Cruising Halong Bay

When our travel agent sent our first proposed itinerary and it included a trip to this place, I was like, "We can save the money and skip it." It's a 3 hour drive from Hanoi, each way, and then it's just water. I see water all the time, even if it's semi solid water like the Delaware and Schyukill Then we noticed how she'd made special notes about how amazing it was, out of the movie "Indochine," so we agreed to keep this and cut something else.

I am so glad we did that.

The drive from Hanoi was through small towns and fields, with farmers working with water buffalos and a very uncomfortable-looking cow strapped on the bike of a motorbike. (Alive! And probably quite angry.) (Mopeds, the main mode of transport here, are everywhere and I'll get to our near death by two wheeler later. But it's not unusual to see entire families- Mom, Dad, kid and baby -- on one bike. ) It amazes me how much weight someone can carry on the back of their bikes, like bags and bags and bags of vegetables and fruit that are taller than they are when sitting. At one point, I saw someone on a bike ahead and I thought, "Wow. That is some crazy lumpy cellulite" and I realized it was bags of fruit. Oops.

When we finally reached Halong Bay, the early morning fog was clearning and we could see it was a very popular tourist destination: There were busses disloading people and lines to get aboard one of the many sight seeing boats. But we didn't have to worry about any of that. We had OUR OWN BOAT, with OUR OWN CREW. It was the same kind designed for a whole tour group, but our Abercrombie and Kent folk do things in style so it was just us. Soooo coool. We sat atop the boat while Tuan, our guide from Hanoi, told us the legend of Halong Bay: Once upon a time, invaders from the North -- Could've been anybody as the Viet were fighting with the Chinese, Mongols, random folks who got lost, etc. at the time -- came into Halong Bay and started wreaking havoc, killing the fishermen who lived there and destroying villages. The survivors prayed to the heavens for help and their prayers were answered: A mother dragon and her babies came down to the bay and shot jets from their mouths. Those jets became the 1,000 or so rocky islands throughout the bay. The dragons stopped the invaders and made life safe for the Viet people again. Ha Long means "Descending Dragon" in honor of the Mrs. Firebreath who saved everyone. Her children, as children do, eventually had to get back to heaven -- they probably had dates or something -- and the place where she said goodbye to them is "Baby Dragons Bay."

Our first top was a limestone cave that was only discovered in the last 20 years. It was amazingly beautiful. I mean, it's a cave, and I wasn't expecting much, but the height and the design and the natural sculptures were truly awesome. We could pick out different animals in the structures: an elephant, a tiger, and lots and lots of long-tangled jellyfish going up the walls. Jordo and I surmised that when jellyfish rule the world, this will be their town hall. We hope they will be gentle overlords.

After the cave, we rode around the bay a bit and then lunch was served. It had been advertised as a fresh seafood lunch, but since I found that totally gross, they accomodated me with "seapork, seachicken and seabeef." Delicious. And so much food! They kept bringing course after course, with two bottles of wine, and between the good food and the great view and the incredibly hot company, I couldn't have been happier. After lunch, ignoring conventional wisdom, we jumped right into the bay, leaping from the second story of the boat and swimming around it. I could have stayed out there for hours.

Even though we'd really done nothing more strenuous this day but chew and some swimming, we were exhausted by the time we got back to Hanoi around 8 pm so we stayed in, watching bad movies. Message to Sawyer from "Lost" : Whatever possessed you to be in that bad Damien wanna-be film? Even your hotness couldn't save you there. And you know I am very forgiving wherever you are concerned.

More on Hanoi to come.