Our exploration of Vietnam begins with a drive to Halong Bay and a 3-day cruise of the amazing bay, which is littered with islands. But more of that later. Tuan, our guide, was keen for us to get the most from his bottomless knowledge and gripped the coach microphone tighter than a drunk karaoke singer. I will spare you the 3-hour onslaught of facts and focus on the ones I found interesting or amusing. First, Hanoi is based on the Red River which flows from China and this for millennia has been prone to causing terrible flooding in Hanoi. “That is why”, Tuan announced, “we have the Oldest Dykes in the world.”
Now, a Dutch couple took exception to this, with a claim that Holland had some large and very old Dykes, much to the amusement of the less well-mannered members of our party. The argument, however, was short-lived when we discovered Hanoi’s Dykes are over a thousand years old; what’s more, we were riding on one. Now, China has been busy building numerous hydroelectric dams upstream on the Red River, and each one has been reducing water flow, with a number of impacts. Good news, no Dykes now needed, as the river does not flood. However, the slower flow rate is allowing saltwater from the sea to move farther up the river, progressively killing off many of the rare species. The river water is now not high enough to reach the levels of the red soil on the higher banks, so the Red River is red no more.
We also had a long chat about Vietnam’s peculiar version of communism, but perhaps we can explore this over a glass or two of vino when we next meet. Ten minutes from reaching the port for our Halong Bay cruise ship, we made what was described as a toilet stop, but turned out to be a shopping stop. However, this one was excellent as we were taken through the process of how cultured Pearls are made and even got to see an Oyster opened up and being impregnated with a piece of clam shell, which would go on to become an Oyster. Clearly a demonstration for the over-18s, but fascinating.
After being herded through the sales centre, we completed our bus journey and prepared to embark. Now this required a few questions. The most bizarre was deciding, from a range of samples, which scent we wanted in our room. We chose wild orange, although we never found out what had upset it.
The boat is amazing, 20 cabins, maximum 40 guests and 42 crew. Rooms, sorry, cabins are stunning, and the service is amazing. Lunch is 4 courses, and dinner is 5 with lobster and soft shell crab, leaving Julie salivating like a rabid collie. While having lunch, the limestone islands flowed past the panoramic dining room windows like migrating dinosaurs. This prompted me to ask our guide, “Are we missing everything?” The assurance was that it would be like this for the whole cruise, so relax and enjoy your meal; there are more than 350 of them.
During lunch, a crew member checked when we wanted our massage and kayak trip, which for us was influenced by a thing called Happy Hour. 5:30 sunset, cheaper drinks on deck, meant a 2:30 kayak paddle for us, and so glad we got to move close to the limestone cliffs powering from the waters at sea level. Working off our lunch also made this a great activity, although I was in the back, which enabled me to allow Julie to carry most of the workload. Dinner came round all too soon, but the food was so amazing I still managed to eat it all. A wonderful day ended with meditation on the top deck under the stars, which was so relaxing that, 10 minutes in, one passenger started snoring. Finally, 20 minutes of squid fishing, with the only squid caught by a member of the crew.
Only thing left to do was fall asleep staring out of our cabin windows at the stunning islands of infinitely variable shapes and sizes that littered our view in every direction.
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