Digital Wanderer

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Vietnam — 14, heading out to Halong

2011-06-03

The next day we headed to the famous Halong Bay. It was April 31st, a big holiday in Vietnam, and in a resort town like Halong, huge crowds were expected, so Thuy advised us against heading out there. But we didn't really have a choice, so we barged ahead, getting up at 5 in the morning and taking a taxi to the station. Thuy had told us in advance which company's bus to take, but the ticket counters were still empty, and the rest of the people didn't really speak English or burn with the desire to help us at 6 AM. We had to hop on the first bus we came across, good thing there were heaps of those heading to Halong. Special managers hustle you in there — generally, Vietnamese buses have managers who lure in passengers, collect ticket money, hand out slippers, and so on. The bus, by the way, departed not on schedule, but when it was completely full. What does "completely full" mean in Vietnam? It's when there are plastic stools standing in the aisle, with people sitting on them. At least they don't ride standing up.

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Taxi meter

Taxis in Hanoi drive by the meter, something around 32 santims per kilometer, which is 65 bourgeois cents. Not all taxi drivers are equally useful — it's better to take megacorporation taxis, the chance of problems is much lower.

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Rates

A black digital display with a bus schedule in Vietnamese hangs on the wall, under which is a red "No Smoking" sign.

Civilization at the station — a TV acting as a display board

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A stop along the way

 A young woman with dark hair in a white-yellow-black jacket sits in the bus, looking to the right. In the background on the left, another passenger and a window with bright light behind curtains are visible.

Sitting next to me was a girl with the poetic name Nyu (Nhung)

The girl is an IT specialist and a smart cookie, pretty and pleasant to talk to, works and studies at a university, knows English and Japanese. And her boyfriend was sitting in the seat in front, and I also have someone waiting to kiss me at home, so we just had to stick to talking, hehe. From what I remember: school kids in Vietnam can skip school at their parents' discretion if the temperature drops to +-5 or +7. In Latvia, I think it's minus 20 or minus 25, depending on the grade. Also, Nyu kept recalling Japanese words instead of English ones. Familiar feeling, trilingual residents of Latvia? Nyu also mentioned that she had been to the Halong islands (see below) with a Japanese colleague on a three-hour tour. The girl also said that even though she has a pet dog at home, dogs are still tasty. Who would have doubted it. I decided not to ask about duck embryos.

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They dropped us off kind of weirdly, right on the highway, but that didn't stop us from getting to the center of Halong on foot. Motorbikers wanted to rip us off for a whole dollar for the ride, considering it was only a 2-kilometer walk. The atmosphere in Halong is very resort-like — but after endless villages and countryside, the change of scenery is quite pleasant. Now I can no longer say that I haven't been anywhere — because it turns out I've been to many places already, but I still rejoice at what I haven't seen yet. Out of purely coastal resort towns, I've only seen Jurmala and Sopot, nothing else comes to mind right off the bat.

Halong Bay is a bay in the Gulf of Tonkin of the South China Sea. The bay includes more than 3,000 islands, as well as small rocks, cliffs, and caves. Its area is about 1,500 sq. km. Both the terrestrial and underwater worlds are characterized by high biodiversity.

Halong translates as "where the dragon descended into the sea". According to legend, Halong island was created by a great dragon. He had always lived in the mountains, but when he came out, he gouged out valleys and hollows of various shapes with his tail. After he plunged into the sea, the places dug by his tail filled with water, and only small islets of land remained. Locals say to this day that a dragon lives in the bay.

Halong Bay is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.

 

View from below of a high pylon and stay cables of a cable-stayed bridge against a cloudy sky, framed by tree branches and city buildings.

Arrived in Halong, and there it is — a cable-stayed bridge

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A huge one too

A promenade with palm trees, green lawns, and a paved path against the backdrop of a bay with a decorative fence. On the opposite shore, a coastal city and rolling mountains can be seen under a cloudy sky. 

A resort!

A stone bench on a paved path in a coastal park with green lawns, young palm trees, and a fence along the water. In the background under a cloudy sky, the sea with hills in the distance, a multi-story building, and a row of bright multicolored flags are visible.

Civilized beauty all around

Dark gray paving slabs imitating cobblestone with small light inclusions. Sparse weed sprouts and dry grass push through the joints between the slabs.

Paving slabs rule!

Panoramic view of a large cable-stayed bridge crossing a body of water, with a city on a hill to the right. In the foreground is a landscaped park with pedestrian paths, flower beds, and palm trees under a cloudy sky. 

