We are on the Peony dayboat in Halong and Lan Ha Bays in Vietnam. This is a part of
our two night cruise on the Peony, a 20 cabin boat. Halong is one of the most
famous and most scenic places in the country.
The bay comprises myriad rock formations called karsts that jut out of
the water. Even in the mist that is currently covering the area, it is
incredibly scenic and moody.
Today we will spend most of the day cruising the bays, with
stops at a beach and near a village, which we’ll approach by bicycle and
electric golf cart (bike for Loring,
electric cart for me.)
We drove several hours from Hanoi yesterday, with Smoky, our
guide in Hanoi, and our driver. Unfortunately the driver took the wrong road,
adding quite a bit to our drive, because we needed to double back toward Hanoi
quite a way. The driver was embarrassed and extremely apologetic, and Smoky was
clearly frustrated and annoyed with him.
He didn’t speak much English but sure said “sorry” a number of times.
After Smoky reassured us that we wouldn’t miss the boat, we were fine with the
situation. Smoky had planned for us to take the slower route to the bay,
stopping along the way at a village where they make ceramic pottery. And the
plan is to take the faster highway back tomorrow, to take us back to the Hanoi
airport for our flight to Hue, the next lap of our trip.
I felt terrible for the driver, especially knowing how
important “face” is in the culture. It must have been excrutiating for him to be
strongly berated by the guide, in front of us. He seemed appreciative that we
were reassuring, though, and gave us each a big hug when he dropped us off at
the dock..
We did stop, along with a slew of tourist busses, at a rest
stop where there were bathrooms and a café, and also about five large rooms
filled with crafts of many kinds, pottery, jewelry, paintings, embroidery, and
more. A couple of dozen women and a few men worked at large intricate embroidered
panels. If I understood the man there correctly, they were folks with polio and
perhaps other disabilities who were
trained to do the work and thus support themselves.
Vinh, or Vinny, is the manager on the dayboat (the English
speaking guides and staff all seem to have English nicknames). The manager on
our bigger, overnight boat, is nicknamed Elvis, because, we are guessing, of
his Elvis like hairstyle. It was a bit incongrous to do tai chi early this
morning on the deck, led by Elvis in his white silk pajamas.
We had tried to find people doing tai chi in Hanoi, which
they supposedly do by the lake in the middle of the city, not far from where we
are staying. They do it early in the am, from 5 to 6. But we never found them.
It was perhaps because the weather was on the cool side. But we did discover lots
of people jogging, walking, and doing calisthenics along the lake in the early
morning. The difference between the bustle of the daytime city and the quiet of
the early morning before dawn was startling.
Hanoi’s daytime traffic is impressive and overwhelming. The
vehicles are primarly motor scooters, along with some cars, some bicycles, and trishaws.
The trishaws are bicycles with a seat in the front for one or two passengers.
As part of our tour with Smoky, we took trishaws around the
old part of the city. We also walked and travelled by car for parts of the
tour. The sidewalks are completely
covered between parked scooters, cafes with tiny plastic seats out front, and
street vendors of foods of various types. For most of our walking it was
impossible to walk on the sidewalks, necessary to walk in the street, with the
various modes of traffic with which we were competing.
It was challenging,
especially when necessary to cross the street. But it wasn’t chaotic. Even with
all the weaving in and out, there seems to be a level of curtesy. I would call the drivers assertive, but not aggressive. At a certain point they will yield to you, if you are brave enough to venture out. But there is no way I would consider driving any vehicle or even on the back of
someone’s scooter ( one of the tourist experiences that seems to be popular
here, which we opted out of.)
The trishaws easily hold two aduts, but Smoky insisted that
we each have our own, for comfort. And we passed a number of groups of
tourists, about a dozen or twenty people, each in their own vehicle. My guess is that it’s to
make a little more income for the drivers, which I don’t begrudge them. But we
would have preferred to ride together.
Smoky took us to places where they made and sold dumplings,
ones where they sold only bowls of beef pho, and more. We discovered at least part of the reason that
the chairs are so small and light plastic is that the police patrol regularly.
When they are arriving everyone quickly hauls all the furniture inside. And as
soon as the cops leave, the furniture goes right out again.
It’s not noticable when you are walking. But in the evening,
sitting on the second floor balcony of a small restaurant in a square, we
observed the action twice around. It’s also apparently common for the shop
owners to pay off the cops to not be disturbed.
Smoky also took us to a famous temple, and the House of
Literature, which is a thousand year old temple that was also the first
university in Hanoi, and maybe in the country. There are tablets inscribed with
the names all the scholars who passed a very rigorous exam in a given year.
At the temples, the shrines with statues of the Buddha and
other dieties are also packed with offerings of common place items, like
bottles of soda, bananas, cookies, etc. piled in very neat pyramidal stacks. The
offerings to the gods are eventually distributed to local poor.
I remember a similar phenomenon in Thailand some years ago.
I was with a group of volunteers in a small village where we were teaching
English at a school. The teachers brought us on various excursions. One was to
a small temple, to which we brought supplies
as offerings, including numerous rolls of toilet paper. It seemed somewhat
incongruous to my western mind.
More startling, still, was to see the prior head monk, who
had died, in a clear casket embalmed in liquid.
Travel, as they say, is enlightening.
Smoky also brought us to a family home where the matariarch,
ninety years old, lived along with younger family members. Her son and his wife
were also there and served us tea and snacks, dried fruit and little sesame candies,
from a small laquered box.
In front was a shop where they sold silver jewelry made by
the family. Through a corrider behind were the family quarters. There was a
large bed, where I believe the great grandmother slept. I think there were fourteen
people who lived, there rolling out mats to sleep at night. This was, or at
least had been, a wealthy family, and there were pieces of furniture that were
hundreds of years old. This had been the family home for generations. They
served us tea and we talked a bit about their lives. I wonder how
they had lived through the communist times, (and the country still has a
communist government, although it is not
readily apparent.) I have to remember to ask Smoky. He will pick us back up
at the boat tomorrow and bring us to the airport. We will then have another
guide at our next destination, Hue.
Our first full night in Hanoi we went to a water puppet show.
It is certainly touristic, but I nevertheless enjoyed it very much. The puppeteers
are behind a scrim, and hold long horizontal poles to move the puppets, which
are in a shallow pool of water. There are also six musicians playing
traditional instruments, two of whom sing. There are fish puppets, dragons, a
parade, children frolicking , etc.
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