Kelly and Quang's Global Roam

We spent the past two days on a boat. Quang and I jonied a tour to Halong Bay, Vietnam's natural wonder of wonders. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. More than 3,000 islands rise from the South China Sea. Most of the islands are so small they are considered "islets". Since they are made of limestone, they are easily carved by water and wind. Many of them stand at odd angles and are topped by funky shapes. They are usually close together and many house caves.

Our tour van picked us up in Hanoi and drove us to Halong Bay (a three-hour drive). The van ride freaked me out. We sat on the front bench in the van. I was in the middle with a clear view out the windshield and the oncoming traffic. I thought the moped traffic in Hanoi was stressful, but I soon learned that highway driving in Vietnam is even scarier. There are apparently no traffic laws and the rule of the road is to pass as many vehicles as you can while using your horn as much as possible. Our driver passed other vans and trucks on a two-lane bridge while a bus was so close I could make out its license plate. Plus, along the way, clouds moved in and it started to rain. Thankfully, we made it to Halong City only to find our boat crowded in a traffic jam of another sort: every tourist boat in the world, it seemed, was packed into Halong City's port waiting for a load of travelers. We clamoured on board our boat and sat for an hour before pushing off. It took that long for all the boats behind us and around us to make it out to sea, thus clearing the way for our boat to leave.

The rain continued and everyone on our boat sighed. We had hoped for clear views of Halong Bay. Surrounded by heavy fog, we wondered if we'd see anything at all. For the next two days the fog would come and go, sometimes closing us in and keeping the scenery a secret. Other times it would let up a little, but it never lifted and left. Instead of moping our way through the trip, we found it mysterious and haunting. Sensing an islet outside the boat window, we'd turn our heads just in time to catch a glimpse of a rocky mound passing in the mist. It reminded us of our Navimag trip through the fjords of Chile. There too the mountains had played peek-a-boo with us. When the clouds did thin a little, we looked at our surroundings and were reminded of Anthong National Park off the coast of Thailand's island, Koh Samui.
We sailed through the morning, getting off to tour one of Halong Bay's many caves. Because the islands are made of soft limestone, they've been carved above by the wind, but they've also been carved below by the sea. The cave we visited was immense, deep and spacious. We got off the boat a second time to climb 424 stairs up to the top of an islet and take in the view. We huffed it up only to be greeted by rain. No matter, what we could see through the rolling clouds was stunning.

Because we couldn't be outside sunning on the deck, we mostly hung out inside the boat and talked with the other passengers. There were two American doctors fresh off a volunteer stint in Indonesia working on tsunami relief. There were two Israeli gals, and an Australian couple on holiday. There was a second Australian couple traveling with the young woman's grandfather. The grandfather was Vietnamese. He found a friend in Quang who passed many hours in conversation with the old man in Vietnamese. There was also a man from Madison, Wisconsin on our boat, and he brought along a guitar. Once we spotted the guitar, we insisted on a song. As it turned out, the guitar player from Madison was quite a musician. We were treated to our very own private concert.

But perhaps the highlight of the trip was Quang's interactions with the ship's cat. At one point in the trip, Quang hauled out a bag of his favorite dried octupus and before two minutes had passed that cat had sniffed him out. The cat meowed an awful meow and begged. Quang, who is allergic to cats, could not get away. The cat jumped on his lap, meowed and pawed for squid. And once he gave it up, the cat came back for more. Quang had a new best friend for the rest of the trip.