Hue, Vietnam: Dragon Boat ride and bribe on the Perfume River

Our intrepid grandma Dragon Boat captain.

The captain didn't step aside for any of the pictures.
She loved getting her picture taken. And, she was impatient for me to
get on board because all Vietnamese are impatient to go, go go!

Captain grandma pushing me away so I wouldn't get her in trouble for taking pictures of the police bribe boat. And, she pushed our family into the covered part of the boat for some reason.

The blue boat is the bribe boat.

Another female Dragon Boat captain boards the police bribe boat in order to deliver her bribe envelope to the police who always stayed hidden inside the boat cabin. We never saw them.

January 4, 2011

We flew south from Hanoi to Hue, a city in central Vietnam. Hue has a famous river called the "Perfume River" which is supposedly dubbed perfume because beautiful smelling flowers float down it every spring, after their first bloom. And, the women are said to be the most beautiful women in Vietnam, somehow related to their living next to this so-called fragrant river.

Honestly, it's hard for us to judge beauty in Asia, many of the women seem beautiful to us, but there seems to be some cultural norm to beauty. For instance, our guide said that people ride motorbikes with masks over the faces, not so much to keep out the exhaust, but to keep their skin from getting dark. White, light skin is prized in Asia, especially among Vietnamese women.

But, back to the Perfume River. Dragon boats line the Perfume River in downtown Hue. We rode a dragon boat down to a temple. You can see the Dragon boat captain and owner above, a proud grandma-to-be who had her pregnant daughter with her on the boat; the pregnant daughter's job was to try to aggressively sell us captive boat riders some Vietnamese souvenirs. The grandma captain has a serious look on her face in the pictures, but she sure liked to get her picture taken.

That is, she liked to get her picture taken until she had to pay a bribe to the police on the police boat. Then, she pushed all of us back inside the covered part of the boat and angrily waved me away when I went out to take a picture of her in bribing action. In the picture above you can see her waving me away and using her pole to gently nudge her boat against the police boat that is ONLY anchored there to take bribes. If you look hard at the picture above you can see a woman captain entering the door of the boat with a manilla envelope in her hand filled with a bribe, allowing her to take her tourist boat past the police boat.

Now, let's back up for a second. In Cambodia and Vietnam everyone has to pay bribes to the police. Just to cross from one province into another on a Cambodian Highway, police stop every car for a "tax" that everyone knows is a bribe that goes into the policeman's pocket.

We were a bit surprised at the ingenuity of the police to set up a police bribe stop in the middle of the Perfume River. The boat captain didn't grumble about it, because she was ALL business. But, our guide grumbled about it. He's from South Vietnam, which sided with the U.S. during the war. He resents the police. Our guide from North Vietnam didn't resent the police, and he, in fact, white washed much of his description of the military government rule, saying loudly at the government required tourist stop at Ho Chi Minh memorial that "Everyone feels safe and is very happy with the government rule here."

No so, according to our South Vietnam guide. He grumbled that no one in his family can get a government job, or, for that matter, no one from his village or who were South Vietnamese can get government jobs. Those coveted government posts only go to Northern Vietnamese, who've always been loyal to the military, communist government. And, the police represent a much-resented government group in Southern Vietnam. Our South Vietnamese guide looked at the police bribe boat as we passed, saying through gritted teeth that Southern Vietnamese call the police "Yellow Dogs," as in cowardly dogs who take bribes and bite.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: Grocery Boat

January 2, 2011

I was fascinated by the phenomenon of what I'll call the "Grocery Boat" in Halong Bay. The tourist boat industry led to the creation of these Grocery Boats, since elaborate, huge meals are served on the tourist boats. With typical Vietnamese ingenuity and opportunism, the hard-working Vietnamese women jumped on the niche of delivering food to chefs on these tourist boats.

This female economy involved the women rowing hard around the bay, going from tourist boat to boat hawking their groceries. They'd ride right up to the back of the tourist boat and yell into the kitchen which has a door at the back base of the boat, right next to the water. You can hear them hollering their wares then loudly negotiating a hard-won price with the male chef on board each tourist boat.

