Descending Dragons

What? I like titles with dragons.

Relatedly, I was told recently that Vietnamese dragons differ somewhat from our decent, British dragons in that they have the body of snakes, the heads of chameleons, the claws of eagles, the antlers of deer, the eyes of rabbits, the scales of fish and the ears of water buffalo - which is not an image I need to be presented with prior to a cup of coffee and a sit down.  Mind you, I think the guy who told me that might've been a bit shaky on heraldry, basic taxonomy and possibly the English language, so don't go citing me on Wiki.

You are a mess

Burbling to one side: this post is about our cruise around Hạ Long Bay (Ha long translates as "bay of descending dragons",  to explain the title) and Bai Tu Long Bay ("The dragon departs the offspring", in case you care) which is the nicer and less buggered by tourism of the two .  There are many outfits who run trips to the bays - it being a place of impressive natural beauty (UNESCO heritage site again, for those keeping count), with just shy of 2000 islands and islets scattered about- but a fair few of the companies are  irredeemably dodgy.  It's not unknown for boats to catch fire or sink.  We were to spend our three days/ two nights on a junk-type cruise boat run by one of the more reputable firms, Indochina Junk, who we'd had test-driven by two honeymooning friends of ours in January. They survived and were well-fed, so my two qualifying criteria were satisfied.

Having managed about four hours sleep in our hotel in Hanoi (owing to a delayed flight from Hué and a botched transfer from the airport), we were picked up by posh van to be driven the 3-4 hours to our boat. To no-one's surprise, we stopped on the way at another craft shop following the 'disabled people embroidering things and marble statues' theme.  M&Ms were about a fiver a bag.  

We stopped at a town near Ha Long to have lunch and watch a traditional water puppet show. It's like Punch and Judy in water, complete with squeaky voices but minus the domestic violence. The team of puppeteers - dressed in waders and hidden behind a screen - act out some scenarios from the life of our protagonist, described as 'an honest and hardworking farmer' via the medium of wooden figures.   It was certainly real.

We arrived soon after in Ha Long city - a grim-looking place with a foreboding Ferris Wheel peering down at you as you come and go.  Our guide on the cruise told us that overnight stays on the bay like ours will be banned from 2020, with only day-trips allowed. This is owing, he thinks, to the increased development of hotels and resorts in Ha Long City.    Yeah, I think I'd sooner drive from Hanoi, ta.

Seaside town or colliery?

Our boat was quite a small affair, with 11 cabins, some common areas, and a landing craft-type tender in tow.  They have a Junk ship-type style in that they have those odd corrugated sails that they can raise. We spent the time cruising around the bay area, occasionally taking out kayaks, and being generally overfed.  Meals came in no fewer  than 6 courses, and that was only if it was a short breakfast because lunch was going to be early.   The food was exceptional, consisting largely of seafood that had been caught in the locale that morning.

On our first night we tried fishing for squid.  This involves shining a light into the gloomy water and bobbing a lure off a bamboo rod.  I caught this monster:

Behold the Kraken

The boat cruised around the bays and parked up every so often for a kayak, swim or island sojourn.

On our second of the two nights, we were taken to an island for a barbecue in a natural cave complex on an island owned by the cruise company. Each of the many courses was accompanied by an elaborate fruit and vegetable sculpture made by the chef.

Our final morning was spent being taken around one of the local floating villages in a bamboo boat. These are towns where the locals have literally found it more economical to build homes on floating pontoon structures.  When kids grow up and move out and they can afford it, they build a new house and bolt it on the rest. Can't say it's for me.  It absolutely lashed down, which was very obliging of the weather, acclimatising us to home at this late part of our trip.  We also dropped by a pearl farm, which some megacorp has set up in the bay, to see pearl farming and perhaps buy pearls (hintity hint hint).

Then it was a case of cruising back to port.  The pilots of the tenders from the various vessels apparently drove their craft as they drive their motor vehicles, with three tenders attempting to fit in a mooring space big enough for about 2/3 of a tender.

Afterwards it was back to Hanoi, to wrap up Vietnam.