The bridge in all its glory

A promenade with multicolored flags, a decorative lighthouse, and a tent under a cloudy sky. On the right is a walking area with lawns, parked cars, and the multi-story building of the Vân Hải Hotel.

The atmosphere is festive

A young bearded man in a yellow t-shirt with a backpack is talking to a smiling elderly man in a white t-shirt against the backdrop of the sea and the promenade. 

This guy (Boris Mikhailovich, I think) works in Kamchatka, he's Russian, sailed in on a cruise liner, invited me to visit

A large wooden tourist vessel "Syrena" with several decks is moored on the water under a cloudy sky. In the right foreground, a pink flag, palm leaves, and a fragment of a wrought-iron fence are visible.

A ship

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Another one

An old computer monitor lying on the ground in the grass, inside which a bright green spiral energy-saving lamp is lit. 

Bushes are lit up with colored eco-bulbs, a generally popular thing in Vietnam

A worn light-colored electrical cabinet with the inscription "MX-31 Electrical Control Cabinet" is located on a paved promenade, behind which a calm body of water and a dark fence are visible.

Electricity here is done by the Chinese, and not just regular ones, but a whole research institute (see inscription below)

Panorama of a bay on a cloudy day with a muddy-rocky shore exposed during low tide. Numerous boats and a long pier with people are moored along the shore, and city buildings with two hot air balloons and foggy mountains are visible on the horizon.

 

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The girls are cute

Two young Asian women smile at the camera while sitting on the promenade by the water. One of them wears a wide-brimmed striped hat, and the other waves her hand next to a cart full of multi-colored clothespins.

In glasses and hats, posing willingly

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They drag fruits on shoulder poles, as usual. I wanted to buy a muzzle like that, but couldn't find one. I did buy a hat, though

Male hands break open a ripe mangosteen, exposing the white lobed flesh of the fruit inside the dark purple rind.

A fruit like this

 On a paved floor there are three open baskets with shellfish: the blue baskets contain bivalve shells and spiky mollusks, the green bowl contains oysters. In the background are other baskets of seafood and a fragment of a person's legs.

There's an abundance of seafood here

A long glass aquarium with live shrimp and a water supply system from plastic pipes at the entrance to a restaurant in Vietnam. 

Everywhere

Various mollusks, shells and oysters are laid out in multi-colored plastic basins and baskets in front of the entrance to an open-air seafood restaurant. Nearby are green mechanical scales and aquariums for live fish.

All around

Close up: a boiled crab of bright orange color with dark spots on its shell, lying on a white plate against a dark red surface. 

Swung by a restaurant, gobbled down a bit

The bill didn't thrill me, because I hadn't figured out in advance how much things cost. There are no price tags, of course, so they fleeced us like white folks, probably twice as much as they should have. I paid something around $20. But I don't regret it — I had never eaten crab or the things in the photo below before, and they were tasty.

 Fried mantis shrimp, generously sprinkled with golden roasted garlic, herbs and chili slices, served on a plate.

Tasty crustaceans, no idea what they're called

A bustling Asian market, in the foreground of which are tables heavily laden with brightly colored dried and candied fruits. Around, dozens of people are visible – buyers and sellers, some of whom are sitting at tables and eating.

The market

 A large multi-deck wooden ship of burgundy color with a black hull and a yellow stripe, decorated with several masts and garlands of multi-colored flags, is moored to a pier. A Vietnamese flag flutters on one of the masts; in the background in cloudy weather, another similar ship is visible.

A ship

A cloudy day on a lively sea coast: a wide sandy beach with numerous vacationers under umbrellas. Hotels and buildings stretch along the shore, surrounded by forested hills.

The bay

 Several wooden pleasure crafts and boats on the water surface under a cloudy sky, among which a small motorboat with a blue canopy stands out. In the background, the blurred outlines of distant hills are visible.

What's there more of here — ships or islands?

 A large dark brown pleasure junk, decorated with multi-colored flags, is moored to a pier under a gray cloudy sky, against the background of other ships.

More ships

 Panoramic view of the bay in cloudy weather. In the foreground — dark waters with several boats and people near the shore, and in the distance across the bay a large cable-stayed bridge spans between green-covered hills with buildings.

The bridge in all its glory

A girl in a plaid shirt, white jeans and high-heeled shoes poses under the canopy of a gazebo on the promenade. In the background, a sandy beach with vacationers, a parked scooter and a hilly shore in the distance are visible.

This one has a stylish and huge muzzle, but as luck would have it, you can't see it

The next post will be about how we sailed on an excursion to one of the islands, and checked out some awe-inspiring caves.


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