All the while, many of them have their children with them. They do child care and work at the same time.

You might ask, "Where do they live this far out on the bay?" God knows, they're not zipping deep into the bay each morning on a high-speed motorboat, to go to work. No, they actually have floating villages in the bay too. Right next to the over-boat-touristed Sung Sot cave lies a floating village with little sidewalks that connect each floating house to the other. I tried to picture my kids running from floating house to house to play with the other kids every day, living as a floating villager.

Click here for a video of the grocery boat, with a brief glimpse of the floating village in the background.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: Sung Sot Cave

All the MANY tourist boats lined up to see Sung Sot cave.
So much for beating the crowds.

January 2, 2011

We woke early to find our boat had already pulled up anchor and set off to Sung Sot Cave. probably to beat the other tourists. Sung Sot cave is tucked into one of the limestone formations jutting out of the bay. Spelunking inside is far from roughing it. The cave path is like strolling on a sidewalk with steps. It's gloriously lit up in multi-colored lights. And, the kids ripped through the cave, having now become avid cavers.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: Luon Cave

Sea eagles circling over this mountain.

January 1, 2011

From our big boat, we took a small skiff out through Luon Cave to the other side of the cave hole, where we could see sea eagles circling over a mini-mountain and sea birds by the water. It was a peaceful, little lagoon.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: Titop Island

The staff from each boat face off on the sand football field.

Hiking up to the top of Titop Island, behind the Korean boatload of tourists.

He may be my favorite, most friendly monk yet.
Not a word was exchanged, but look at how giggly they both are together.

The view from top of Titop.

January 1, 2011

It was good to be on land for a while, after floating on the boat. The kids whizzed up to the top of Titop then spent the rest of the time on the sandy beach, losing themselves in drawing and running in the sand. I know now why all the tourists go to this island -- the outrageous views of gorgeous Halong Bay. This is the set of steps where Alice was stalked by the Korean girl tourists, yelling "Alixa! Alixa!" after I made the mistake of telling them her name. "Alixa! Sooo beautiful!" Abraham coached Alice how to hide and dodge the tourist horde.

Halong Bay, Vietnam: A big FAT boat all to ourselves

January 1, 2011

My guess is that the most peaceful and outrageously beautiful time on our trip will be Halong Bay. Think ocean with jutting limestone outcroppings bursting out of the water, left and right, carving striking shapes into the sky. Just amazing.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t do Halong Bay on New Year’s Eve because it would have been an incredible way to bring in the New Year. We arrived on New Year’s Day at noon, to a chaotic port scene, packed with tourists leaving their Halong Bay boats, the morning after New Year’s Eve. Let me tell you, these guys were HUNGOVER. You could even smell the alcohol wafting out of their pores. Whew! The previous night was written all over them. Most of the boats were completely packed, filled with 30 to 35 tourists on each.

Then, we stepped into our own boat, which had held 30 drunk tourists the previous night, and we had it ALL to ourselves. Yes, no one else was on board. Our travel agent asked and received a big, sweet boat for us, and the boat company must have already had the staff just sitting around, waiting for a job after us. We had at least 10 staff taking care of the 5 of us on our boat. Let’s just say we were well-served.

But, more importantly, you really need to imagine what it’s like being on a large boat without anyone else. The kids and we just felt nearly-completely unself-conscious. It was such a feeling of freedom, peace, and relaxation. We had an upper deck, dining area, and lower deck, along with lower rooms.

The kids took over a couple rooms, made a clubhouse with elaborate rules, passwords, money, and treasures, and they disappeared. We only let Boom disappear with them if he wore his lifevest at all times.

Another perk was that a large boat didn’t rock much, allowing Ken to be nausea-free on the trip. He’s developed a very sensitive, strongly boat and car sick reaction with age. He was dreading the overnite on the boat, but ended up loving it.

