Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Saturday March 23 Hanoi

Saturday is our first full day in Hanoi with a slow start in our lovely room and the classic Asian Hotel brunch of a bit of everything from many different cultures to make travelers feel at home no matter where they hail from. After breakfast we wander about the lake which provides an opportunity to walk and see the town with a bit of a barrier between us and the hectic traffic. Air is reasonable, though more polluted than I anticipated – I would guess part Hanoi, but now looking at a map, also quite close to much of China’s industrial zones so likely a mix of sources.

We wander from Old Quarter where we are staying to French Quarter, past the opera house and then back. In “our neighborhood” we discover a NYC Pizza place (an Englishman married a Vietnamese woman and while on their honeymoon in NYC decided to open a NYC Pizza place in Hanoi – can’t make this stuff up). Afternoon is reserved for a bit of homeschooling – biology and math. We are also listening to a Vietnam History book on tape – “Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy – 1945 – 1973” – which actually covers a longer window of Vietnamese history. “Book on tape” reminds me of one of my favorite headlines from my time in DC which was something of the order of “Historic Tower Records Location closes because consumers no longer purchasing CDs” – not really a tape anymore …

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

It is clear my appetite to wander aimless in the city is nicely matched to Lori, but absolutely not what is interesting to Max. Evening has us taking in the Water Puppet show – recommended as a tourist must do – beyond that - really quite wonderful in its mix of novelty, music and creativity.

From there we wandered into the evening – Old Quarter is an interesting mix of locals

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

and tourists. On the weekends, much of this part of the town is closed to traffic making the walking much more interesting with all of the little shops exploding onto the street with pop-up tables for food and drink and a variety of music and other entertainment. After some discussion one of us decides we are not quite ready to go for a street food pop-up restaurant dinner so we settle on the “Prague Pub” which is some mix of Vietnamese and int’l food (note to self – fine to miss Prague Pub on next visit to Hanoi).

Sunday March 24 Hanoi

Sunday morning is more organized with plans to visit Uncle Ho, the Vietnam Military History Museum, the Lake, The Citadel and the Temple of Literature – all quite interesting and in particular an interesting contrast to the “international version” of history we are getting from the book we are listening to. Although not surprising, it is also reorienting to hear the “Vietnam war” referred to as the “American war.” At least as officially presented, the story is told without any animosity, but more in the context of

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Vietnam having been at war with neighbors and other invaders for 1000+ years and now is happy to be at peace and happy to make peace with old adversaries.

At the old Citadel there are a variety of graduation ceremonies going on which are interesting to watch. A young group of boys (~14-year-olds) surround us wanting to talk and in particular talk to Max who is feeling a bit mobbed. It does not help that they all speak great English and in particular know more about pop culture than we do, with the little boys asking Max if he is Justin Bieber (which with a bit of internet research is not an absurd question these days). I do note, any reference to the “Justin Bieber” event is TOP SECRET and should never be shared back to Max if you are reading this (this includes you Max).

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

After a great deal of walking we make our way back to a coffee/ice cream café on the lake for a bit of a treat and then back to the room to do a bit of reading, home schooling and otherwise catching up with various tasks.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Dinner is a bit more adventurous with Max agreeing to try a Vietnamese place that is not quite part of the street food scene, but close – lots of good points to Max for trying new foods. As a reward for this adventurous behavior we decide to sample all of the chocolate dessert options back at our hotel before wandering up to the room to finish a movie we have been watching “Laurence of Arabia.” Max recently read the book and is enjoying the movie but reporting to us all the bits where the movie got the story wrong.

Sunday also has a bit of Gates Foundation work intrigue with a “urgent” request for a telephone conversation back to the office.

Monday March 25 Hanoi

My sisters two sons are both in Vietnam, with Jericho on a motorcycle adventure in the South and Adin living and working in Hanoi. We have a chance to meet Adin for breakfast and tap him for some local wisdom on things to see and do as well as catch up with his life.

We are doing a bit more catching up and homeschooling this morning with our tourist/learning events of the day being a visit to Hoa Loa prison (otherwise know as the Hanoi Hilton). We start with wandering around Hoam Kiem Lake and Jade Island, then to the post office and then to the Prison.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

The history is told starting with the place being built by the French for holding Vietnamese and then works its way through a number of different prison masters before it gets to the story that I knew of it as a prison for US pilots including Senator John McCain. Ironically, McCain is back in the news at home during our visit with Trump complaining that McCain never properly thanked Trump for permitting him to have a nationally celebrated funeral – seeing the contrast from Trump generate McCain news

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

to McCain’s history, the pilot, the prisoner, but perhaps more the American politician leading reconciliation with Vietnam reinforces what a small and unfit man we as a nation now suffer with as President.

