I'm on a Junk!

Unfortunately as I predicted I did not have an internet connection last night while in the middle of Ha Long Bay, so I apologize for the missed post, but I’m back in full force for the last 2 days of our trip. It’s crazy to think that we only have 2 more nights here in Vietnam (tonight and tomorrow night). It’s been an amazing journey throughout the country, although to be quite honest I am ready to return to the States, although I’m not looking forward to the pile of homework I have awaiting me there. Back to the important things, as you know we spent yesterday aboard what is called a Chinese Junk in Ha Long Bay. It’s called a junk just because that’s the type of boat, not because it’s actually rubbish or anything. If you don’t know the story of Ha Long Bay it is quite interesting. Vietnamese lore says that a dragon mother and her children descended into Ha Long Bay to fight off invaders. To do this the dragon spit jewels down into the sea causing the ships to wreck into them or each other. After successfully defeating the invaders the dragon mother and children decided to remain and rest on earth, and are now resting below the bay.

While the 1,969 islands in the bay aren’t exactly gem stones, they’re more like just plain rocks, it’s still quite a sight to see. Our route took us first to Bai Tu Long Bay which is the bay of the children dragons. We had lunch in this bay and enjoyed a little bit of seclusion since most tourist cruises head directly to Ha Long rather than taking our round about way. Despite a bit of brisk wind, and cool weather, I ventured onto the uppermost deck of the junk and was able to get some beautiful views as we sailed between the islands en route to Ha Long.

Once we arrived in Ha Long I noticed just how much of a tourist destination it really is. There were so many other boats in the bay, it was crazy. I will hand it to the Vietnamese, they are quite the entrepreneurs, as soon as we set our anchor in the bay, our junk was surrounded by 3 different small row boats with ladies attempting to sell us various drinks and snacks. It was quite odd to walk out of my cabin, and right off the side of the ship someone would be bugging me to buy a can of pringles. Our first activity in the bay was an hour long kayaking trip. Jason and I took a kayak out and were able to get up close and personal with a few different islands. It was really cool to see them up close, because they truly are massive! It was a nice relaxing kayak cruise, that offered some beautiful views of the bay.

We then traveled to one of the islands with a view point at the very top. We unfortunately ran a little late kayaking, and there were hundreds of steps to climb to get to the top of this island (it was extremely tiring) so it was almost dark when we got to the top. However this was almost better because all of the junks below had their lights on, and it was a really cool view. Plus, at that point I probably had at least 20 other pictures of the bay in the daylight, so it was cool to see it in the cover of darkness.

We spent the evening on the junk which was quite enjoyable, especially once they broke out the karaoke machine. Strangely enough it was the guys in the group (myself included) that did most of the singing while the girls timidly watched from the back. We performed beautiful renditions of many classics such as “Livin’ on a Prayer”, “Born to be Wild”, “Gimme Shelter”, and many others. The next morning we stopped in at what is called the amazing cave, and it was no overstatement. We were able to hike through a huge cave, and even without the mood lighting and music I’m sure it still would have been pretty amazing. There were so many cool formations, and views it was quite the experience. We then returned to shore for our drive back to Hanoi.

After arriving back in Hanoi in one piece we had some down time to recover from the adventures of the past day, and then headed out for dinner with Jamie Maxtone-Graham a cinematographer responsible for a recent production called the Long Bien Picture Show. You can read more about it and documentary education in Hanoi through DocLab (started by Jaime’s wife) here. Essentially the show was 4 short films by 4 different students that showed varying perspectives of the Long Bien neighborhood. I have to say that these films were wonderful, they allowed us to see Vietnam from a non tourist perspective, they represented how different Vietnamese individuals spent their days here. It was also great meeting with Jaime and talking about the project.

It was a great trip out to Ha Long Bay despite the cool weather. Tomorrow we have our last full planned out day here in Vietnam, so that will be exciting. Then on Saturday we will have mostly a free day to explore on our own and then late that evening we will be starting the long journey home. I have been so blessed to have the chance to experience this country in this way. I can only hope that my blog has helped others gain a new perspective on Vietnam, a country that I feel may be vastly misunderstood. I look forward to seeing everyone when I return to Texas, and stay tuned for tomorrow nights update.