We boarded our van early this morning and headed out on a 4 hour drive to Halong Bay. We stopped midway at a Vietnamese art and craft center. While it was rather touristy, it was interesting to watch the artists at work. Most astounding were the embroiderers. They worked from pictures of art work or from actual photos. 3 women were working on a black and white photo of 3 American children and turning it in to an embroidery portrait. From taking my figure drawing classes, I was surprised how talented these women were!
We arrived in Halong Bay around noon, the kids having sung, laughed and read the whole time. As we pulled up to the dock, our guide, Lam, received a call from our hotel, that we’d left my bag and Hudson’s bag in the lobby. Fortunately, Lam was able to arrange for a car to drive the bags all the way to Halong Bay and then have a tender bring the bags to our boat. (The bags arrived around 9pm!!)
Our Junk, named The Valentine, is lovely. There are 5 cabins, a spacious dining room with a bar and some seating. In addition is a large deck on the top level. The other people aboard are quite nice, especially a family from a small village in Greece! Pam, the mom is American, Dimitri, the dad is Greek and they have an 11 yr old son,Stam (short for Stamadis) who has been hanging out with Hudson, Matt and Carly.
After an 8 course lunch (!) we took a small tender to one of the “islands” where they had built 400 steps in to the rock , in order to climb to the top to see beautiful views of the bay. Lam and the kids stayed behind to play soccer on the beach! When we returned from our climb, there was an international game in progress!! A dutch boy had joined as well as another Vietnamese adult and of course Stam, who’s Greek! Eventually the kids all ended up in the water and had a blast! We reboarded our boat and headed to see the largest of 4 floating villages. There are about 600 people that live there, in small one or two room houses that float on large blocks of Styrofoam. This is the only village that has a school, which we visited. There are 2 small classrooms accommodating primary grades. Most children stay in their village, marry young, and continue in the family business of fishing. While these living standards are sub-par for us, these villagers are happy, and this life is not one of poverty. Surprisingly, they can make about $50/day selling squid, clams, etc, which is enough to own a television and make the occasional home improvement! I must admit that this was a bit disconcerting to us, as we look at their homes as hovels and their life as so mundane. It’s hard for us to understand how these people can be happy to lead such a simple life, never leaving their little cove.
We returned to The Valentine and had a little rest before cocktails and dinner. We all decided it would be fun to dine together so we had the crew make one long table!
In addition to the Greek family, there is a middle age couple from Calgary traveling for 5 weeks, and a young Australian couple, away from their children for the first time in 6 years! After dinner, Lam taught Hudson how to fish for squid and there was a screening of “Indochine”. I watched for a few minutes but couldn’t keep my eyes open! I’ll need energy for a day of kayaking tomorrow!
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