Day 76 – April 1 – Halong Bay, Vietnam

It was very foggy this morning as we sailed into Halong Bay. Jan thinks the fog horn woke her up, but regardless she was up at about 4:30am.  It was just light enough to be able to see the shape of the rocks standing all around Halong Bay and the lights of the fishing vessel and junks anchored along the various small islands.  The fog got heaver as we neared the port and the Captain had to constantly blow the horn as there were many small boats in front of us that really didn’t want to move away very fast.

We sailed under the Friendship Bridge connecting both sides of the city of Halong which was just opened when we were here in 2006.  Today we took a ship’s tour, Halong’s Countryside.   We drove through the countryside northeast of Halong towards Hanoi (which is 3 hours one way).  There is area where there are quite a few coal mines.  The main employment is in the mines for the men, so the women do most of the other work on the farms and in small shops.  The homes here are the typical northern Vietnamese, narrow and 3-4 stories.  The bottom level is almost always a shop like a small store, a small restaurant, a garage, a repair shop, etc.

The sky was very hazy and visibility was not the best but we could see along the sides of the road.  You can certainly see the difference between China’s level of development and Vietnam’s by driving through the countryside.

After about 1 hour, we arrived at the Yen Tu Monastery, in the mountains.  It is a very large, active Buddhist Monastery with both nuns and monks.  It lots of buildings that are very ornate in the Buddhist traditions.  The gardens around were also beautiful.  It was warm enough to not need a jacket!  One the monks, an 82 year old who had been in the North Vietnam Army before he became a monk, came into one of the halls and explained about the founders of this Monastery and something about Zen Buddhism.  He didn’t speak English, so our guide interpreted for him.

After the visit, we drove back through the valley stopping at a small village.  There we were supposed to visit a local market but it was after 11:00am and it was gone.  We were taken down a small street to a local government run Child Care Center for 3-4 year olds.  They took us inside and told us we could talk to the children.  However, the very first room we peaked into, a small boy got very upset and started yelling at us and pointing to the other door – he wanted us to go away.  He started crying and then it became so obvious that they were very scared of us.  So Fred and Jan left the building immediately.   Several of the people commented that no way would any American Child Care center let a group of tourists who look different and talk different to interact with the children without any supervision at all.

We then drove down a dirt road to visit a farmer’s farm and family.  It was the farm of one of the local communist members because there was a picture of Ho Chi Minh and a certificate honoring the farmer for his 60 years in the party.  It was a small compound where they grew fruit trees, mostly peach and they had fields below where they grew enough rice to feed themselves.  Their cash income is mostly from the peaches and from a small pension from the government since the farmer had been a government employee.  His wife, son and grandson were there as well and they served us tea and roasted sweet potatoes as a snack.

The drive back to the ship was non-eventful and we sailed at 8:00pm.