The day started out like the previous one, with an 8:30AM pickup by the tour bus. I was disappointed to see that it was the same company, and the same guide that we had the previous day. I did have hopes that he would be better, since this was his usual tour and the Hanoi tour wasn’t, but he stayed true to form – a 2 line blurb at the beginning of the tour about a bridge that we passed, and that was all that came out of him all day.
Arriving in Ha Long bay, we got on a big tour boat that takes you to one of the islands for a cave tour. We found one whose name we liked, and we can pretend that it is the name of our boat.
On this trip, we used 2 of Mike’s cameras: on big SLR and one little waterproof/ dropproof pocket camera. I relaxed from my usual super photographer personality and played director a lot, asking Mike to take this or that photo from this or that vantage point. It was lots of fun, and got some nice photos. Mike was the one in super photographer mode.
The mountains in Ha Long bay have their distinctive shape because they are made of limestone karst. This is because much of Southeast Asia was once a huge underwater reef. Over millennia, the limestone became compacted and made into stone. Then, continental drift caused some of it to be lifted up into mountains when plates collided and their edges got scrunched up. This kind of limestone is porous and rainwater seeps into it. The rain water gets acidic from the CO2 in the atmosphere and sometimes from decayed vegetable matter in soil too, and it dissolves limestone as it seeps down. This causes the cracks to widen in the limestone, leading eventually to cave formation. The water can also become overloaded with dissolved minerals and deposit limestone when the CO2 outgasses out of it, which causes stalactite and stalagmite formation inside the caves.
The distinctive shape of the Ha Long bay mountains could not happen without the fierce tropical rainstorms that dump huge amounts of water on the landscape. Other places in the world have different rain patterns, and so different limestone weathering. When the rains are gentler, you end up with no jagged mountains, just underground caves, like those found in Virginia and some parts of Europe. Vang Vieng, our adventure stop in Laos, is also limestone karst, which will make for interesting rock climbing.
Our boat took us to the cave that we were to explore. It is a very commercial venture, very Disneyland, with multicolored lights inside to light up the various rock formations. I expected at any moment to hear the song “it’s a small world after all” to be piped out of some corner. Perhaps I can suggest it to them…
Along the way were funny sights, like funky looking garbage cans, and something that looked like a reeeallly cheap hostel that is only open at low tide.
Once inside the cave, we did indeed see very interesting rock formations. They can be interpreted in various ways, Rorschach tests anyone?
We did see a few holes to the outside here and there, that is how people found these caves in the first place. It must have been a real godsend back in the cave dweller days, to live in places like this. Inside a cave, you are sheltered from the outside elements. You don’t feel the heat or the cold from outside, the rain can’t get at you, you can even build fires inside the big ones, and they have a water supply too.
For us now, it makes for cool photo ops.
After the cave tour, we sailed around the bay some more, ate lunch on board, and took photos of the people who seem to live there on boats and of more limestone formations, including the famous “2 chickens”.
Then came the 3-hour bus trip back to Hanoi. I noticed that outside of town, there were a lot of dogs lounging around in the street or in the front yards. We hardly saw any in the city. My dad says that people keep their dogs indoors in the city or they quickly disappear into someone’s cook pot. Most of the dogs here seem to be shepherd crosses or Tibetan spaniel like dogs. All are skinny. Fat dogs are a western phenomenon, I guess.
Addendum by Mike:
Well, the experience was very similar to that of 8 years ago. We are bought on the island by a tour guide who tells us nothing, and dad fills in the blanks. It's still enjoyable and it's nice to be able to re-capture some of the famous cave on digital! The lighting and finish work in the cave does make for a nice effect, although it is no longer caving, by any means.
*****
Back in Hanoi, we took a nap to recharge before the New Year celebrations. I was woken up out of my nap by the overwhelming and persistent smell of exhaust. When we came downstairs, we saw why – the downstairs hallway was packed solid with parked motorcycles. The staff had decided to make a little more money by parking motorcycles for the new year celebration. Free enterprise, jeez.
We ventured out onto the streets, which were thronging with what looked like very young people out to celebrate. It got more and more crowded the closer we got to Hoan Kiem Lake, where the Turtle Tower was all lit up.
It became increasingly difficult to navigate the crowds as they got thicker and thicker. People got so crowded that they jostled us at every step and I realized how silly it was for me to be carrying my usual backpack. It was like a sail in the wind, being caught up on every passerby bumping into it. We finally decided to stop trying to move and wait until midnight for the fireworks to begin. This coming year is the year of the ox, which explains the many representations of oxen we saw… it took me a few minutes to figure out why young people were sporting glow in the dark LED lit up horns on their heads. Dad said “that’s right, oxen, not devil worshippers”.
