Vicki had booked us into a three-day cruise on Bai Tu Long Bay, followed by a couple days' light trekking in Sapa, up in the mountains. Travel to and from both places was to be by a "luxury" van, seating 9 in a pinch, but normally 6 or fewer. So on February 20th, we stowed some of our gear at the O'Gallery and then rode, in luxury, to Ha Long, the port from which the Halong Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay cruises depart. The road to Ha Long was memorable, for the luxury, the scenery (rice paddies), the company (especially a nice couple from Durham (England)), and the stops...one at an interesting bus-stop/shopping mega-center, the other for lunch and the long-awaited water puppet show. The latter will require its own separate post. Of course.
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Interior of one of the four luxury vans we used; the ceiling
lights of course changed colors, from yellow, to green, to
pink, to blue, etc. We turned the TV off before any other
passengers loaded |
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After the hour it took us to get out of Hanoi, the scenery turned to rice paddies,
some with towns |
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| Some with cemeteries |
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| Towns |
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| Interesting monuments and architecture |
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| Traffic |
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| And more rice paddies |
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At length, we turned into this unpromising-looking place, evidently a plant for
the fabrication of sculpture and lawn ornaments and such; our first rest-stop |
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| Carrara? |
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| Not the old-fashioned way |
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| All kinds of cool Asian lawn and shrine ornaments |
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| If too big for your suitcase, easily shipped back home |
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| Satisfied customers |
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But wait! There's more! Under one football field sized roof, practically every
kind of product you can buy in Vietnam: clothing, hats, shoes, jewelry, food,
souvenirs, booze (including a cafe and full bar), art, candy, you name it |
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You can even buy pickled cobra (tastes like pickled chicken
I was told) |
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An amazing, not to be missed place; after 30 minutes' restful shopping, we were
back on our way |
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| Fortunately, luxury vans don't stop at places like this |
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