September 17, 2005

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  HẠ LONG BAY
  

  
  

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  5. 6. 7. 8.

  
  

  9. 10. 11. 12.

  
  

  Picture 1. At Hạ Long Bay there are innumerable tourists from all over the world.  But prominently there are a lot of young tourists in their twenties from Korea, Japan, Spain, other European countries, and of course the United States.  We had to wait for more than an hour so our charter boat could come in to pick us up as soon as other boats would leave the dock.  Our private boat is the same size as the boat Thiên Cung.  The boat crew was about eight.

  
  

  Picture 2. Our charter boat is a restaurant tour boat which could easily house 100 patrons.  Almost all other boats carried passenger to their capacity.  I enjoyed the privacy that we rode the boat for 7 hours on the water of Hạ Long Bay but felt a little uncomfortable to think of the extravanga.  However, I must admit that during the boat ride I felt as if I were a millionaire

  
  

  Picture 3.  One of the most famous islets in Hạ Long Bay.  Due to its shape and the parity, these islets were named Kissing Rocks.  Vietnamese gave these rocks a different name, Ḥn Trống Mái (Male and Female Rocks).  From different angles you can easily mistake that they join.  Actually there is a large gap between them.

  
  

  Picture 4.  Another cute shape of an islet.  With this shape, it was named Kylon (Kỳ Lân, or Lion).  There must be thousand of islets in Hạ Long Bay. Most of them have no name.  Depending on your imagination and creativity you can come up with all the fantasy names for these islets.  My tour guide, Trường, pointed to me a very distinctive small rock at the waterline of an islet and told me it was an incense-burner.  I could not see the shape because the water covered the three legs of the incense-burner.

  
  

  Picture 5.  Visit the recently discovered Grotto Thiên Cung.  Trường told me so many names of the stalactites in the Grotto based on the shapes of those calcified statuettes.  I did not take notes so at this moment I could not recall their names.  I am not sure I took the picture of Kylon or one of the sitting fairies with flowing long hairs.

  
  

  Pictures 6, 7, 9, and 10.  See if you could visualize the many layers of royal umbrellas (pic. 6) or the shapes of anything else in those stalactites. 

  
  

  Picture 8.  Monkey Hole (Hầu Động).  I was told one of the local fishermen discovered this grotto because he saw monkeys came in and out of the Hole. 

  
  

  Picture 11.  Phoenix’s wing.

  
  

  Picture 12.  On top there are two round figures, they are named Breasts of Fairy because of their shape.  The dark figure near the bottom resembled a knelt down elephant.

  
  

  EDIT:

  
  

  THINGS MAY NOT BE MENTIONED IN THE TOUR BOOK

  
  

   

  
  

  Public Toilet
  
  

  
  

  Honestly, I do not read tour book so I am not certain whether the use of public toilet is mentioned.  When I was in a large bookstore in Hà Nội I saw a book written by a foreigner titled “Where is the toilet?”  It prompts me that this subject is quite sensitive yet tourists may overlook.

  
  

   

  
  

  At the train station in Lào Cai, on the expressed national train, and later in many other public places, public toilet is not as sanitary as in the United States and many other countries.  Make sure you bring your own toilet paper as well as bacterial hand cleaning sheets.  I had to go from car to car on the night train in search for toilet paper, and with shame I confessed that I kept the roll for my own use to save my own time and trouble.  I was extremely careful so during the whole trip I did not get diarhea.  I was reluctant to use public toilet unless I had no other choice.  At the station, one had to pay about 5 cents to 10 cents to use the toilet.  Cost is more if one needs toilet paper. 

  
  

   

  
  

  Women
  
  

  
  

  If I were a man, I would go to Vietnam to marry one of the Vietnamese girls.  Most of them are pretty with fair skin (they covered up from head to toes in the tropical weather to avoid being exposed to direct sunlight), slim (between size 0 and 2), sweet and soft spoken.  I love the voice of Hà Nội, Huế, and Hội An women.  In the scorching heat, they look cool and graceful in the latest fashionable áo dài.  They put me to shame in appearance comparision.  I turned as dark as a piece of chocolate and withered in the heat.  I looked more like a H’Mong or a farm girl, not a Việt Kiều came from the United States.  They walk around gracefully and as fresh as a flower blooming in the early morning.  Even a female peddler in Hà Nội has a voice as soft as bird song.  I ended up paying for a hand of banana triple the regular cost because she, the female peddler, sweet talked to me   The hand of banana should cost about 33 cents but I paid a dollar.  I bargained with her awhile just to hear her Hà Nội soft voice.  I would not be broke to pay more than the regular price, so I ignored the recommendation that I should bargain at least half of the asking price.

  
  

   

  
  

  Gifts

  
  

   

  
  

  At Hạ Long Bay I bought (for a relative) a cultured fresh water pearl necklace 8 mm, 16 inches about thirty dollars.  Real pearl texture is sandy if you test them with your teeth.  They are not darkened in high heat if you burned them. 

  
  

   

  
  

  At Hội An besides lanterns, silk products (such as ties, scarves, and dresses,) designed wood chopsticks, you could buy gorgeous paintings, marble scuptures at very low cost.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 6:55 pm
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