Ha Long Bay (or "Vinh Ha Long" - descending dragon bay) is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has breathtaking beauty. Thousands of limestone karsts and isles formed over the course of hundreds of millions of years, with a unique biodiversity.
It is good to see that the tourism boom in this region has created so many jobs in the industry, and we were thrilled to be introduced to the beauty of the place, but this bay needs some serious government intervention. There was so much rubbish floating in the water and I do not dare to guess what else the bottom of the salt water is concealing. Not very good for the oceanic biosystem obviously.
The ship we were on had very luxurious cabins and delicious meals. Asher and I went away to swim on an artificial beach nearby the place where we anchored. Chris stayed on the boat with Livia who caught a minor stomach bug. She had been sick about four times in two days and needed a good day of rest. The calm water of the bay and helpful staff helped her to get the sleep she needed to recover. The guests on the ship ranged from older Australian nature-lovers to back packers from Dublin. With us as a young family in the middle of it. A challenge for the program director who did his best to give everyone something they enjoyed. This meant that we hung out in the restaurant late at night, doing some karaoke with the Irishmen and -women. The next morning, we ventured out to visit a rather large limestone cave with lots of stalagtites and -mites. Those 600 steps up and down were a serious work out with the little girl sitting on my hip!
That same day, we drove back to Hanoi where we visited Ngoc Son lake and temple. A relatively calm (no scooters!) and rather beautiful place. We had interesting conversations with our guide Mr Vinh about ancestor worship, Buddhism and family culture in Vietnam. In the car on the way to the airport, he graced us with some beautiful Vietnamese folksongs and one pompous march from revolution times. We flue down to Hue where the kids finally got to crawl in bed around 10.30 p.m. after a long day.
Today we explored some sites in Hue with our new guide Mr Wee. Only 24 years old and a recent husband and father of a 4-month old, he has a sparkling youthful energy, though moderated by the late-night football game (European championship soccer has quite some popularity here). In answer to our forward questions about the effects of the war on his family, he explained that he and his children are not allowed to work for the government because of his grandfather's sympathies with the South. We were quite shocked to learn this.
Our program for the morning brought us to the tomb site of second Nguyen dynasty emperor Minh Mang, a tranquil place with some decorated buildings and many trees, lakes and stone formations all laid out in a yin-yang way. After this, we walked through the Thien Mu Pagoda, a Buddhist temple where munks still live. We learned that in this strand of Buddhism, there is an entity that records all the things we do in life and a judge that assigns us to an afterlife in heaven or hell (see picture in the gallery of these characters). One of the munks that used to live here (Thich Quang Duc) burned himself to death in 1963 in protest of the persecution of Buddhists by the south-Vietnamese government. Ironically, the munks sided with the communist north.
As I am writing, the children are waking up from their naps and it is time to plunge into the hotel swimming pool. Back for more later!
