Weekends Away

View from Ti Top Island

As my return to Canada is just a few short weeks away, I have been trying to see a bit more of Vietnam. This has been a bit difficult, as I can easily be swamped with work, and I find it all too easy to give into my workaholic tendencies. However, I have gone on a couple of very nice weekends away recently. Early in March I went to Hạ Long Bay. I flew up to Hà Nội after work on Friday and then went to Hạ Long Bay on Saturday and stayed overnight on a retrofitted junk, the Phoenix II. Flew back on Sunday night and all ready for my Monday morning class.

Fishing Boats in Halong Bay

My first shock was how cold it was in Hà Nội ... omigoodness, I wasn’t quite expecting it. Luckily I have a thermal layer, and brought a handy shawl from Qatar days. The bus trip from Hà Nội to Hạ Long Bay is quite long ... about 3 or 4 hours depending on the traffic, but it was interesting to see all the rice fields and farms along the way. Right now it is rice planting time and we saw lots of people bent over in the irrigated fields putting the seedlings into the ground. Very back-breaking work by the looks of it. Shortly after we left Hà Nội , we got caught up in a terrible traffic jam. As we got on a bridge, we could see there had been a horrific accident ... I am not sure what happened, as the police were making us move quite quickly, but the body of a man was lying in the middle of the road near his motorbike. People had put incense near his head and feet and we could see people in several different groups picking up money. Most people on the bus assumed it was money from the man, but it didn’t make sense that he would be riding with fistfuls of money in his hand ... later on our guide said the money was money that passers-by had left either out of respect for the victim or perhaps in case his family needed it. However, there was money being blown all over and the people going after it were endangering themselves and holding up traffic as well. It was very upsetting to see the poor man; I know many of us said prayers for him ... I keep thinking of him and I hope they were able to contact his family, poor soul.

Very Spacious Cabin for a Retrofitted Junk!

The rest of the trip passed by rather uneventfully and was fairly efficient in its orchestration. Our bus was divvied up into our various groupings and I went with the others to the Phoenix II. I had no idea what to expect, but it was lovely. The cabin was very nice and had a private bathroom that had a great shower. I was quite impressed! The weather was quite foggy and cool, but we just cruised slowly, so there was no wind to speak of. The pacing of the trip was all rather slow and we might not have covered much territory nor seen many of the thousands of islands, but I think we went far enough away that we couldn’t see the harbour anymore. The first day we visited a big cave, Sung Sot Cave, and had the opportunity to go kayaking, but it was so cold that I wussed out. Several of us opted to return to the boat and relax ...as the sun came out a little by the time we got to the boat, it was pleasant to sit on the deck and just take in the beauty. The second day we sailed a bit more and went to a lookout on top of a mountainous island, called Ti Top Island, in honour of a Russian cosmonaut. There are 427 steps up and every one of them needs to be taken back down, so we all felt very virtuous at completing the trek. The island also boasts a very pretty beach, but did I mention it was cold? I put my feet in and it was Nova Scotia in June cold. Not even the most adventurous went swimming.

Halong Bay

The food was both delicious and plentiful and the scenery was exquisite, so it was a lovely couple of days. The boat had about 25 passengers, including a Korean family of 4, an American family of 5, some German graduate students, several Australians, a Dutch man, an Indian fellow, a young British couple on an-around-the-world trip, another Canadian woman working in Singapore and me. It was a very congenial group and I certainly enjoyed spending time with them. We were divvied up into our various buses after being ferried back to shore and went back to Hà Nội ... lots of travelling that day, but I am very glad to have seen Hạ Long Bay.

Long Beach, Phú Quốc

After a couple of intervening weeks where I had to work on the weekend, I was able to take a lieu day on Friday and flew off to Phú Quốc, the largest island in Vietnam. It is in the Gulf of Thailand; in fact, it is just 15 km off the coast of Cambodia ... I think there have been some territorial disputes over Phú Quốc, and I am not surprised. It is a jewel. The beaches are absolutely gorgeous and are very clean. I am so glad I decided to go and I really wish I had gone there earlier, as I would have returned a few times, I am sure. It is densely forested and while there are lots of resorts and hotels, it is not as focused on tourism as Hạ Long Bay or Hội An. The main industry is fishing and I did have some very good seafood while I was there. Phú Quốc is also very famous for its nước mắm, or fish sauce. I can’t believe I didn’t buy any while I was there, not that I would necessarily know how to use it. I saw many maps of future developments that are planned for Phú Quốc, and I can only hope it will be developed intelligently, keeping in mind the economy and the environment.

I stayed in a lovely resort called the Long Beach Ancient Resort; it is just south of the main town on the island, Dương Đông. The resort is actually pretty new, but built in an old style. It is situated on a very narrow and long plot of land and it is interesting how they have used the space ... lots of little bridges and small clusters of buildings with a shared archway. It was so quiet compared to HCMC and I could hear frogs and lots and lots of birds. It was glorious sitting on the beach and listening to the waves. The water was really warm and I joined some village elders in the ocean for their 5 o’clock bob. As it was a bit overcast the first evening it was a very soft sunset.

Long Beach Resort, Phú Quốc

The next day I went on a Xe Ôm tour of the southern part of the island; one of the people at the reception in the hotel, Hiến, offered to be my tour guide when he heard what I wanted. The beaches on the West Coast are really lovely. It was rough going down to the tip of the island, as it is a dirt road, but we did go to An Thoi, which is a charming little fishing town. So much road construction going on near there and it is really clear big money is going into developing this area. After stopping to see the harbour, Hiến took me to Bãi Sao, which is a beautiful little beach on the Eastern side of the island. We had lunch there and it was great.

An Thoi, Phú Quốc

Bãi Sao

Hiến at Bãi Sao

We continued along and stopped at some dry waterfalls and then went to a pepper orchard. I met a Vietnamese American who has a Canadian mother-in-law. She was travelling with a bunch of her Vietnamese relatives and she thanked me for giving her a chance to speak English for the first time in a week! She helped me buy pepper from the man who runs the orchard. I guess over 400 tons of black pepper is produced on Phú Quốc annually.

Pepper Orchard

Green Pepper

Peppercorns drying in the sun

Just before we went back to the hotel, we had a little tour of Dương Đông and I got a chance to go to Dinh Cau Rock, which is at the mouth of the Dương Đông River ... where the sun and sea and rock meet.  It is a busy and picturesque little harbour.

Dinh Cau Rock

Dương Dong River

It was a lovely day, but the sun and motorbike and gawking took its toll and I was ready for the tour to be over when we pulled up to the resort. I quickly got on my bathing suit and went to the beach. I was close enough to the edge of the beach that the beach massage lady asked me if I wanted a massage ... not really. But I ended up getting a leg and foot massage anyway ... unfortunately, my lady was more interested in selling her wares, manicure, pedicure, threading, pumicing ... so sad. Must have been a slow day. Or else I looked like a sucker. Once I escaped, I decided to go swimming. There were lots of little transparent critters that might have been some form of jelly fish in the water, so I went to the pool, which I had entirely to myself. How glorious! It was really getting dark and cloudy and when it started thundering, I decided to get out of the pool. What a nice way to end a beautiful day. There was quite a storm, but the morning was warm and fresh. I spent another hour at the beach before reluctantly packing up to come back to HCMC. I may have one or two more weekends away before heading back to Canada, but I can’t imagine they will be as lovely and relaxing as the two I have had already.

Long Beach, late afternoon

 

Long Beach Ancient Resort

More pictures soon on flickr - www.flickr.com/photos/raven_chick.