Food and Money and Drones

Have you ever played a video game where you have to go collect food. And then you have to collect wood, and then stone, and then gold, and so on? Naturally, there are other objectives of the game as well. But you have to collect resources to make everything else happen.

Yesterday was our resource collecting day. We went grocery shopping. But there was a lot more to it than that. Because we also had to collect money.

When we arrived, we got cash at an ATM at the airport. That should have lasted us quite some time. But things don't always go as planned. We also purchased Climate Cards, one for each of us. The name, Climate Card, might imply it will give us some sort of mastery over weather. It's like Elmer Fudd's magic helmet in What's Opera, Doc. "North winds blow! South winds blow! Typhoons! Hurricanes! Earthquakes!... SMOG!" If you have no idea to what I am referring, immediately start watching cartoons and don't stop until you do understand.

Alas, that is not what a Climate Card does. It's the card you use to scan in and out of all the public transportation in Seoul. We scan on to the bus and scan again when we leave the bus. It's what you use to get through the turnstiles at the metro stations. So first you buy the cards. They aren't too expensive, maybe two dollars each. But then you have to charge them, put money on them so you can actually ride things. This is where we ran into the unexpected. All our research says you can do this using a foreign credit card, but you have to use an app. So we downloaded the app, expecting to be able to choose our language. Uh, no! It's all in Korean. And first you have to register and it asks you question after question. It's a lot to keep translating and the translations aren't very good. Needless to say, we decided maybe this app wasn't the way to go.

Instead we headed to a metro station to see if we could charge it there on one of the kiosks. Yes is the answer. Or maybe, yes but. Because the whole answer is that you can charge it using a kiosk, but you can't use a foreign credit card to do it. You can, however, use cash. So a big chunk of the cash that I got at the airport, expecting it to last quite some time, was used up at the kiosk. Not a big deal, we still had some cash left. Plus, there are lots of ATMs around.

Or are there? (dramatic music sting)

For food collection, we decided to ride on a bus (which we can now scan into and out of) to Seoul Station. This is the main train station in the city. Attached to the station is a bunch of outlet stores and a huge Lotte Mart grocery store.

I knew that I was running low on cash, but we were going to Seoul Station and a big major supermarket. Surely, they would have an ATM there, right? If not in the grocery store, surely they will in the train station.

No. And here's what's wild: They had these machines that look like ATMs, but they are automated currency exchange machines. If I had US Dollars, I could have put them in the machine and gotten South Korean Won out. But I don't have US Dollars. I haven't had US Dollars since the last time I was in the United States.

We ended up walking several blocks away to a bank. There we found an ATM and successfully completed one of the game quests, collect money. And along the way, we saw Super Bull.

By day, mild mannered source of beef. But in times of trouble...

The very large Lotte Mart is quite something. It's not just a grocery store. On the lower level it has groceries and pharmacy items. But on the floor above you can get clothing, camping gear, toys, and electronics. It's basically like a Walmart Superstore, but one two floors instead of one sprawling floor. They also have a food court area.

Selling decorative keyboards. In Korean, of course.

Alrica and I got noodle dishes. Mine was noodles in beef broth with bulgogi. Alrica's was more interesting. Her noodles were topped with jjajangmyeon. This is a black bean sauce. You can see the black beans. It's also cooked with pork and a fermented soybean paste. It was very savory and delicious. I liked my noodles, but Alrica's noodles were the winners.

Alrica also got a beverage and she used a kiosk to select it. She assumed, since it was a kiosk, it would give her choices of languages. Turns out, no, not at this kiosk. So Alrica selected her beverage by picture alone. She thought she was getting a boba milk tea with caramel. That's not quite what she ended up with. It was a milky drink and it did have boba. But instead of caramel, it was molasses. And there was no tea in it. It was good, though not as good as much of the milk tea Alrica has learned to love in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

At the ends of many aisles (in the grocery section) there were women giving out samples of things. We got convinced to buy sausages, yogurt, and apricot jam chocopies by some of these women. We successfully resisted kimchi and a few other things that I'm not quite sure what they were. We did pretty well as the game quest of collect food. But what we did not find was drinks that Alrica was interested in. I'll come back to that.