We were able to get tickets to a “Bamboo Circus” at the National Opera House for the evening. This was recommended as much to be able to get into and see the Opera House as for the show. The Opera House was certainly lovely and interesting, but the show was astonishing – a bit of a Cirque du Soleil but with the stage and acrobatic

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

props being constructed and deconstructed to music and dance out of various sections of bamboo – a must see on my list of recommendations for Hanoi.

But first things first, if we are going to a show and having a late dinner, we need a bit of sustenance. It appears that Max and Barak favor the same type of pizza.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

We had the good fortune of noticing an Argentine Steak House a few blocks from the Opera House that served good red wine, steaks and mac & cheese permitting us the nostalgia of having a West Seattle “Jak’s dinner” in Hanoi (the only thing missing is Josie and Adam at the bar).

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Tuesday March 26 Ninh Binh

Today we get an early start out of Hanoi for an adventure two hours south to Ninh Binh. In principle, I really hate organized tours or a guide much preferring to figure it out on my own and enjoy both the risk of missing stuff and the serendipity of finding things off the normal path. In spite of going into with this negative bias, in practice most of the tours I have take in the last few years have been outstanding providing a much richer learning opportunity. Today’s trip was no different with a guide, a driver, a comfy car and a busy agenda. Our guide is “Chris” – an animated enthusiastic fellow who pretty much speaks non-stop sharing all manner of historic, cultural and personal reflections on Vietnam. We visit Tam Coc for a cave visit and hike up the mountain for a viewpoint.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

We then hop into a small row boat with a local woman who is a full-time farmer and part-time tourist guide and row boat captain for a 8KM tour on the water at Trang An. The scenery is stunning including rowing our way through a number of underwater caves carved into Karst formations similar to what are found in Halong Bay where we are heading at the end of the week.

On particular cave was more than a kilometer in length meandering under the Karst formations going from one bay to the next with a variety of extraordinary stalactites.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

They have organized a lunch for us at a simple roadside café, but what a treat – we get

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

to try about 10 different specialties – all wonderful and even Max gets into the moment trying many things usually off his list.

We finish with a tour of Hoa Lu , Vietnam’s first Capital starting in 865 BC and a long and interesting discussion of Temples, religion, history before heading home.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

After a long day and a big lunch Max is pushing for a quiet night so we send out laundry ($4 and two hours to refresh our wardrobes), a bit of room service and a take-out pepperoni pizza from the place around the corner where we are now part of the extended family (spent the time waiting for our pizza discussing mother-in-laws with British owner with Vietnamese mother-in-law in the back room doing what appears to be all the work to keep pizza place running).

Wednesday March 27 Hanoi

Last full day in Hanoi with a few tasks to take care of. Lori is getting a massage this morning so Max and head out with instructions in search of a hardware store to get epoxy to repair his glasses and find a wine store to get a couple of bottles to take with

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

us on the boat tomorrow. It takes us about 90 minutes of wandering, but we are successful on both counts and have the good fortune of walking by an Italian restaurant – Nhà hàng Mediterraneo - where we plan now to return for dinner. It is our good fortune on the way home from our errands a nice woman offers Max employment which I later realize is a wonderfully entrepreneurial sales technique for her pineapple.

For the afternoon, we all decide to do our own thing, Lori heads off the the Woman’s Museum, I wander through a few more random neighborhoods and Max hides in the room listening to his new SciFi book on tape and works a bit on his essay (being part of his homeschooling agenda which he is increasingly managing on his own).

For the evening we meet Adin at the newly discovered Italian restaurant which appears to be owned by two colorful older Italian gentlemen for a wonderful dinner, a couple of bottles of very fun Italian wine and a nice chance to catch up in a more leisurely way with Adin.

