Come Sail Away with Me

I picked Lydia up from the Hanoi airport on Saturday evening. What a treat to share this adventure with her. What a trooper because a few hours later we were on a bus headed for Halong Bay...

What an amazing place. This set of 3000 islands (most quite small) are limestone mountains that rise from the sea floor. They were traditionally not inhabited, but now the area serves as home to a set of fishing villages. The islands themselves are in the most amazing shapes and sizes. From aboard our Chinese junk (shared by just a few crew and a few couples), Lydia and I found sport in naming several of them. I would try to describe them further, but Lydia's pictures turned out magnificient (amazing what skill and being able to see what you are shooting can do). I will send links to her pictures. Simply put... this is one of the most beautiful places I have seen. Lydia asked how it compared to Angkor Wat, and I responded "One was built for God-Kings, and the other was built by the Gods."

For those of you who have travelled the Yangtze, apparently the islands are similar to those found in the river... but on a far larger scale. We had an excursion via kayak to explore the area more in depth and also had a chance to explore a cave found in 1902 (by the French) on one of the islands. Spending the night on the boat was also much fun and Lydia and I arose to watch the sunrise from atop our junk.

Another interesting feature of the area is the women (the men are off fishing) who paddle what must be many, many kilometers a day trying to sell various foodstuffs to tourists and the junk crews. Their supplies include coke, beer, oreos, ritz crackers, and similar. It must be a very difficult lifestyle, and I wonder if it continues... as more and more children leave for the cities.

We are currently back in Hanoi (or rather Ha Noi... I *believe* that written Vietnamese only contains one syllable per word), but will in a few hours take an overnight train to Lao Cai and then a van to Sapa (or Sa Pa). Poor Lydia... she is on spring break and I am making her sleep on a plane, on a boat, and on a train!