On the way home from the grocery store, we bought one more thing, strawberries, from a vendor who is basically across the alley from the entrance to our building. Wow, these strawberries are good! I have bad news for Americans. Our fruit just isn't as tasty as the fruit pretty much anywhere else in the world. I suppose when you think that you can have fruit in any season and it shipped from who knows where, that's not surprising. But when you are eating fruit in season and it is local, it is delicious. (Well, if you've ever gone to an orchard in the US and gotten fruit there, then you know what I mean.)

Seoul is celebrating spring this month. They are hosting what they call the Seoul Spring Festival. Last night, there was a drone show at Yeouido Hangang Park. Hangang is the name of the river in Seoul. We often call it the Han River in English, but the Koreans say Hangang, which means the same thing. Gang means river. So we were alongside the river, sitting in the park, waiting for the show and wondering if we would get to see a drone show or not.

Why did we wonder? Well, this was our third attempt to see a drone show. We tried twice in Thailand. One of the drone shows was canceled due to a fashion show. At the other, we got fireworks instead. I blogged about that.

But the saying goes "Third time's a charm." And it was. We got to see the drone show. That was quite a spectacle. I am so impressed at what they can do with the drones. And imagine the team behind it. There must be a drone choreographer (a droneographer?) and a lighting designer, and the engineers to design the drones, and programmers to get the drones to do the moves that the choreographer and lighting designer have designed. For example, at one point there was a riverside scene, and there were waves in the water. You have to program the drones to light up and go dark in the right sequence while they are hovering in the right positions.

A dome? Maybe a flying saucer? But since it isn't opaque, they don't fill in the back half.

Other highlights included a person eating dumplings using chopsticks, hot air balloons (the image of them, no actual balloons or hot air), and a recreation of the one of the famous bridges in Seoul which has water fountain shows. (We haven't visited that bridge yet, we've only seen the drone simulation so far.)

Not sure what animal that is

Drone shows are staggering, when I think about the sheer amount of planning and coordination involved. It's like a marching band moving in three dimensions, except they don't have to worry about breath control or playing the right notes, whereas they do have to worry about windspeeds and flashing the right colors.

After the drone show, we were hungry. Instead of going to a restaurant, we went to a convenience store called GS25. GS25 is to Korea what 7-11 is to Japan and Thailand. The GS25 we visited is one of the super convenience stores where there are a ton of options, tables and chairs where you can eat your purchases, a microwave to heat your purchases, and, (ironically given our earlier adventure at the huge grocery store,) a Citibank ATM. They also have a selection of drinks that were to Alrica's liking. So we bought some kimbap for dinner, a drink for me, and several drinks for Alrica so we could bring the extras home.

We successfully completed all our quests for the day and had a drone show as a reward. I think we're winning the game!

The DMZ

When I was a kid, my family often did car trips. Some were to see Grandma and Grandpa, so they were about 90 minutes. Though to me it felt much longer. But sometimes we did much longer road trips, leaving Iowa and heading to Pennsylvania or Tennessee. I happen to have a brother, let's call him Adam. As any parent (or really any parent with more than one child) knows, two kids, backseat, long car trip, those ingredients lead to explosive results. Frequently, my parents would have to impose a boundary line that neither of us was to cross. But then we would have the fun of poking our fingers super close to the boundary to get the other one screaming "He's about to cross the line!" So a boundary wasn't enough. We needed a wider strip that neither of us was supposed to enter. A buffer, or, if you will allow, a backseat DMZ.

A peace bell. If we had a giant bell in the backseat, that would have kept us from fighting.

One rare thing which Korea has is a demilitarized zone, not in the backseat of the car, but in the middle of the peninsula. It's not the only DMZ in the world, but it is probably the most well known and the most heavily protected by troops just outside of it on both sides. We took a tour to visit it.

Hey, it's me in the DMZ.

First we went to Imjingak. Here we went to a museum called the North Korea Experience. The fact is, almost no one ever visits North Korea. It's difficult to know what North Korea is like, how the people live, what's true and what isn't. But there are defectors, people who flee North Korea. However, it is exceptionally rare that they flee across the DMZ. The DMZ itself is filled with landmines, plus with soldiers on either side of it, that would be a very dangerous thing to do.

A train destroyed during the war and left in the DMZ. Another meaning of a bullet train.

Most defectors flee via China. While we were in the North Korean Experience, we got to hear from a defector. She fled through China with her husband and son. Her plan had been to stay in China, but then she learned that the local Chinese population was given money if they turned in North Koreans. So, they couldn't stay there. She met missionaries from South Korea and they helped her to get out of China and move through Southeast Asia until she reached Cambodia. Then from Cambodia, she and her family came to South Korea.

