An entry in the TFS Travel Journal
We awoke not so well rested after a night sleeping on the hardest driveways, uh, mattresses ever. Breakfast, however, was the best since the Alvear! We particularly enjoyed the steamed broccoli with scrambled eggs and all the dim sum/chicken noodle soup offerings.
After ventilating to the manager about the size of our tiny room and the discomfort of the beds and extracting a promise of a better experience when we return on Tuesday, we climbed into the Mazda for today’s long drive to Halong Bay. Leaving Hanoi was the usual experience of passing and dodging innumerable cycles and oncoming swerving vehicles, as we passed through endless stretches of small, dubiously constructed houses and stores. After 2 hours or so, we stopped for a bathroom break at a place specializing in embroidered items. Especially memorable were the embroidered landscape scenes, some of which were actually quite pretty and painting-like. We saw the women making them, with a photograph to work from, and it was really impressive how accurately they captured the colors and images. Each takes one woman about 20 to 25 days to make. We then went to a nearby place for lunch, but we were not yet hungry (certainly not after seeing the restaurant) so we waited for the guide and driver to finish then we set off for the second half of the drive.
All of the sudden, we were back on Africa roads, almost; terrible, rough and bumpy conditions, potholes galore, detours, etc. We stopped briefly at a town which specializes in ceramics, due to the good clay found in the area. As usual, it was interesting to see them at work casting, painting, and firing, but none of the offerings called out to us. We did get a picture of the street, as there were dozens of shops with their merchandise spread out in front, all up and down the road. Sort of the Deruta of Vietnam. Then back in the car for the tedious continuation of the ride.
The scenery was pleasant, though, with rich green fields and small wooded hills. Eventually we came upon the limestone uprisings for which this area is famed. Quite pretty, as they just rise up from the flat surroundings, some over several hundred feet high. Some were being mined for use in road construction, and others had other minerals within that gave them a multi-hued appearance. Finally, we arrived at our hotel (after a brief stop to buy some oranges).
The town is right on the bay, with the myriad huge limestone “karsts” rising from the water and dominating the horizon in a sight that appears so beautiful, it’s like a fake hollywood backdrop. We walked along the shoreline for a short while, as usual being perpetually targeted by local street urchins selling maps and postcards. It was then back to the room to freshen up before dinner, watching a campily horrible cable-tv, Freddy Krueger type of movie about a phantom of the mall, and having to basically convene a convention of the hotel staff in our room in order to comprehend and correctly operate our air conditioner.
Dinner was at one of the copious local tiny seafood places. Oddly enough, though they gave us a menu in english, no one spoke it, so Cheung advised us and took our order. (he’s certainly nice enough, but his english is not so easy to understand though he seems to get whatever we say; this wouldn’t be noteworthy, except that he told us that in addition to guiding, he also teaches english to schoolchildren. Thong also alluded to this when he told us that his kids (he has three daughters) learn english in school, but mostly from books and never get good at speaking) We feasted on steamed crab, huge grilled shrimp, steamed tofu with tomatoes, steamed Vietnamese cabbage, grilled oysters (which were quite small and tasted more like mussels), and a fish soup with dill. It was all about as fresh as can be and as tasty as it should be.
We came back to the room and relaxed for the evening, with Wendy re-starting “Dreaming in Cuban” after finishing the weird but engrossing “Days Between Stations”, and Milton getting back into “Little Kingdoms” by Steven Millhauser.