Thursday March 28 Hanoi to Halong Bay

Today is a bit of an early start – breakfast (and a final goodbye to the artistry of the La Siesta kitchen), then hop into a car for a ~3-hour drive from Hanoi to boat dock on

Halong Bay. Air pollution as we head out of the city and into the country side is about as terrible as anywhere I have been. It makes me sad to see this – as these various interesting, “exotic” societies accelerate their economic development they pay a steep price. In India in particular, I have been traveling frequently enough to see the transition of what used to be my favorite time of year – the cool months of November through

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

February – turn into the least desirable times of year – still cool, but now with a temperature inversion that makes the air truly unpleasant and unhealthful.

As we get closer to Halong Bay the air clears and the scenery gets steadily more interesting. We have a few minor errors in our boat reservation which are requiring a bit of sorting while we wait to board. We have booked a couple of days on the Violet – a lovely small boat with only six cabins. As the trip starts the boat exceeds our expectations, perhaps even a bit over the top in the luxury and extravagance of the lovely food. The waterways are crowded with many boats so being on a small boat with a small number of people is a peaceful contrast to what is going on around us. Our room even has its own small private balcony with a couple of chairs.

Halong Bay itself is stunning but does show signs of stress with trash in the water and air quality that is not as pristine as one would hope to match such a unique natural wonder. The boat “program” is highly organized with a clear set of “activities” – all interesting but all with a bit of a parade of tourists. We are off on a small tender boat to visit one of the caves cut into the Karst formations that define Halong Bay, then to the floating fishing village for a bit of kayaking and a history tour, then back to the boat for cocktails and a Vietnamese cooking lessons – fried spring rolls is the task at hand. The staff on the boat are lovely, friendly, open to sharing bits of their own stories. The other guests are from Germany and Austria. In all, I think it is about 16 staff and 9 guests.

Dinner is served on the top deck – wonderful food served with visual artistry as we drift on the bay in a cool breeze amongst the lights of other boats and the various rock formations. After dinner I have a call back to colleagues at foundation as there is unfortunately a few items that are needing more attention than anticipated. Following the call, we enjoy our own private deck for a last glass of wine.

Friday March 29 Halong Bay

We are on a three-day, two-night boat trip. It was a bit confusing to organize in advance and even more confusing in Hanoi. It seems there are some 100+ boats, but 200+ websites and 500+ travel companies with each company representing multiple boats and multiple options. All of the things that one can do getting off the boats in Halong Bay are organized by the government as tourist concessions with strict rules. It would be fascinating to know how this business actually works. Today we get up and are the only people remaining a second day on “our” boat – so the boat company sends us off onto another boat early in the day for “activities,” motors back to port to drop off six and

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

pick up two and then returns by 2:30PM to pick us up again. Our “new” boat is nowhere near as luxurious, but still very nice and the new guide/host – Van – is wonderful.

Activities for today are a visit to a “surprise” cave, the official surprise being how small the opening and the initial path into the cave is and then how enormous the internal rooms are. The real “surprise” is how many tourists they can fit into the cave. Our guide shares with us that about 5 years ago they opened up overland bus tourism from China which has been an economic boom for the area, but not without impact. We find ourselves jostling our way through the cave with a 1000+ older Chinese tourist who are dead set on getting the pictures they want where they want them. Interesting to reflect on what changes this part of the world has seen and what stories these older Chinese could tell. Many where probably children impacted by Mao’s cultural revolution and are now wealthy (and very pushy) tourists in Vietnam. For Max the whole thing is a bit much, but still a good thing for him to experience.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Following the cave tour, we head off for another chance to kayak, this time through a cave into a hidden bay with a small troop of monkeys living on the beach. Lori talks our guide Van into paddling with her which is lovely as she seems to be having a great time. On the “day” boat, it is just the three of us on a boat that is setup to take as many as 45 so Van has quite a bit more flexibility to not just guide but play. Just as we finish

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

kayaking the skies open up for a tropical rainstorm. We are standing under a tin roof with all the great sound effects that one expects. We head back to the boat to motor off to the next stop with rain and more rain with the side benefit now of cool absolutely clean air.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Lunch on the boat is extraordinary – again wonderful tastes, too much food, but each small dish presented as a work of art with carrots carved into butterflies and the like.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Max is living the life on the boat trip over.

Week 9 - March 23rd – March 29th Hanoi, Ninh Binh, Halong Bay

Last stop on the day’s activity list is a tour of the Pearl factory – which is quite interesting – and then of course the obligatory visit to the factory gift shop. And then a bit of relaxation on the top deck of the Violet to finish a perfect day.

Looking back over the week it does seem to have been both busy and wonderful …