When defectors make it out, the South Koreans first need to interview them and make sure they aren't spies. Then they are given three months of re-education. The economy of South Korea works very differently than that of North Korea. North Korean defectors need to understand the lifestyle and culture of South Korea.

We learned a lot of interesting things from the defector we got to hear from. The first leader of North Korea was Kim Il-sung. The North Koreans loved him. Life worked pretty well under his leadership and he was seen as strong. But after he died and his son, Kim Jong-il, became the premier, things took a bad turn. The way the economy functioned was that the people did their work and in return they got a food ration. Under Kim Jong-il, the food ration system imploded. Now citizens weren't getting enough food. That had been the defector's main impetus to leave, so she could feed herself and her family.

The current premier is Kim Jong-Un, the son of Kim Jong-il. He is actually much crueler to the citizens of North Korea than was his father or grandfather. He has taken authoritarianism to its logical extreme.

In South Korea, there is a dream of reunification, one Korea again. It doesn't seem likely in the near future. And I'm not sure it is economically feasible. But I do understand the desire. There were families ripped apart when the two halves of Korea separated. People would like to be able to be together with their families again.

After the North Korea Experience, we went to the Dora Observatory. To get there, we had to pass through military control. A soldier boarded the tour bus and we each had to show our passports as he went through a roster, checked our names and that our faces looked like our passport pictures.

At the Dora Observatory you can look across the DMZ and see North Korea. Really, you can't tell you are looking at the DMZ or North Korea except for two things: One, you are being told you are. Two, flags. Each country has one village within the DMZ. And in each of those villages, there is a super tall flagpole with that country's flag flying on it.

You are not allowed to take pictures at the Dora Observatory. Definitely not of North Korea. Again, all you would see is mountains and countryside and a village, but photography is not allowed.

After the Dora Observatory, we went to the Third Tunnel. South Korea has discovered four tunnels leading out of North Korea and into South Korea. The tunnels were meant for a surprise invasion. The thing is, there could be more than four. No one knows how many undiscovered tunnels there are.

You can't take cameras into the real third tunnel. Here is Alrica at the fake third tunnel. The real one is not this tall.

As you might have guessed from its name, the tunnel we visited is the third one the South Koreans discovered. The South Koreans heard from a defector who claimed to have been an engineer who had been brought in to inspect the tunnel. So the military placed lots and lots of PVC pipes filled with water and drove them into the ground. One day, about three years later, a gush of water came out of one of them. So the military places several more around that location and they were able to locate where blasting of dynamite was occurring underground.

Today, when you go the third tunnel, you have to leave your belongings behind, because you pass through a metal detector. Then you go 350 meters (1150 feet) downhill in a bore tunnel that South Korea built to intersect the North Korean tunnel. Here you reach the furthest point that the North Koreans got to. Now you go through the North Korean tunnel. Everyone is given a hard hat and that hat did its job. The number of times I bumped my head on the low ceiling was not insignificant. I would have had quite a headache without the helmet. You walk about 255 meters (835 feet) until you reach a concrete wall with a small window. Inside there is a lot of greenery growing and there are closed circuit cameras so the South Koreans can watch to make sure the North Koreans don't come back into the tunnel. At this end point, you are 70 meters (230 feet) below ground and you are 170 meters (560 feet) from the North Korean border.

This sculpture is called Unifying Earth. It represents the desire to reunite Korea.

Then you have to go back up. It's pretty steep. You are breathing heavily when you're done, good cardio!

On one side of the split globe North Korea is raise and South Korea indented.

On the way out of the restricted area, you must again pass through the checkpoint and another soldier enters the bus. Again, we held up our passports. His job was to make sure everyone who went in is now coming out.

On the other side, South Korea is raised and North Korea indented.

It is really somewhat amazing to think that South Korea's capital city, Seoul, is so close to the border with a hostile enemy. There have been proposals to move the capital, but by the time the peninsula was divided into two countries, Seoul was already the economic and cultural heart of Korea. Perhaps you could move governmental offices, in fact, South Korea is moving many of them, but you can't move the center of culture from Seoul.

I think it's comparable to my parents saying we couldn't just make Adam ride in the trunk. Though, as I very logically pointed out, it would have quashed all the backseat battles. My first foray into diplomacy failed. Still, Adam and I are friends today. Let's hope the two Koreas can be friends again too.

