DAY 130 Wednesday, May 24
Halong Bay, Vietnam
This is our second visit to Halong Bay. This time we arrived by sea instead of by land, and this way was much more picturesque, as the karsts were shrouded in mist. Coming by sea also offered a more realistic picture, as we suddenly came upon a cluster of merchant ships, some carrying sand mined from the bay itself, and some carrying coal from the mines in the interior.
Here are two miniature (6-inch-wide watercolors), one of the bay as we approached, cloaked in mist, the other of the bay’s maritime traffic:
We took the ship’s excursion, which was on a larger, more ordinary tour boat (Why they called them “junks” I don’t know, except maybe because that’s what they were hawking to us on board.) than the charming one we enjoyed in 2016. It stopped at a cave that we didn’t see in 2016. The weather was beastly hot and humid, and a couple of the passengers from our ship fainted from the heat when trying to climb the 200 or so stairs required. This may be the reason for the next segment’s tour descriptions having very clear warnings in bold type that you need to be reasonably fit to take many of the excursions.
The ship threw a party for the “Around The Worlders” in a cavern a few miles inland from the port. It took about nine large buses to ferry the 300 or so attendees there. We were on one of the last buses to arrive, so we missed the welcoming celebration, which involved a parade with all the characters you see in a Chinese New Year celebration: a long dragon, unicorn, etc. But a double row of pretty girls in the costumes resembling the “fairies” you see in Vietnamese puppet plays were there, and I did get a photo surrounded by the guys who were under the dragon. That was all nice.
The cavern was impressive in its size, with space enough for even more people. However, the natural cooling you usually feel in a cave was not there at all. It quickly became hot and stuffy, airless. If the intention was to show off Vietnamese cuisine, which we really love, it totally failed. There were a few summer rolls, and a couple of other things that faintly resembled dishes I know, but not really. The central stage tried to show off Vietnamese culture, but it was so Westernized it was hard to hear the Vietnamese instruments being played. The souvenir we were each given to commemorate the event was a five-inch tall sculpture of the famous “kissing chickens” karsts, executed in anthracite, we were told. It does look like the stuff my grandfather used to heat his home when I was a kid, but I’m no expert on coal.