're a little afraid that we might be surrounded by a hoard of drunken Aussie yobos, but thankfully it was not to be. The young English couple said to us, "we were afraid we might be on a party boat" so they were also relieved. There was also 1 Canadian and 2 American teachers (just completed a year of teaching English in South Korea) with us who were also very pleasant company. "So glad you are normal clean people without horrible tatoos" one said. Everyone enjoyed a drink or 2 but that was that. Again, there were opportunities to discuss our world view with the "foreigners". Being full-time volunteer workers for 23 years is always a good way to get people curious. And imagine being part of an organization that translates literature into 600 languages without charge... Plenty to talk about, but only if they want to ask.

The gang and plenty of good food

Our guide Tsun and a crew member, Quit.  In fact there were more crew than customers.

THE BIRTHDAY PARTY; Sunday September 23 marked the 44th year of Alexandra's life. She celebrated by saying "oh, I'm 44 today as you do when you are a JW. By coincidence, it also happened to be the 26th birthday of our Canadian travelling companion. So we are sitting at the dinner table when the lights go out and the Vietnamese crew enter singing happy birthday holding a hollowed out pineapple with a candle inside and a dozen or so deep fried spring rolls sticking out of it on tooth picks. Fortunately, we had already discussed our feelings about birthdays and the girls were very gracious...

THE "ACTIVITIES"; Our only previous experience with "package tours" was 2 weeks in Myanmar in 2009 following the "60th SPECIAL ANNIVERSARY" of JWs. So we understood the format. Guide leads visitors through prep-prepared itinerary until all is done... Ok, let's go...

Surprising Island and Surprising Cave.  It doesn't matter how large the cave is, it's not Alexandra's type of "activity"

And it was a surprisingly large cave

Another island for a look out and a swim

And, perhaps the best activity of all, the kayak expedition

NATURAL BEAUTY; The best activity of all is of course, watching the unique landscape all around. Hundreds of stunning limestone karats protruding out of the water, islands and islets covered in tropical vegetation. Sea eagles an birds flying all around. And the water, so flat all day, it's difficult to believe its connected to the South China Sea. Has anyone seen that 1982 Werner Herzog film, Fitzcarraldo? Couldn't help feeling like I was in it.