Cherry Blossoms

We arrived in Seoul at just about the perfect time. One thing that is famous in some places like Washington, DC, much of Japan, and much of Korea is the cherry blossoms. They bloom and these trees are just a canopy of white and pink flowers. It lasts a couple weeks and then the petals all fall coating the ground in what almost looks like feathery snow.

Why are those people blocking view of the cherry blossoms?

We got here in time to see the blossoms. We actually see them in many places in Seoul. But there are some of the parks and green spaces where one can see lots of them in near proximity to one another.

Lots of blossoms, no people in the way

We went to a park called Seoul Forest Park. Here we got to view a lot of beautiful nature. There were plenty of other people enjoying it as well. The parks have many of the cherry blossom trees. One section is called the Tree Walk. It was resplendent. There were all the delicate petals above us and all the delicate petals that had already fallen. An entirely charming scene.

The Tree Walk

I will let pictures do the heavy lifting in this post.

Like pink-tinged snow

But it doesn't make the steps slippery

Pondside Blossoms

The bowers that be

Wall of Tile

A fact that is staggering when your frame of reference is the United States, is this: Hanoi celebrated its millennial birthday, 1000 years, in the year 2010. In a worldwide perspective, a city that has been around since 1010 isn't that unthinkable. Damascus, for example, has been around for 10,000 years, maybe more. So a mere 1000 years might seem unimpressive. But where I'm from the oldest continuously inhabited city in the country has existed for less than 500 years. So 1000 impresses.

The full name of the city is Thang Long Ha Noi

I bring up the age of the city as it relates to the walk I took today. Today, I left early in the morning. The temperatures have, for the most part, been wonderful here. But now, in early April, it is getting hotter. First thing in the morning, the temperature was wonderful. It was just getting hot shortly before I got home.

Elephants

Cranes

I walked along Hanoi's Mosaic Wall. This wall is part of the dike system for the Red River. The wall is there to block floodwater, though everything on the river side of the wall must be in danger. In 2007, a project began to decorate over 6 km of the wall (about 4 miles) with mosaics of all sorts. Many artists were involved. And the goal was this: By October 2010, when Hanoi celebrated its 1000th anniversary, they wanted the mosaic wall to be so long it made the Guinness Book of World Records. Hanoi reached that goal.

Tells you they got the record right there on the wall!

The wall is fascinating. It has a lot of different artistic styles. The various sections were designed by different artists, and you can see it in the images.

A very different and playful style

Many of the artists were Vietnamese, but not all of them. In fact, the most recent section to be completed (after it was already the longest) was in 2019. It celebrates Sri Lanka and was sponsored by the Sri Lankan embassy.

This is in a section of the wall sponsored by Spain. One building is a pencil! Lapiz!

It took me around 25 minutes walking just to reach the closest point of the wall. And I didn't walk the entire length, but I probably did walk 5 km along it, admiring the images, the ceramics, and stories that are being told through this visual medium.

This section surprised me. How often do the Vietnamese make jack-o-lanterns. And how would they make snowmen? They don't have snow!

The mosaic wall runs along a very busy street. You might notice my pictures are sometimes at an angle. I couldn't step back far enough to get wide shots of multiple images. Well, I could have stepped back far enough, but I would have been standing in fast-moving traffic. I doubt that would have improved my photography.

I am not 100% sure I know what animal this is

I left the mosaic wall and crossed over the highway on a pedestrian bridge that was also artistically decorated with the theme of water. From there I went into the Old Quarter and just walked. I wasn't trying to get anywhere. Though I did have someone on a motorcycle stop to ask me where I was trying to go. I said I was just walking to walk. And then he asked if I wanted to buy marijuana. This was all in broken English, but did offer "Mara" and then followed up with "Wheat, Wheat!" I suspect that was his pronunciation of "Weed, Weed". I declined, but just to make doubly sure I wasn't missing out on this amazing offer, he flashed a view of what he was offering. I had understood him correctly, and I declined once again.

Beautiful in the day. I would be curious to see it at night too.

I passed by a shop selling various groceries. Some of the items on display out front (extending into the sidewalk) were dessert toppings, you know, like chocolate syrup. But they had a few extra flavors we don't normally see in the USA: taro syrup and matcha syrup.