When we stopped trying to walk, we were treated to the spectacle of a sky full of floating lanterns, drifting about in the wind like jellyfish in a nighttime sea. It was very beautiful. We had seen one such lantern being launched the night before in the street and laughed about what a fire hazard it would be. We saw it float away, and about 15 minutes later saw it again very far away and wondered what it would set fire to when it finally landed…
These things are amazing. Picture a hot air balloon in miniature, made of paper. The fire source must be large enough to make the whole thing fly. I didn’t believe it when dad was describing it to me as it was being lit, but that flame ended up being the size of my hand, that is why it can lift up the whole lantern and keep it flying really high. Dad had never seen one of these in the flesh either, as it was something that originated in Central Vietnam and was not seen in Hanoi when he lived there when he was young.
They were being sold by street vendors and people were buying them and sending them aloft, with more or less success. There seemed to be 2 models. One looked like a classic hot air balloon shape, and the other looked like a condom, er, rocket.
The hot air balloon ones eventually took off, slowly and sluggishly, but did not fly well and many got caught up in trees, with the eventual consequences. Good thing it was a damp night, so nothing burned too much. Those fire sources were like super zip cubes and so burned for quite a long time.
The rocket shaped ones took off like rockets and mostly cleared the trees without getting snagged. The second photo shows the reason for their success: a large fire source hung low under the balloon, where it will get enough oxygen to burn hot enough to provide the lift needed. Something for builders of Luminares lanterns to take note of… just make sure you’re far away when the fire trucks come.
This was very entertaining to watch until midnight struck and the fireworks show began. It was right overhead and felt like the closest fireworks I’ve ever been under. Happy New Year everyone!!
After this, we had to try to make our way back home. I thought that it was crowded before, but it was nothing compared to the human traffic jam we got caught in while trying to cross the street. It got packed so tight that everyone came to a standstill. Then a bunch of people decided they would just push it along, so they did, dragging us along with it. We were packed in so tightly that it was hard to expand the chest enough to breathe. Someone with claustrophobia would have had a really hard time of it. I got worried because there was no controlling where we went, we were just swept along helplessly. I could just tell that the other side of the street was nearing and could feel my feet slipping into the (large) drain opening. I managed to step up so as not to fall in. I had read about large crowds in India where someone stumbled and fell and others fell on top of them and deaths occurred. I had always thought it silly – how can you get trampled to death in a crowd of walking people? Now I can see how it could happen. We just don’t get the same kind of crowds in Canada as they see here. Still, I didn’t see anyone being drunk and belligerent or violent here either.
So we got home safe, having experienced Hanoi Tet, to contrast and compare with Saigon Tet, which we saw in 2004 (bigger street celebration, more street performers, thinner crowds, no sky lanterns).
Addendum by Mike:
Wow, busy, busy, busy. It was an interesting experience because it was an event for locals, very few tourists were to be found (or at least they were hard to notice among the thousands of locals). This is not the place for those uncomfortable in crowds as it was definitely a bit claustrophobic as we pressed our way through the crowds. It's pretty entertaining seeing all the kids screaming into their cell phones, trying to find each other in the horde.
The sky lanterns were the highlight for me. They seem like quite the nightmare for Firefighters. I wonder if tons of fires occur on New Years as these flaming lanterns set down in random spots (or get stuck in trees on the way up). It was amusing watching these fragile little vessels fill up, and float away to the heavens. The crowd was also into it, reacting wildly and cheering as some of the unsteady lanterns took flight. Very cool.
*****
The next day was very quiet, as it was a holiday and everyone was at home celebrating with their family. We took the opportunity to walk the deserted streets of Hanoi to explore the various streets that make up the “old quarter” and to walk all the way around Hoan Kiem Lake. It’s amazing how short the streets are when you are not dodging millions of people on every block, weaving your way around motorcycles parked solidly all over the sidewalk, and street vendor spreads. Some streets that we saw were just not navigable under normal circumstances.
Some memorable sights from the walk: a giant cockroach that I talked Mike into not stomping, because of Buddhist principles, that was just before I jumped 2 feet in the air, because we almost stepped on a flattened rat (about 5mm thick). That wasn’t the last we were about to see of giant asian cockroaches. Stay tuned.
Then it was time to go home and pack, as we were going to have an early start to our Laos adventures in the morning!!
Addendum by Mike:
Well, this pretty much summed up the best part of our time in Hanoi, family time. We took a nice mellow walk through the quite streets of post New-Years Hanoi, and just wandered, with Dad providing tidbits of information on all manner of things. It was a nice quiet affair, and a good way to close out our time in Hanoi. I'll always fondly remember this part.
This is so interesting, sky fire lanterns, near trampling, giant cockroaches, flattened rats, psychedelic caves... and more
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