Ha Long Birth-bay

 Special treat for y'all today:  Not one, not two, but three bulk album links for the pictures.  Because there's about 134 of them.

Told you in the last post that I'd be updating again soon and it'd be a big one.

For my birthday, I went to Ha Long Bay, designated as a UNESCO heritage site in 1984 (from what the tour guide told me).  Now, I say I did this for my birthday.  The whole truth is that I planned to do this soon, and when people learned that my birthday was fast approaching and started pestering me about how I was going to celebrate it, I decided to do my trip this day and shut them up 😆

 I think if I had it to do again, I'd have gone on a Tuesday or something.  But more on that later.

I was up at 6:30 am or so to get an Uber over to the Old Quarter of Hanoi to meet the bus that would take us out to the Bay.  The city's urban density passed pretty quickly, with some curious sculptures and unexpected high density housing perhaps 25 minutes outside of the city limits.  I found this odd because it was not really...near anything.  I hope they have some kind of high-speed transit planned to get people from these buildings into the city where jobs and resources are, because otherwise these won't be particularly good for the area.

Crossing a few rivers, we were soon out into the countryside, which was (not surprisingly) mostly farming communities.  Two things intrigued me here.  First, the architecture.  I had assumed that the tall, narrow buildings were largely a response to urban density and the need for increased housing without taking up more horizontal space.  These houses have the same kind of build, but with some space beside them for gardens/lawns or something.  Suggests that a preference for those tall, narrow buildings might just be cultural in Vietnam.

The second is the cemeteries.  I knew from my prior visit to Vietnam back in 2019 that Vietnamese cemeteries (or whatever the appropriate term would be) tend to be pretty ornate, but was really surprised to see just how large and how ornate they can be, even in relatively low-income areas like these.  It speaks to the cultural priorities, the value of family and ancestry.

Another river we crossed showed far more economic activity.  Clearly these are major shipping routes, which is probably obvious to anyone who isn't a weird landlocked kid like I am - our rivers were tourist destinations in Colorado, far too rough and narrow to be useful for transportation.  This guy stood out a little bit, though I think this was a dry dock of some kind and it was perhaps there for repairs.  Not far from there was this thing.  Yeah, no idea.

 The terrain change from flat farmlands to more rocky, mountainous landscape was pretty swift and dramatic.  We made a quick stop at a pearl farm and saw the seeding process, learning a bit about the process.  Cultured pearls are actually defined by the fact that they are "planted" in oysters like this using a small, rounded piece of shell that then has the layers added over 2-6 years (depending on variety/species) before being harvested.  Natural pearls are often irregular shapes, but most cultured pearls are more reliably spherical.  Not sure what this shell belonged to exactly but it was neat-looking.  Sort of conch-like but with tentacles.

Soon after, we got to the marina and boarded the boat.  Some musicians were playing along the way there, and while I couldn't tell what of their music was recorded and what was mic-amplified, I was sad that we couldn't pause to listen.  We had lunch aboard the boat.  I love buffets because I get to have so many different things.  Of particular interest is the small thing in the upper left, which was jellyfish salad.  I wonder if it was actually squid because the texture was more rubbery (and I've never heard of jellyfish being eaten), but the whole area is well-enough traveled internationally that their translations and such are pretty reliable.  In order to protect the environment as much as possible, plastic bottles are banned in Ha Long Bay, leading to the only source of potable water being cans.

 The marina was quite close to the formation the Bay is famous for, and we were in the midst of them quite soon.

The whole block above pretty well covers the album, but there's the full album link.

Our first stop was Sung sot cave, the largest cave system in Ha Long Bay.  Our route lead up the cliffside, then through the caverns and back around to another marina to get picked up.  I really can't say much specific about this except maybe for the monkey formation.  This is where I get grumpy at my image host: the upload process didn't keep any kind of order for my pictures, so the album is in total disarray.  I'd taken five or six pictures in almost panorama to show the sheer size of these caverns and now they're just...all over.  But still.  Quite impressive.

From there we went to Titop Island, where we had the option of swimming or lounging on the beach or ascending this terrifying staircase up to the summit, where a small pavilion allowed for some truly spectacular views.  If you could enjoy them while panting.  I'm honestly glad I did this when I did, at the end of December, because trying this in the summer heat would probably have lead to my untimely demise.

Our final stop was Hang Luon, a kind of grotto/sheltered bay kept somewhat serene by being only accessible via "bamboo boats" (so named, I assume, for the design/layout/operation, not the actual material of their modern versions) or kayaks.  Because I was traveling alone and didn't bring swimming gear, I opted for the bamboo boat.  Hang Luon is accessed through a low cave and is apparently home to monkeys.  One of the boat operators got into an argument with some of them, splashing them with the oars and even throwing water at them with a jug he had.  I have no idea what the story was there, they seemed to me to be mostly minding their own business.  Impressive to watch them navigate sheer cliff faces pretty easily - not something I could easily get a picture of.  This album is much smaller, as I spent more attention just enjoying the moment than anything.

By then, it was getting a bit dark, so we began the trek back to the marina.  I took the obvious photo opportunity at this light-up moon they had on the top deck, and tried to capture the ominous but beautiful silhouettes the islands can make against the dusky sky.  The bus ride back was in the dark, so I just dozed.

 I was dropped off near where we'd picked up...to find that for some reason, I had no data service.  This was a problem because I needed data to order my Uber back home.  I wandered for a while looking for signal, running across a pedestrian area blocked off for what I assume was some kind of event.  Eventually I found some, got a car home, and collapsed.

Cosplaying as a tourist was an interesting experience.  My bus was about two Canadians, one other American, a man from the UK, a couple from Romania, and several Indians.  Aboard the boat were some Germans and a couple from France, a few from Cambodia, and others.  But really, the US was highly underrepresented.  I wonder if it's largely because the holiday season has most US travel being closer to home.  What I knew, though, was that I was among very few people there who lived in Hanoi, even temporarily.  Kind of made me feel a bit apart from them - not in any kind of haughty or superior way, just in the sense that I'm different.  I didn't really talk to anyone during this trip, in keeping with my common tendency towards introversion, and it's debatable whether that was the "right" choice.  I just didn't want to explain my lifestyle to more people than I already do in a typical week.

Absolutely recommend, though, if you happen to find yourself in northern Vietnam.