If only we could take liquids on the plane

As I was walking back home, I realized I wasn't too far from the John McCain marker, so I took a detour to see it. It is a marker in tribute to John McCain, first erected in 1967. Though McCain was a prisoner of war in the Hanoi Hilton, he was a supporter of Vietnam in his time in the Senate. And the Vietnamese celebrate him.

John McCain Marker

We only have a couple days left in Hanoi and I wanted to enjoy the sites, sounds, and culture. I really like the vibe of Hanoi. I imagine we will be back again one day. In less than 1000 years.

Historic, Hip, and Hilarious Hanoi

Hanoi is an amazing place. I really enjoy it here. One of the many things I enjoy is all the oddities, the strange sites or sounds or happenings that make up the city and my experience here. So in this post I want to have some light-hearted fun. Not heavy-handed, but light-hearted. Though, hands weighing less than hearts is surprising. But I guess you can have a heavy heart too. Perhaps hearts can change their density.

Edifices

The Tran Quoc Pagoda

Pagoda on an island in the lake

I visited the Tran Quoc Pagoda which is on a spur of land that extends into Tay Ho (West Lake). Here's what's amazing: Today, as I said, this Buddhist temple is on the West Lake. But when it was built between 541 and 543 CE, it was on the Red River. But no one moved the pagoda. The river moved. As I mentioned in a previous post, the West Lake is one of many lakes that are remnants of the former course of the Red River.

I kept hearing chimes but saw no percussionist. Eventually I figured out it was wind chimes.

The pagoda is very beautiful and has lots of people visiting it. It has many people just outside it ready to sell you offerings you can leave at the shrines. It has women who will lend you scarves for your shoulders because uncovered shoulders (and shorts) are not allowed. Though I'm not sure how tightly these rules are enforced.

Closer View of the Central Chedi

I was particularly amused by a series of panels that explained the Laws of Karma. Each illustration explained that if you behave in a particular way in your current life, this is what reward or punishment you can expect in your next life.

You know what they say: Karma's a... well, you know what they say.

Cool architecture

Clever architect

I have no idea what this building is, but I love the design.

Maybe the scene is supposed to represent the very street it is on

Here's another: I was walking through a section of town where the walls along the street had a series of engraved panels. I don't know why, what it was on the other side of the wall that called for them. But how cool that they were there?

Not all the panels are street scenes

Restaurants and Coffee Shops

The Waffle House

Coming from the United States, when I think of a restaurant called The Waffle House I have a pretty strong (and primarily unfavorable) mental picture. I suspect that isn't the vibe they were going for here in a touristy part of Hanoi.

Not that "The Waffle House"

Functionality vs the Vibe

Question for you: What do you do if you have a quirky, trendy coffee shop and outside your building is a weird big standpipe? You paint it to be just as quirky!

Fun character and a bonus hydrant picture! It's a win-win!

Not Exactly The Same

Western Foods

Some "western foods" as they are called are very much like you remember them. Pizza here is excellent. But many are close without quite hitting the mark. Tacos don't taste quite like tacos. Doner kebab is delicious, but not quite like it is served in Turkey or Greece or the Balkans. And even Italian pasta can be surprising. I ordered linguine with seafood and it was delicious. But I didn't expect the linguine to be dark green, so dark, at first I thought it was black.

It was a dark and stormy linguine

Being a culinary adventurer, with my pasta I ordered "salt lemon soda" as my drink. Not my best choice. I don't really get into salty beverages, and the lemon in this one gave it a flavor that I associate with dish soap. This is not to say I drink a lot of dish soap, but I found the closest non-harmful alternative if I wanted to.

All the flavor of dish soap, and a mouthful of salt. What a bargain!

Background Music

Most Vietnamese restaurants don't play music. But some of the Western ones or the higher end ones do. And what seems to be super popular here is covers of American rock songs. But the covers always seem to be a female vocalist who is making the most mellow version of the song possible. Did the original have a driving beat? No more! Were there electric guitars? No more! Was it a power ballad? No more! They don't seem to be aware of what a power ballad is. Just yesterday we heard a cover of Girl on Fire by Alicia Keys. Let me tell you, the lulling melody felt like it was singing "This girl is sitting in the vicinity of a heater." Or perhaps, "This girl is wearing a warm woolen sweater."

Surprising Sightings

Dragons

Not too far from where we are living, there is a business that is like a big play area. It's too small to say it is an amusement park. And it is too big to say it is just a playground. But they seem to have events. Sometimes, those events require dragons.

