Michael Batson

Ha Long Bay is a World Heritage site and the number one tourist attraction of the Vietnamese north east. This natural wonder is often touted by the Vietnamese as the Eight Wonder of the World.  Following the advent of “Doi Moi” –Vietnam’s policy of opening its economy to foreign trade – tourists can now visit the bay, and come they do in their thousands from all over Vietnam, Asia and further afield. To get there, most tourists take the minibus from Hanoi, booking through one of the many bookings offices in the Old Town. 

At the quayside visitors are divided between the day-trippers and those staying overnight on one of the many boats offering cabins, water sports, trips to some of the many islands, and cruising.

Local legend has it that when the Vietnamese were fighting the Chinese invaders (there’s been a few) the gods sent a family of dragons to help defend the land.  This family of dragons descended upon what is now Ha Long Bay – hence the name Vinh Ha Long, “Bay of the Descending Dragons” – and began spitting out jewels and jade.  The jewels then turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form barriers to repel the invaders.  The people kept their land safe and formed what later became Vietnam.

Conflict with Vietnam’s neighbours dominates the bay’s history the way it dominates Vietnam itself.  On three occasions the multitude of channels between the islands the Vietnamese army stopped the Chinese from landing.  In 1288, General Tran Hung Dao stopped a Mongol armada from sailing up the nearby Bach Dang river by positioning steel-tipped wooden stakes at high tide, sinking the Mongol Dubhai Khan fleet.

During the US-Vietnam War, many of the channels between the islands were mined by the US navy, some of which still pose a threat to shipping today.

Between the numerous islands and graceful cruise ships can be seen freighters and bulk carriers, bound for Hai Phong, Hanoi’s principal port and one of Vietnam’s main cities. “Hai” in Vietnamese, as I understand, means “near water”.

Overnight cruises on the many ships come in a variety of forms; one or two nights on board depending on whether you want to stay on board all the time or spend a night in a hotel on nearby Cat Ba Island, the second largest island in Vietnam. After some haggling, my mate Paul and I opted for two nights on the ship for US$165 all inclusive. Activities included swimming, caving, kayaking, walking, cycling and eating. The food on board is excellent and the service and the crew great.

I can only think that in future, Vietnam will move onwards and upwards. They are expanding rapidly economically. Strategically located, with draining conflicts now well behind them, the drive and endeavour of the Vietnamese will only carry them forward. The transport infrastructure will need to improve, but it’s entirely conceivable that they will overtake Thailand economically in the not too distant future, especially as the Thais sink deeper into unresolved civil rupture.

Despite the Vietnamese enthusiasm for karaoke, the entertainment is pretty laid back.  The stay included watching the European Cup Final with the Vietnamese crew. At night the boat moors off one of the many islands (there are over 3000 in Ha Long Bay). In the evening, the tourists go swimming, many jumping off the top deck of the boat, a drop of about 10 metres. The water is very salty, allowing for added buoyancy and is also, unfortunately, polluted, with all manner of plastic rubbish much of which collects in the many caves and inlets, the tide seemingly trapping the flotsam, rather than dispersing it.

The Vietnamese crew joins in the swimming and afterwards, amuse themselves fishing with long bamboo rods and lures, for squid, which they collect in a plastic container on deck along with the oil the quid excretes. The skipper, an amiable man accompanied by his wife and daughter, who was learning to swim, took centre stage in the fishing stakes. On either side he was flanked by the young chef, and an older man, the mechanic.

Owen was from London, a bricklayer, “I wouldn’t call myself a stone mason”. He’d been made redundant and was traveling in Asia until his bank told him they would no longer extend him credit. He referred to David Cameron, Britain’s new prime minister “a smarmy git” and on a par with Tony Blair, who he said was “capable of conning anyone”., and that Gordon Brown was unlucky, having bided his time under Blair only to tell it like it was.

His girlfriend, Emma, had red hair and the palest skin that I’d seen in some time. She was allergic to seafood and poppy seeds, which the Vietnamese chef invariably covered fried food in. The first night on board her diet was restricted to the garnishing accompanying the food which was intricate and well done. She was from Battersea in south London and spoke with a middle class accent, quite the English rose. The famous power station they both said was falling down as the company paid £200 million a year by the Council to maintain it was doing it’s level best to ensure it would fall down a soon as possible, so they could then develop the land which was worth a fortune even by London standards, and build apartments, probably badly built two-bedroom ones Owen reckoned. They agreed the British electoral system needed reforming and thought the New Zealand system was a great idea. I to them that New Zealand had copied its version from the Germans. Johan from Frankfurt nodded sympathetically.

Owen recalled the time he’s walked into the Houses of Parliament with his knife. “I always carry a knife on a site” he said “there’s always things that need cutting or whatever.” One day he’d gone to Westminster and completely forgotten his knife was in his pocket. So he thought, “OK, I’ll declare it.” However, when he placed it into the scanner, the attention of the guards was momentarily distracted to the point he as able to collect it again on the other side and put it back into his pocket, and walked into the public gallery with it. “I wasn’t going to do anything with it. I wanted to see a debate an wound up carrying my knife into the debating chamber.”

Our conversation turned to football. Johan was from Bremen originally and said he would support the Germans in the cup final, but admitted that when at home he detested Bayern Munich. Johan was pretty laid back and I got the impression fairly even-tempered, but said that in Germany he didn’t support Bayern because they were southerners from Bavaria and a little crazy. I’d met Bremen people before and others from northern Germany. When the topic of Bavarians came up they’d shake their heads and almost spit out the name “Munich”.

When his money ran out, Owen was going back to London to earn a living labouring on building sites for the basic rate of £60 a day and to live in some badly constructed two-bedroom flat. These he said had come to dominate the London accommodation market. With the economy the way it was rates were at rock bottom and you had to take what you could get, though Owen had been to university. The people who ran the building industry, were only a rung below those who were financial traders, Owen said, and after asking around the table if anyone was a trader, declared that they were good for absolutely nothing.

The floating villages at Ha Long are home to several hundred people, none them could be described as well-to-do, it seemed a subsistence living. There was a school for the children but if the parent were out fishing come start time, then the kids swim to school. They catch fish to farm them and then sell them on to restaurants in nearby Hai Phong City, the large twin-towered span bridge of which can be seen off in the distance. Water is pumped in from Hai Phong to a small barge moored near one of the floating villages and small boats constantly cruise up to fill large blue plastic drums. Most of the families keep dogs, which seem as at home on their small floating islands as the children. Late at night, in the dark, the women from the villages go form cruise boat to boat offering to sell tourists whatever they can to make a dollar, though the boat crews ask that the tourists not buy anything that can be had on board as this takes away from the livelihood of the cruise boat crews. Everyday the process is repeated, an endless stream of the tourist industry.