It has been a busy several days and so I’m just now getting caught up on our recent adventures. This part of our trip is vacation, that’s if you can call it that when you’re retired! We left Hanoi for the almost 4 hour trip by car to the marina at Halong Bay where we boarded the junk, the Violet, one of several boats owned by the Heritage Line. Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage site and known for its limestone caves and islands. We were on the Violet for one night or a total of not quite 24 hours. It was anchored quite a ways out so the 10 of us (another couple joined later on) boarded a tender to go out to the boat. I was impressed with the Heritage Line’s emphasis on safety as we were all instructed to put on and buckle our life jackets for this short ride.
The Violet is the newest in their small fleet and was built in 2009 in a traditional Vietnamese style, but with modern amenities such as air conditioning and a bathroom with a shower and a tub. We had a delicious lunch on board followed by an excursion to a cave. Before dinner, the chef gave a fun demonstration of how to make flowers out of various fruits and vegetables—carrot, cucumber, garlic, tomato and chili pepper. She also created a lovely swan from an apple. We were so taken with the carrot flowers that we bought a conical metal shaper in the market this morning–now all we need is the very fat carrots like she had! Dinner was equally luscious and beautifully presented.
The boat anchored overnight which made for a calm sleep. In the morning, after tea and croissants at 6:30 am, some of us went up on the top deck for a bit of tai chi. It’s not as easy as it looks! Our tai chi master, a very versatile staff member, told us that Chinese tai chi focuses on the dance aspects of it while Vietnamese tai chi is all about the breath and relaxing. After loosening up exercises, he had us follow his movements at the same time that we were to always focus on our hands.
We then took the tender to a small nearby island and beach which has become popular with tourists both for swimming and for climbing the 427 stone steps to the summit for a view of the bay. We didn’t swim, but we did huff and puff (a bit) our way to the top! Like Hanoi, the weather here remained cloudy and cool with occasional drizzle so the view was not as spectacular as it would have been in the sun.
Journeying back to Hanoi by car, we then had a short one hour flight to Danang followed by about 40 minutes by car to Hoi An where we are for two nights. Compared to Hanoi, Danang looks much more prosperous and cleaner. Hoi An is a lovely town, marked by colorful lanterns, what we would call Japanese lanterns, and is a key tourist destination. The lanterns were introduced here by the Japanese and we saw them strung up across the old town streets. They are made on a bamboo frame which is then covered by brightly colored silk. We watched women in one shop painting glue on the bamboo ribs and then carefully applying the fabric.
Hoi An has also long been a center for silk weaving and there are numerous tailors and clothing shops for silk wear and other goods, all ready and eager to sell to visitors. In a small exhibit on various styles of looms and weaving, we chatted with a woman selling silk scarves (I did succumb.). Her selection included three grades of real silk and she said that much of what was sold on the street wasn’t pure silk and that you could tell by the smell when you burned it which was which. She proceeded to light some real silk which she said smelled like human hair. And it did. She then lit some fake silk which smelled like plastic and then another blend of silk and cotton which smelled like paper. All very interesting. We also saw coconut bowls, porcelain spoons and cups and hand embroidered table cloths and napkins, all made in this area and nearly all the handiwork of the women.