Is the dragon draggin'?

We happened to be passing when a group was unloading their paper dragon that is on poles that they can carry. So we got a good look at the beast.

We were face to face!

The One Armed, Well, Not Bandit

When I was finding my way to the Red River, I came into an event space. There was no event going on at the time. But I did find this guy there.

I am so unclear as to what you are meant to be.

So yeah, he's wearing a loincloth and he's one armed. But a one armed what? Not really a demon. He has pointed ears. Maybe a red elf? A sunburned Vulcan?

Trees with Accessories

You might think trees are trees, right? But no, not here. Apparently here, the trees are electric!

"I have the power!" - He-Man

Does that seem like a fire hazard? No worries. The next tree over is prepared.

The tree equivalent of a bullet-proof vest

Funny, Random Extras

Translation Error

It's strange to see clothing being sold with English on it in a place that doesn't speak English. But how did they translate this? Google Translate and hope it's right? But why the incomplete sentence? And someone didn't know the word "reins".

What do you think you are supposed to let chance do? Not hold the rains of your life, of course.

Top Tier Trash

Have you ever had a situation where a confluence of events occurs that changes something you were saying mid-sentence and it results in one of the greatest sentences ever spoken? Here's what happened.

Alrica and I had purchased beverages while out exploring Hanoi. Now we were carrying the cups and eager to rid ourselves of them. As we walked past a club, there was a sign that said it was one of the top one-hundred clubs in the world. But I hadn't noticed the sign. Also, there was a couple of garbage cans just around the corner from the club.

So we're walking and Alrica is telling me about the sign that I missed, but turns the corner as she is doing so. And thus, she utters the amazing sentence. "This is one of the world's top 100... garbage cans." Naturally, I was thrilled to toss my trash into one of the most highly rated garbage cans in the world. And I had to get a picture to commemorate it, much to Alrica's annoyance (or is that Hanoi-ance?)

Honestly, not sure what raises this garbage can over its peers, but I can only assume expert judges were employed in the determination.

My Life as a Seven-Year-Old Girl

I have this problem. Some of the letters on my computer keyboard are wearing away (or entirely worn away.) For the most part, that's not a problem, because I know how to type without having to look at the keys. But it can be annoying t times. Particularly impossible to read keys included the A, the C, the E, and the S. I think that's amazing since it happens to be the four initials of the first names of our family. But that may be coincidence, and besides the C, those other letters are among the most commonly used. Still, if I have to type the word "case" (and being a mathematician who does proofs by cases, this is not an infrequent occurrence) I better remember where those letters are.

We were at the store the other idea and Alrica spotted the perfect solution. It was a pack of colorful glittery stickers of the letters of the alphabet. Problem solved! This is what my keyboard looks like now.

I don't know why I doubled the B

Let's just hope the numbers don't go next.

You're Doing it Wrong

There are certain skills in life that you would like to think people just know how to do. But that's not always the case. (Look, I just used the word "case"!)

Here, let me address the women who are reading this. I do this as a service, because the women probably have less firsthand knowledge of one of the many unpleasant features of a public men's restroom. The men who read this will nod their heads, affirming its truth.

The floor just under a urinal is frequently, how can I sugarcoat this, uninviting. But here's the good news. I was recently in a restroom here in Vietnam that attempts to address the issue.

I think this one transcends language. We can all understand it.

So men, please, if you aren't already familiar with the proper technique, please, take a long look at the image above. Internalize it. This is sure to serve you well in the future.

Ha Long Bay

In any list of the most beautiful landscapes on Earth, I would have to imagine that the limestone islands of Ha Long Bay must be included. This past weekend, Alrica and I took a trip to Ha Long Bay which is in north Vietnam, east of Hanoi. We took an overnight cruise and we got to see the spectacle of hundreds of these little karst landscape islands jutting up out of the water.

Islands and Islands and Islands

Not only is each island beautiful and generally covered in thick greenery but with steep sloping rocky sides, but some are closer and some are further, with distance making each hazier and almost ethereal. I talked about karst islands recently when I posted about El Nido. But the waters of El Nido had nowhere near the number and variety of such islands as Ha Long Bay.

Alrica on the Sundeck

The cruise was very fun. The only thing I would do differently, were I to do this again, would be to bring along some bottles of water. Our food was included in the price of the cruise, but not drinks with our meals. And since you are trapped on a boat, it's way overpriced. More on that in a bit.

