The older Australian couple had just finished visiting Malaysia. I didn't pick up on this, but a questions was raised about their accents and it was explained that they had been raised in Wales before migrating to Gold Coast. Or was it Melbourne? Anyway, the female half of the younger two from down under was of Vietnamese descent. Her and her boyfriend were vacationing in Vietnam and visiting areas her family came from. A younger daughter in the Chinese foursome did the talking and translating for her family. I can't recall anything she had to say.
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| Snapshots from inside the van on our drive from Hanoi |
Sami had convinced herself that it was the unidentifiable green vegetable in our noodles from the night before that had made her sick. She vomited throughout the night, but claimed that she was feeling better in the morning. However, as the van bumped along third world roads her hangover-like symptoms began to resurface.
We stopped at a rest area/tourist shop about half-way through our ride. I was on a quest to find the price of dragon fruit. I knew that it had to be dirt cheap for Sami to let me get it because I had already spent my allowance on a bottle of scotch to bring on the boat.
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I don't remember boarding our cruise ship. I can't recall if we took a ferry ride to it or if we boarded right from the dock. I wish I could recapture those first waves of emotion I must have felt taking in the scenery. The truth is that a tragedy took place on those same waters a mere three weeks after we visited. A wooden pirate inspired vessel similar in style to ours started listing in the early evening of February 17th. Despite notifications from other boats, the crew neglected to notify the passengers and 12 people, including 10 tourists died trapped inside their cabins in the early hours of the next morning.
For days afterward, I couldn't help but imagine the horror of the situation. I became obsessed with certain thoughts. How long did the passengers locked inside their rooms know what was going on? What did the moment feel like when they realized the gravity of the situation? It must have been terrifying and it bothers me to no end.
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Once aboard we passengers were able to properly assess our surroundings. Huge windows lined the perimeter of the dining room and lounge letting in a pallor of natural light. Outside limestone mountains bobbed out of the colorless ocean, their forms smudged by fog that could make entire cliffs disappear. At the time I was disappointed that the weather wasn't ten degrees warmer, the sky bluer and clearer. However, I as look back on the experience I am pleased that we were able to capture they mystery of a landscape so often depicted on book cover jackets. I imagine summertime Ha Long Bay to be none too different than Lake Shasta over Memorial Day weekend, and that just doesn't seem right.
Our lunch on the boat was fish, shrimp and vegetables. We were all quite pleased with the meal at the time, but it was one we would become quite familiar with by the end of the excursion.
Feeling sick, Sami retired to our room to rest and I grabbed the bottle of scotch to meet with Tor and Becky. Ours was the only room in the main cabin, and felt safer than the rooms downstairs whose entrance led to a wooden walkway around the outside of the boat guarded only by a knee-high wall. I felt confident walking that potentially hazardous path that led to Tor and Becky's room carrying an unopened bottle of J&B scotch. I wasn't so sure how easily a time I would have maneuvering the plank after the bottle had been emptied.
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| You can see how low the side railing is in this picture |
After a couple of pops inside the warm cabin, the three of us ventured upstairs to the top deck. Up there we drank the throat warming scotch discreetly, out of our yellow plastic rinsing cups. We smoked the cigarillos purchased in Saigon and looked out into a landscape of natural wonder, completely giving in to the adventure ahead.
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