Originally written on October 31, 2004

Today was our last morning at our beach hut Paradise. We awoke afresh, emerged from our mosquito net cocoon bed (a flat mattress on the wooden slat floor.

After breakfast (of two french baguettes, and an omelette) we headed out for our last kayak. Where there was a direct current from the ocean, not protected by islands the waves were often choppy. We bounced and skipped along the waves, with giggles of joy. We went through an arch (see pictures) and headed towards a fishing village.

The village consists of small green shacks with a netted area in front (that is attached to the ocean bottom with rocks. In the enclosed area red fin, dogfish and other fish species are farmed and all of them are exported to China (none for Vietnamese according to our guide).

The village had 600 inhabitants and 900 dogs. Where do dogs poop, on the floating dock? Some of the dogs were unfriendly, barking as we went by. At one section we had to go between to nearly adjoining docks (each with two dogs barking and snapping their teeth at us. Luckily, these dogs did not swim or know how to pull the two docks together (a simple tug of a rope). We made it through safely, with many nervous laughs and chuckles.

We headed back to base camp, and on the way learned talked casually with our guide. Thuy (pronounced Tree) was excited about having one day off (after 6 days working) but sad that it was not enough time to go see his girlfriend, who I believe lives in Central Vietnam. We learned that Vietnamese girls are expected to marry between the age of 18-25(26). After which, they are spinsters and unlikely to get married. The average female age is 18, and male 20. There is no upper age limit for a man to get married.

Back at camp there was time for a swim before lunch (same food as the previous two lunches) then another swim. During this swim I decided to look more closely at the sea floor. I found many starfish that I could pick up in my hand and they would walk along my hands with their “water vascular system” propelled feet (yay teaching 1st year biology). I also found several hermit crabs. They are crabs that find abandoned (but clean shells) and use them as their home. When I picked them up the crabs would peep almost entirely out of their shell and then get spooked and dart back in. In the morning, before breakfast we saw many small sand coloured crabs, moving speedily across our beach.

We left our island home at 2 pm on a small wooden boat, which moved only slightly faster than kayaks. We headed back along our morning route and then further to Cat Ba Island. We arrived on with 7 minutes to spare before our boat to Haiphong departed, on the opposite side of the island. A short minibus ride, 4 minutes at rip roaring speed got us there just in time. The tourist ferry was an hour and a half long. Kirk saw dolphins swimming at the back of the boat (briefly) and within 10 minutes I was sleeping (mix of gravol and hum of engine). From Haiphong we caught our brand new mini bus (really!) and took the two hour 15 minute journey back to Hanoi. Kirk watched near accidents from the driver’s side while I watched the people and buildings going by.

Dinner back in Hanoi, toasted ham and cheese sandwich, boo to Dutch cheese. We miss Canadian Cheddar. There have been several talks about grilled cheese, and macaroni and cheese. Mmm. Cheese. Alas. Also on the food menu was chicken kebabs (unfortunately, only cooked on the outside so we pretty much left those untouched) and beef soup, pretty bland.

We were told by another tourist on our kayak trip that Vietnamese chocolate is fantastic, so of course we went in search of this treasure. After walking through a night market (on a walking only street!) we found candy street, and wouldn’t you know it, it is right by our house. We got an assortment of chocolates, and will be back for more. They have x peanut butter chocolates and they are awesome! Soon, time for bed.

Originally written on October 29, 2004

Getting up at 5am was not fun. We only got to sleep at midnight as we had to pack for the kayaking(we didn’t need to take all our stuff to the island). Heather and I both slept on and off on the two our journey from Hanoi to Haiphong by bus. There we had a vietnamese breakfast of pork noodle soup with a french baguette. Our guide for the next three days introduced himself as Thuy (pronounced ‘tree’, this language is difficult!) and outlined the rest of the day. On our way out of the breakfast shop and in the few seconds between when we got to the street and when the bus doors opened, a lady guiloteened a duck and caught all the blood in a tub. Welcome to vietnam. Once on the bus, Tree explained that in Vietnam ‘We eat everything. No, we eat almost everthing, the Chinese eat everything.’ He also explained that the plates were for ‘fresh blood’ which is for breakfast or dinner. The blood is left on a plate in the sun and then eaten. He said that 80% of Vietnamese people eat ‘fresh blood’ and that he is one of the few who doesn’t like it, but we should try it.

Another very short ride and we caught a 1.5 hour long hydrofoil to Cat Ba Island. Heather slept and I enjoyed the scenery passing by. Haiphong is a giant sea port for Vietnam so at first the area was seedy, but about an hour in we started to get closer to the Halong bay area and things began to look more natural.

We arrived in Cat Ba and got on a small bus that drove us accross to the other side of the island, a 5 minute trip. Next, we got on a small boat and took a 45 minute ride to our final destination, Handspan basecamp (you’d think they’d come up with a better name!). On this boat we were all feeling awake enough to talk, and we all introduced ourselves. On day 1 we had 4 germans, 2 brits, and 6 Canadians. We arrived before lunch with enough time for a nice swim before eating a surprisingly good meal. Our accomodations were simple thatch huts with mosquito netting and a sleeping pad. We chose one in the center of the row of about 8.

After lunch we had about an hour to kill before we began kayaking around Ha Long bay, so we went swimming and read on the beach. It was very quiet. Then before leaving, heather found a green snake in our thatch roof coiled into a ball trying to kill a recently caught gecko. The whole place came and looked at this green snake hanging in our hut. Then the cook came over and sprayed insect repellent on him like when granny ‘raids’ her cottage. That seemed to really piss off the snake and he fell to the floor and released the gecko who amazingly ran like hell. The snake also high tailed it.

In very broken english the cook seemed to ask me if we wanted to move. I suggested that the chances of a snake in any of the huts was about the same, we would be just fine staying. He nodded and said ‘you move’. I asked if it was better if we move. He said, ’safer’. I said, ‘ok’. We weren’t going to argue with the cook about snakes. Our new hut was further down the beach, and also had a newer style roofer where the was a weave of palm fronds before the thatch which would prevent serpents from raining down on us.

We started kayaking at 2 pm. The kayaks were nice and modern with foot levers and a rudder for steering right or left easier. We set off at good pace following our guide twisting through a maze of islands. The islands themselves are vertical cliffs topped with jungle. Very scenic, like a prehistoric muskoka of the tropics. See the pictures for an idea.

We paddled until 5:30 or so winding our way along long exploring the coast line and seeing people fish and scrap shellfish off the rock in tiny backwards row boats. Dinner was also very good consisting of spring rolls, pork and vegatables, fish, tofu, morning glory (or spinich), rice, sugared peanuts (which are quite good) and watermelon. By the time dinner was over it was very dark outside, we were not near any cities. There was a full moon out so star gazing wasn’t that good and since we had been up since 5am on 5 hrs sleep and then kayaked for 3 hours the whole group was zonked. The 10 of us were all in our huts worrying about snakes by about 8pm. Our huts were equiped with a lightbulb and a fan running via a generator off near the kitchen. We slept stiffly but for a long time with only the waves making any noise.