As a little vacation for me before going back home during Chinese New Year (to take tests, ugghhhh), I decided to visit Hanoi and see the famous area of Ha Long Bay (roughly four hours away). I have already been to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), and if you are interested, you can look up my post about that on my site.

When I first arrived in Hanoi, the weather was cloudy and very gray. I soon saw that it wasn’t just the clouds making everything gray; it was also the intense smog! I was surprised because I didn’t think Hanoi had issues with smog the way that many parts of China do, but apparently it does sometimes. The smoggy air and the rather dreary scenery of garbage and underdeveloped areas all along the way to my hotel downtown made for a long car ride. Fortunately, when I checked into my hotel, the staff were very friendly and full of smiles. I only stayed for one night because the next day I would be picked up to go on my two-day/one-night cruise through Bai Tu Long Bay (the eastern part of the Ha Long Bay area). So, without further ado, on to Bai Tu Long Bay.

We were told that the ship can hold forty-eight passengers, but there were only twenty-nine on our trip, which I was glad about. I decided to take the cruise going through Bai Tu Long Bay rather than the standard Ha Long Bay cruise, mainly because I read that the Bai Tu Long Bay area was less crowded with junk boats. We did see some other boats, of course, but not enough to ruin the experience.

The weather was a bit cool and cloudy while out in the bay. For a brief period of time, there was a bit of sun trying to poke through the haze. Lunch and dinner were full multi-course meals. For some reason, my camera decided to screw up and not process some of the photos correctly, so I can only show you the food images that survived.

Although it was cloudy, I was still able to get some shots (with my limited zoom lens) of the karst peaks that passed us by.

The scenery wasn’t bad, though I did feel a bit underwhelmed when I thought back to when I was in Guilin, China, and saw the mass of karst peaks everywhere. Perhaps this trip would have felt different if the weather had been hot and sunny. Oh well, I would say it’s still worth it to do a cruise, perhaps even a three-day or two-night cruise to get some extra activities in. One thing that we did that I decided not to take pictures of was kayaking. We were out on the water for a good 45 minutes or so. I took my camera with me, and the boat gave us water-proof bags, so that wasn’t the issue. This was my first time kayaking, and I didn’t realize how easily one could capsize (no, I didn’t capsize), and I felt nervous with the idea of trying to turn myself too much to try to get certain images. There was one image I wish I had gotten, though. It was of a boy in a small fishing boat who was multi-tasking like no one’s business, meaning his hands were busy fishing while his feet were busy steering the boat paddles!

In the evening, after dinner, we were treated to a lovely little musical performance by the ship staff. They played some traditional Vietnamese instruments (including the “full moon” guitar with four strings) and sang. After that, one of the staff members who was performing decided to treat us to a solo performance, which we were told was a special treat because he normally doesn’t do that (who knows if that is true or not, but I’ll choose to believe it’s true). This was one time that I was really kicking myself for not having my camera with me.

Early in the morning (I’m talking 6:45am early), there was a tai chi demonstration (actually, it was really more like passersby just trying to follow the tai chi instructor), and I was the only one to show up. I thought for a moment that perhaps it would be another intimate moment where I was special enough to enjoy a one-on-one experience. But about 10 minutes into it, someone else showed up, and a few minutes later, others started to show up, so there went my special time. While I’m certainly not a fan of getting up early for anything, it was rather nice to see the foggy karst peaks moving by while doing tai chi.

For breakfast, it was a buffet of east meets west, but rather than making some kind of Asian fusion cuisine, there were two sides: a Vietnamese side and a western side. I decided to indulge in this mix.

After breakfast, our last activity was going to a cave. This was the one part of the trip that wasn’t that great, mainly because we showed up to the cave area when there were several other cruise groups who were also there. It didn’t end up being a big deal; it just made it seem more touristy. There wasn’t that much to see inside the cave, but I was still able to get a few decent shots. The view from the upper cave area that looked out onto the sea wasn’t quite as impactful as the view from the cave that I visited while in Coron, Philippines. We were told that in the beginning of the cruise tours, our cruise company was the only one allowed to take passengers to this cave site, but eventually the government broke the contract and allowed other tour companies to bring people here too.

Back on the boat, they served us brunch (a mere three hours after breakfast) just after we checked out of our cabins. There was still one more thing to do before making it back to Hanoi, and that was to see a water puppet show. I was looking forward to this, but I also wondered how authentic this would be since this is part of a tour package. It ended up being interesting anyway, if not a bit shorter than expected. It started with a couple slowly sailing on a row boat and singing to the audience. After that, the water puppet show began. These wooden water puppets appear from behind a curtain, and the water level looks to be about waist deep. Each show had a particular theme pertaining to country life. While the puppets were being moved around (it’s not clear how exactly they were controlled), there was music and singing along with it.

Apparently, there is a well-known water puppet show theater not far from where I was staying (I didn’t know this until I left) called the Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre. Perhaps if I’m ever in Hanoi again, I’ll go there for another show.

Stay tuned for part two.