Each meal was filled with seafood, and enough food for the 30 people who should have been on board. We felt guilty at the end of each meal with how much we left over. Interestingly, the Vietnamese staff sat and watched us with our kids, and the guide told us that they noticed that American kids are given much more independence at the dinner table than Vietnamese kids. Our kids could say no to certain foods and seemed to have developed preferences. Vietnamese kids, even our kids’ age, are often fed by their parents, as in their parents put the fork filled with food into their kids’ mouths. Parents give their kids no choice in foods. And, they make their kids eat all their food. All of our guides took a stab at making our kids eat all their food.

Needless to say, we all slept well on the boat, rocking gently, but waking up early to sit on top of the deck, watching the rocky outcroppings pass by on our way to the caves.

Click here for a video of Boom describing his boat.

Hanoi, Vietnam: Turtle as Myth

The Famous Lake Turtle, as photographed by Alice.

Vietnamese men LOVE this game.

Calligraphy for tourists, just for a small fee.

Elderly woman praying to Buddha, outside of the temple where people pray to the general.
Not so many people praying to Buddha in Hanoi, as in more Central and Southern Vietnam.

December 31, 2010

At the center of Hanoi is Hoan Kiem Lake, just a couple blocks from our hotel. I’d jog there every morning in Hanoi. Our guide took us there to walk over the red bridge to an island with Ngoc Son Temple on it. Since it’s Hanoi, where they revere military leaders as much as Buddha, the temple was dedicated to worshipping a famous general, who saved Vietnam from the French, as it’s told. Many Vietnamese were praying to this general in the temple.

While the guide gave an unmemorable description of the general, he downright glowed when he passionately described the HUGE turtle said to live in the lake. Turtles are one of 5 sacred legendary animals in Vietnam including: Phoenix, Unicorn (Looks like a bird/lion/dragon mix without much of a horn), fish, dragon, and the turtle. Just because it’s sacred doesn’t mean they don’t heartlessly kill it live then eat it on the streets of Hanoi, though. But, it is said that there is a huge old turtle in the lake and he comes out rarely, but when he does he blesses everyone, bringing good luck. See the picture above of the legendary turtle in gold. At a recent celebration of the turtle next to the lake, the old turtle is said to have emerged from the lake, still putting a smile on the face of all in Hanoi.

And, people in Hanoi deserve to feel lucky, but it’s really through their grit, determination, efficiency, and incredible hard work that their town and country is just plain BOOMING!

You can see New Year’s Eve was the busiest day of our trip. We did EVERYTHING. Hence it wasn’t a disappointment to be blogging in my cozy Hanoi hotel room, with Ken and the kids asleep, when the clock turned midnite on New Year’s Eve. What a 2010 it’s been for us. We feel like the turtle’s given a special blessing on us this year. Happy New Year, everyone!

Hanoi, Vietnam: Upscale Hawker Food Dinner

December 31, 2010

We hit the local hawker stall courtyard, a phenomenon we’ve grown to love in Asia. A bunch of small restauranteurs set up a little stall or table, selling one or two key items, all in a square around a courtyard. You order at various stalls, then they bring you your food.

Our guides on this trip seem uncomfortable sending us to local food, or slummy hawker stalls for meals. They inevitably steer us towards the touristy, high-end but “local” food eateries, that always have pizza and spaghetti, just in case. But, this time we insisted, even had to insist a couple times, that our guide take us to a hawker stall, that seemed a guarantee of a local food experience.

The hawker stall he sent us to was named Quan An Ngon, and it was downright posh compared to the one we loved in Penang, Malaysia. A real waiter took your order from a menu that was offered with foods from all the stalls inside. But, taking a harder look at the stalls, I even doubted that these were real hawker stalls, with each stall representing a unique entrepreneur, usually a family with a child helping serve. Rather than having all the tables and chairs being miniature tables and chairs, as is loved in Hanoi as if all Hanoi-ans were midgets, they automatically seated the Western tourists at separate BIG tables and chairs, with locals happily squinched into their mini chairs. No, I think it was a high-scale restaurant masquerading as down-low hawker stalls, hoping to attract tourists looking for an “authentic dining experience,” like us.

Still, we happily ate our way through the ruse, smiling while eating rice pancakes wrapped up in shrimp, a huge pile of herbs, and pork. Click here for a video of the hawker stall.