Recent random observations Part 3: Halong Bay edition
1) The Vietnamese woman who was our guide in Halong Bay was easily the most charismatic woman I have met in Asia. And that includes a lot of peeps. But this woman, all of 22, was the first person I ever had met where your first thought was, "She needs to be an MTV host." Always bubbly and talkative, she loved to keep on yelling out, "Awesooooome!" whenever she could; she said she first heard it from some college age-ish American girls visiting Hanoi Bay, and that's how they kept on describing everything. She openly mocked the displays in a touristy cave we had to visit before kayaking ("Look, these are awesooooome! C'mon, move now!"). And she was one of the few people I have ever met who dropped the word "loquacious" in conversation, wondering if she was it (yes) and if that was a good thing (probably). I get the feeling I'm gonna see this woman on tv in a year or two.
2) She also generated the funniest moment of the trip. Among the motley crew on the junk were two guys from either Deutschland or France (I suspect the latter.) On the opening afternoon, one guy was wearing a tight Speedo as only guys from Europe do. Just before we were leaving the junk to walk up in the touristy cave, she told him point blank, "You need to put on shorts." He looked confused, and she said, "You need to put shorts on. You show too much like that." When he still looked confused - I swear, this is the one thing Europeans are totally oblivious about, that showing off yer package doesn't go over well in most other countries on the Earth - she said, "You need to change! Women will attack you as you are."
3) Also on the junk was a couple from Australia. He owned the company and recently sold it to Midway, a video game firm in Chicago. It earned him enough where he could retire, and he was only my age. His firm made video games about off-road racing. Seriously.
The woman used to work for his company but was doing a specialized doctorate in Australia on video game storytelling. She worked as a video game scriptwriter in the past. When I asked her her claim to fame, she said, "The Dukes of Hazzard: The Return of the General Lee."
Just inside the cheesy cave I was talking about. Our guide is in the bottom central; not the pasty blonde, but the dark-haired woman to her left. A number of the islands in Halong Bay have rock formations, but this one they converted to a tourist attraction, complete with mood lighting. If you've ever been to Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin, it's kinda like that.
Though a lot of people seemed amazed by the cave, our guide was quite the good sheepherder. Most people spend an hour in between walking up the cave to touring it to walking back; she had us do it in a half hour, the perfect whirlwind pace to admire cheese.
The cave did have cool trash receptacles in the shape of dolphins and penguins (why penguins, I have no idea.)
After we got out of the cave, we saw a family - I think they were Duetsch - with two sons with some pretty stylin' mullets going on.
After the cave of cheese tour, we did some kayaking around the cove. I was paired up with a kiwi lawyer, of all people. I hit it off with the two guys on the left of this pic (both Singaporeans) and the couple in the lower right (both Malaysians, living in Singapore) on the trip, and drank bia hoi with them on my last night in Hanoi.
We got done kayaking riht before sundown.
Though it was sunny that day, with fog cutting visibility after a few miles. At least I think it was fog.
A competing boat. Theirs had shrubbery. Ours did not.
The view the following morning, as we were cruising around the bay before heading back to town.
One of the islands had a beach built onto it; all the other islands were sans beach. The house on top was supposedly built for Ho Chi Minh to vacation in, though I question that.
The view at sundown. There probably were a good 15 boats floating around our cove, though you did not hear them at night at all; the only noise was from the generator of one ghetto boat.
The view in the morning; it reminds me of the scene in the Empire Strikes Back before the star destroyers break formation. FYI, the sail on the junk on the left are for decoration only.
One of the locals; one of the smaller boats included goods that the owner would try to hawk to you after she rowed up to your junk.
The pathway to my room.
Which was much more spacious that I thought. It included a flat-screen tv, a shower stall and your own toilet. At $100 for the whole excursion to Halong, which included all meals and transportation to and from Hanoi, in addition to a room overnight on the boat, it was one of the better travel deals I have ever had. Heck, I have stayed in rooms half the size that my junk room was, and paid $50 more.
2) She also generated the funniest moment of the trip. Among the motley crew on the junk were two guys from either Deutschland or France (I suspect the latter.) On the opening afternoon, one guy was wearing a tight Speedo as only guys from Europe do. Just before we were leaving the junk to walk up in the touristy cave, she told him point blank, "You need to put on shorts." He looked confused, and she said, "You need to put shorts on. You show too much like that." When he still looked confused - I swear, this is the one thing Europeans are totally oblivious about, that showing off yer package doesn't go over well in most other countries on the Earth - she said, "You need to change! Women will attack you as you are."
3) Also on the junk was a couple from Australia. He owned the company and recently sold it to Midway, a video game firm in Chicago. It earned him enough where he could retire, and he was only my age. His firm made video games about off-road racing. Seriously.
The woman used to work for his company but was doing a specialized doctorate in Australia on video game storytelling. She worked as a video game scriptwriter in the past. When I asked her her claim to fame, she said, "The Dukes of Hazzard: The Return of the General Lee."
Just inside the cheesy cave I was talking about. Our guide is in the bottom central; not the pasty blonde, but the dark-haired woman to her left. A number of the islands in Halong Bay have rock formations, but this one they converted to a tourist attraction, complete with mood lighting. If you've ever been to Cave of the Mounds in Wisconsin, it's kinda like that.
Though a lot of people seemed amazed by the cave, our guide was quite the good sheepherder. Most people spend an hour in between walking up the cave to touring it to walking back; she had us do it in a half hour, the perfect whirlwind pace to admire cheese.
The cave did have cool trash receptacles in the shape of dolphins and penguins (why penguins, I have no idea.)
After we got out of the cave, we saw a family - I think they were Duetsch - with two sons with some pretty stylin' mullets going on.
After the cave of cheese tour, we did some kayaking around the cove. I was paired up with a kiwi lawyer, of all people. I hit it off with the two guys on the left of this pic (both Singaporeans) and the couple in the lower right (both Malaysians, living in Singapore) on the trip, and drank bia hoi with them on my last night in Hanoi.
We got done kayaking riht before sundown.
Though it was sunny that day, with fog cutting visibility after a few miles. At least I think it was fog.
A competing boat. Theirs had shrubbery. Ours did not.
The view the following morning, as we were cruising around the bay before heading back to town.
One of the islands had a beach built onto it; all the other islands were sans beach. The house on top was supposedly built for Ho Chi Minh to vacation in, though I question that.
The view at sundown. There probably were a good 15 boats floating around our cove, though you did not hear them at night at all; the only noise was from the generator of one ghetto boat.
The view in the morning; it reminds me of the scene in the Empire Strikes Back before the star destroyers break formation. FYI, the sail on the junk on the left are for decoration only.
One of the locals; one of the smaller boats included goods that the owner would try to hawk to you after she rowed up to your junk.
The pathway to my room.
Which was much more spacious that I thought. It included a flat-screen tv, a shower stall and your own toilet. At $100 for the whole excursion to Halong, which included all meals and transportation to and from Hanoi, in addition to a room overnight on the boat, it was one of the better travel deals I have ever had. Heck, I have stayed in rooms half the size that my junk room was, and paid $50 more.
posted by throm at 11:37 AM
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