Around the World with Marsha & Joel

For your viewing enjoyment…here are a couple of videos shot the last few days. I promised the one of Marsha throwing posts with the pottery village potters, and a bonus at the Halong caves and Marble Mountain. Have fun. We’re in Hanoi now. More info later.

Potting in Vietnam

Halong Caves

Chanting in Marble Mountain Pagoda

After breakfast a quick trip to the docks for a cruise along Halong Bay. The embarking area is abuzz with tourists. Turns out the the Bay is one of the largest attractions for Asian visitors. We’re the only boat we can see with western tourists – among close to 40 boats.

We set sail in a morning mist and fog for a four hour cruise. Halong Bay has over 2,000 pinnacle shaped limestone and dolomite outcrops.

Even in the overcast the peaks are quite spectacular. There are small caves along many of the bases.

After about an hours cruising we climb up to the Bong Thien Cong cave. It turns out to be a huge cavern with amazing stalactite and stalagmite configurations, lighted as only Asians can.

After the cave, back to the boat for a cruise around some favorite named rock formations…

…Money rock – because it’s the rock that is printed on some Vietnamese Dong (22,000 to the dollar if you will).

And kissing rock. No explanation needed.

Stuffed crab with shrimp and crab meat

Then an amazing lunch prepared on the boat as we were cruising; French fries, delicious head-on shrimp, the crab,  fried calamari, sautéed fish in a tomato sauce, spring rolls (that we saw a crew member rolling as we boarded), rice, and finger bananas. What a “fulfilling” surprise.

In fact Guido and I apparently had developed a reputation as everyone passed us what their table couldn’t finish for disposal. We happily did a pretty good job.

Local fishermen who actually live on their boats under rock outcroppings use some interesting techniques. One was moving in circles, trailing a net while a fisherman was banging on a wooden drum (in some pretty good rhythm) to scare the fish toward the net. We also got close to some floating villages near the rock formations but didn’t have a chance to visit unfortunately.

I snoozed on the bus in a food stupor as we made the trek back to our hotel in Hanoi. After finishing yesterday’s blog we took a walk toward the old part of the city to get a bite (small sort of) at a recommended Thai restaurant. The best Tom Yum soup and soft shell crab I’ve ever had. Marsha had an eggplant salad to die for. Tomorrow a tour of Hanoi, a water puppet show and more.

Up really early to board Vietnamese Airlines flight to Hanoi. It’s only an hour flight, but when we get there we boarded our bus to go directly to Halong (instead of into Hanoi) – about a 4 hour drive away.

Rice paddys everywhere

The drive was a panoramic view of farmers out placing rice plants for the prime growing season. Water buffaloes were plowing and grazing. The temperature is in the 70s and will remain warm for the next couple of days.

There are two rice crops a year here in the north as opposed to four around Saigon. The farmers alternate things like peanuts  to fill in between the two seasons. The plots belong to single families handed down from generation to generation. Just recently the farmers have been able to sell their product freely.  We also see some beautiful fields growing tomatoes, cilantro, melons, etc.

On a “happy” break about half way to Halong we stop at a cultured pearl center. It’s absolutely fascinating to watch the implanting of seed that will become pearls in two to four years. Also fascinating is the quantity and quality of oysters in these waters. 
  

We get to our hotel in late afternoon (no, that’s not our hotel above) and take a walk to see what’s going to be the future of Halong. It’s on a beautiful stretch of beach and water. And, the government is taking advantage of it by totally reclaiming the beaches with sand (mostly rock now) and building the most expansive amusement park/family center in Asia at least (that’s what you see above – the beginnings of a super coaster). The park runs for miles and even has an enormous tram being constructed (see the tower at left) that will connect the park with the island across the bay.

On our walk back to the hotel we pass little seafood restaurants and fish vendors with a boggling number of fish and shellfish we’ve never seen. We’re drooling so…

…a gang of us decide to take advantage of the hotel’s Happy Hour with chardonnay, beer and a dozen each of the freshest, most beautiful oysters anywhere.

  
Here’s a close-up of Marsha’s to prove the point. (To our grandson Abyl, who loves oysters, we really wish you could be here).

We move from there to our buffet dinner and discover they have oysters there too! But, not as nice and succulent as ours.

To bed, ultra full as usual thinking about our trip to the spectacular limestone outcrops and caves of Halong Bay. Get some sleep.