Giant Jellyfish

Hanoi is not a quiet place. Motorcycles buzz by in crazier ways than in Taiwan. Many intersections are uncontrolled so the traffic weaves around in ways inconceivable to Western drivers. Motorbike drivers congregate on the street and yell "Woo hoo, motorbike!" to the passing foreigners. Some won't take no for an answer and will follow us down the street. If you so much as look at a vendor's wares, they will follow you persistently, intent on not leaving you alone until you buy something. An old man kept touching us and thrusting his goods in our faces while we sat in the shade to escape the heat. Ladies patrol the area balancing two baskets on either end of a stick propped on their shoulders. If you buy fruit from them, they will pose for pictures. They will block the sidewalk to make you buy something. Guys come running out with boxes of books - photocopied books! - and try to persuade you to buy. Some know English, but most only know enough to sell whatever they want to sell. This is definitely a crazy city. The Vietnamese people are simultaneously welcoming and offensive.

We went to the Ho Chi Minh Masoleum complex where there are museums and a Ho Chi's embalmed corpse. However, the corpse viewing is only in the morning so we started walking back towards the bus. While we sat on the curb deciding what to do next, a man stood watching us for several minutes. When we started walking, we eventually gave in to his pleading and took a ride on his cyclo. A cyclo is a kind of rickshaw with a seat in front and a bicycle in back. It was a little cozy for the two of us, but we got to see a lot of embassies and Lenin Park as we slowly made our way back to the old city. It was interesting being in the middle of some of those intersections.

Despite Gregg's lack of eagerness, we went to the water puppet show. Water puppetry is a distinctly north Vietnamese art form developed a long time ago during flood season. People stand behind a curtain in a couple feet of water and operate puppets in front of them by means of wooden sticks. There was live music featuring a zither and other Oriental instruments. It was cool and strange at the same time. An hour was enough, but it was interesting.

On Friday, we went on yet another bus to begin our tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island. After an annoying stop at a tourist trap and a long wait at a restaurant we didn't eat at, we settled onto a large junk (Chinese boat) which to my disappointment lacked the characteristic sails. We quickly jumped up on top of the boat to take in the view of the bay.

More than 3000 islands jut out of the ocean in Halong Bay. Some rise like big Hershey Kisses. Some are like towers with smaller bases eroded away by water. The water is not spectacularly blue like the islands in Thailand, but they are stunning and amazing. We were taken to a huge cave with crazy rock formations. The flags outside proudly declare that it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The cave itself is impressive, but the human additions are laughable and annoying. They have lit the cave with fluorescent lights of many colors, creating a disco ambience. They've paved a trail and created fake waterfalls and fountains. Instead of telling real history, the guide kept pointing out formations and telling some weird story about a dragon king getting married. Without our guide, we went into a second, more natural cave and enjoyed it more.

We spent the rest of the day cruising around the islands. Besides the scenery, the highlight was seeing giant jellyfish. With a diameter of at least 2 and a half, maybe three feet, they swam through the ocean like semi-translucent mushrooms. Despite their nearness, we did go swimming and play with some kayaks before supper. We tried to see the stars through the clouds as we chatted with our guide. He told us he enjoys communicating with people, but left the top deck as soon as the other passengers came. When we couldn't keep our eyes open anymore, we headed to our room on the lowest deck where we slept well until the power cut off at 5 am and our room became sweltering hot because the fan wasn't on.

On Saturday, we were sent with another guide to the national park on Cat Ba island. We had thought we would do only a short trek, but soon were told about the morning's fourteen kilometer trek up a mountain. After docking, we walked 4 km to a Viet Hai village. We could have hired motorbikes to take us for a dollar. A local guide was supposed to take us the rest of the way. We got to the trailhead and he motioned for Gregg and I to keep going. We didn't see the guide again until we reached the top. Gregg was hoping he was leading everyone up the right trail. It was a steep climb, one of the most intense hikes I've ever done. Gregg was first, a tough Swedish girl second and I took the bronze. We beat most of the group by about half an hour. The guide showed up with a determined old Australian. Everyone was absolutely drenched in sweat. But the view was worth it. First, we could see the village far below us and their fields rippling in the breeze. And around the other side, we could see the bay with the thousands of islands and Halong city in the distance. The water looked blue and inviting. I was thankful I stuck it out to the top.

On our way back to the village, we made friends with some puppies and missed our beloved dog Radar - perhaps the best dog in the entire world. After lunch, we hiked back to the boat and set sail for a beach to do kayaking and swimming. They stopped the boat a hundred meters from a beach and told us we could swim there because it was too shallow for them to go in. Not impressed, we opted to kayak over and skimmed over some jellyfish on the way, touching them with our paddles. The beach was small and dirty with gross sand so we sat in the water chatting with Europeans.

The next stop was Cat Ba town and the Sunflower Hotel. This was the nicest room we'd had yet. There were two beds, AC, tv, a fridge and a bathtub. After supper, we tried to walk around, but the hike had worn us out. We watched a weird song and dance show on the street and then bought ice cream. We were asleep by ten.

Sunday, we were reunited with our junk and took a different route through the bay. It was hot and we had trouble staying awake. We ate at a restaurant and bussed back to Hanoi. We were ready to get off the bus because of a septet of Spaniards who seemed incapable of speaking Spanish quietly, but enjoyed increasing their volume whenever we fell asleep.

One of the people on the slow boat to Luang Prabang was a Kiwi named Matt on his way to the UK. We've ran into him several times here in Hanoi. I'm sure we'll see him in Hue too. And maybe Hoi An . . . I also saw a guy I met in a village in the middle of Laos.

The currency here is the dong. One US dollar is 15, 800 dong. We recently withdrew millions of dong from our bank accounts. The 50 000 and 100 000 notes are made of plastic. It's kind of interesting.