In addition to lots of islands, there are lots of cruise ships

First, we were taken by van from Hanoi to Ha Long. There we had an hour wait until it was time to go to the boat. But the cruise ship itself doesn't come all the way to the shore. Instead, we were taken by a smaller boat called a tender from the dock to the cruise ship. Upon arrival, every passenger was given a welcome drink. It was watermelon juice, bleah! So Alrica got a bonus second welcome drink. We were told the itinerary for the cruise and then given keys for our rooms. We headed to the room and after putting down our things, we headed to the dining room for lunch.

If you don't want to look out the window, you have pictures of Ha Long Bay to look at instead

The room was very nice. We had a king size bed, a chair, and bookshelf built into the corner. There was an attached bath which included both a shower and a bathtub. And each room had a balcony with two chairs where you could sit and watch the bay and the islands go by. Or really watch them sit still while we went by.

You're thinking, "Erich, it's just a bathtub." Hey, bathtubs are not common in these parts.

Lunch was a buffet and it had a lot of options. I tried to try almost everything, and that was a lot of trying. But it was excellent food. This was when we discovered that we were buying anything we wanted to drink. But a solution later presented itself. There isn't a store on the ship, but a store came to us. There were people on wide bamboo boats full of snacks and drinks that would come up to the side of the ship. They would hand up whatever you wanted and you would hand down money. I bought a couple of cans of Coke and discovered that the outside of the can was coated in saltwater. Not a good first sip. I rinsed the second can in fresh water before I drank it.

That small boat you see is full of cakes, cookies, beer, water, and soda for sale

In the early afternoon, we stepped from the cruise ship to the tender. The tender took us to a floating dock. There we boarded bamboo boats which rowed us out to the light and dark caves.

Bamboo boats arriving at the dock

Basically, it was a karst formation where we went under a low arch with dangling stone. Seated in the base of the boat, we didn't have to duck. But our oarsman, sitting on a higher platform, often did. The dangling stone is somewhat like stalactites. But they aren't really stalactites. Stalactites are more conical in shape and they grow as time goes by. They are formed by dripping water which leaves minerals behind as it evaporates or falls. These stones get smaller as time goes by as they are what is left after the rock around them erodes away.

Inside the light and dark caves

When we returned to the cruise ship from the dark and light caves, it was time for relaxation and swimming in the bay. Alrica chose the relaxation aspect, and I chose the swimming. The water of Ha Long Bay was cold! For the first few minutes, I was cold, but after a bit of swimming, that just became refreshing. This is the tropics after all. After swimming in the bay, I visited the hot tub (which was only mildly hot, and I prefer that. Alrica likes it "turn you into stew" hot.) And then I relaxed on a lounge chair on the Sundeck.

Approach to the light and dark caves

A bit later, there was a cooking class in which we learned how to make Vietnamese Fried Spring Rolls. Mostly what we learned was how to roll the delicious mix inside of rice paper. But it starts by massaging the rice paper on a wet washcloth. This changes the brittle rice paper into flexible rice paper. Then there is a method of folding and rolling the rice paper to enclose the meat and vegetable mixture. We got to pose with our head chef Mister Tam and we got to taste our creations. Pretty good! And I think it was all due to my amazing rolling and folding skills.

Look at that thumbs up. These rolls are Chef Tam approved!

Dinner was exceptional. It was a four course meal. First we had pumpkin soup. Then there was a sea grape salad with duck meat. Sea grapes are interesting, they burst in your mouth like they are caviar, and they have a very umami flavor. I was thinking, "Is this meat?" But no, it's algae. Our main course was grilled salmon served with mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. And we had panna cotta (served inside a pineapple) for dessert.

That green thing on top of the cabbage, that's the sea grape.

After dinner was squid fishing. It was much like regular fishing, you used a pole. It used a lure, not live bait. A couple passengers did catch some squid. We did not, but once we saw a squid approaching my lure. But I couldn't catch it.

There's Alrica with her panna cotta in a pineapple

I was exhausted and slept well that night. The next day we got both breakfast and brunch, only about two hours apart from each other. We had to check out of our cabins in between. Still, that's a lot of morning food for me.

We said goodbye to our crew, took a tender back to the main dock, and rode a van back to Hanoi. It wasn't a super long trip, but we did plenty. And it was tiring. I needed a nap! I know, even after the good sleep the night before. Absorbing so much beauty takes a lot out of a person.