The Eye of Patrick

so my second post in two days, i am now on the boat trip back to the mainland and back to hanoi. it has been a fun and interesting experience that i have had the last two days. yesterday i woke up at 7 am because they decided to turn off the power to our fans and the temperature here has been plus 27 to 35 and very humid, so you can imagine that the room got very hot and humid quickly. so i had to get out of my bed and look forward to breakfast, the dinner the night before had not agreed with me so i was suffering as a result, so i did not eat the eggs or any boiled stuff, i just kept it to the toast. i realized may be it was a combination of the greesy food, large quantiy of soda drinks, and heat that combined to equal a killer force hehe….

but back to the trip, so after lunch we swiched to a smaller boat as we were going further into the waters and the big boat was going to go on another over nite trip. but we were switching to a hotel that evening so we did not require the large facalities. the boat took us to Cat ba island, it is the only populated island in halong bay, about half of cat ba island was declared a national park in 1986. when we got to the island we started walking, at first i thought this was the hike hehe, but i learnt about 30 minutes into the walk that it was the pre-hike hehe, we still were walking towards the point where we will start our hike. the screenry around us was beautiful, we had lagoos that were green and blue and the trees were lush green filled with the sounds of birds and other animals that populated the forst. but there was also a human presences there, to make the trip to the trekk place easier for people to get to they have decided to make a path made of stone, so while we were hiking they were drilling into a mountain and using that stone to make the road.

we finally got to the town that was located on the island, it was a small town and our tourguide told us that it was so poor of a town that the government had took up a collection to use the money to increase the standard of living in the region, they had built houses for the people and provided other monies for the community. this was nice to see.

the town was very small probably less then 200 people, their main industries were fishing and tourism. even though tourism was a major part of their industry they were some of the most kind people i have met on my travels in asia. it was around 11 am when we got there and the tour guide asked us whether we would like to go hike up a mountain, he told us it would be difficult as it had rained the night before and the ground was slippery, but i thought to myself i was in vietnam and i will probably only come here once for a long time, so i should enjoy everything as much as i can, so i decided to go on the tour and enjoy the climb. at first it was fairly easy and i thought to myself “what was he talking about this is not hard” but as we were climbing we ran into other tour guides and they told us that as we climb it would be more difficult to climb. i wanted to quit but everyone else did not want to, so i decided to continue on because i knew i would regret quiting later. so i countined climbing. near the top it got really difficult as it got more and more vertical. but finally after a hour or so we reached the time. the view was not that amazing, but that was ok as i did not climb the mountain for the view but for the experience of saying i had done it. but the view was great too, we were at the highest hill in the region and so we could see out to the entire island chain, and it was just picture perfect. as picture perfect as it was, we still needed to get down quickly as the other people who had not completed the climb were waiting in the village and we had to return for lunch.

so the way down was much more of a challenge then going up as the grown was slippery and as you were going down it would slip and the only directions that you could go were forward and backwards, and as a result of my poor footwear i did slip a few times. but the tour guide was funny, he said that in vietnam instead of asking how many times you fell they would ask you how many frogs you got, whether this was true or not, i got 3 frogs hehehe…. at first i did not think it would hurt, but that was not until the second day were it hurt.

the lunch in village was nice, except for the fact that it had been the same meal that we have been having for the last 3 days, and the same one that i have had on previous tours. so the flavour was loosing the enjoyment that it had before, plus i was not feeling to great so i could only eat the rice and some pinapple, so i did not feel to great. i talked with the two new people that i had met on the tour, the ones i talked about in my previous post, they were kind and stuff. we talked about fav. childhood tv shows hehe, it was interesting to see that in australia and canada and singapore that we all grew up on the same programs, though be it they may have been in different languages hehe….

after lunch we had to make our way back to the boat, we decided to walk back instead of taking the moterbikes, this was not a great idea hehe as i did not estimate the time it would take to reach the boat, i had thought it would only be like 10-20 minutes, but the combination of the mountain and the food and weather made the hike feel like a 2 hour hike hehe, near the end the end looked so near, but at the same time it was so far.

though the walk was long, it was a good experience as it gave me good time to talk to my tour guide, me and him had become good friends by that point. so we talked about our respective lives and he told me about his education and his family. he had a son that was only 1 year old. when my friend asked to see the picture, he said that it was vietnam custom not to take pictures of a child until he was atleast one year old, if you took pictures before that day then the child would not have a good future. which was interesting to know, and probbly good to know as then i knew not to take pictures of little kids hehe….

the boat then took us to the water, were we had the choice of going kayaking or swimming for a few hours. i chose to do both, first i got in the kayak and rowed to one of the little island and landed on a beach. the beach was very small may be 5 meters squared. but it was like your own private beach, and so i took advantage of it. i went for a swim, and floated in the water, held me breath to see how long i could stay in the water and did hand stands in it. also the cut on my feet got better as the water was salt water, so it helped to make things better. it was funny though, as i was rowing around i had took off my glasses , in the case i did fall in, i did not want ot loose them. but i could not see as a result, so when i was rowing i could see a boat and a line running along the water, and thought to myself that may be it was a fishing boat, it turns out it was, and i could have ran into a net hehe, that would have been a cultural experience that i would not have expected to feel.

after we all returned to the boat, we set sail for cat ba island, where we would spend one night. it was around 4 pm so the sun was not as bright, may be it was 5 i am not sure, but either way it was beautiful the water. the sun was going down and it was glimmering across the water, it was just the perfect image to end my boat trip.

i truely enjoyed my boat trip on the island, it was a once in a life time experience for me, as i had never slept on a boat and doubt i will do it again. the people i met on the boat were nice and kind people, though it took a while to get to know them, but when i did they were friendly and kind. the tour guide was seriously one of the most kind tour guides i have met in my life. when we were returning to ha noi he was so sweet and wished us and our family and friends a good life, i have heard this speech from many tour guides but he was the first one that i felt truely meant it. may be the food did not agree with me and i am still suffering as a result of it, but it was worth the experience, the pain is now, but as time passes you will be only left with the positive meomories. so here is to ha long bay, one of the teasures of vietnam, if you get the chance you should go there and stay in ha long bay, book it with ODC travel as they are a honest tour company.

take care,
love patrick
ps my father is here in hanoi!