For anyone waiting to read part two of my previous
blog post I promise it is coming soon! In the meantime though…The following is
an extract from my travel journal written on the 21st September
2012 on possibly one of the most harrowing road trips of my life as I headed
off to spend a weekend in glorious Ha Long Bay…
11am (ish), somewhere just outside Nam Dinh city…
I’m sitting in the back of a bus right now that I’m fairly
certain was made some time in the 80’s! At the very least the internal
upholsteries can’t possibly have been updated any time this century… Nearly all
the seat coverings are ripped or torn and if that is all that’s wrong with
yours you got a good seat. Many seats are not actually fixed to the frames and
the frames themselves are so rusted it appears as though they might collapse as
soon as anyone dares to sit down. Adjusting the seat positions is definitely
beyond the realms of possibility. Seatbelts? Pfft! Not a chance… which is
actually somewhat disconcerting given the speeds we are currently travelling at
and the fact that the driver appears to have little intention of stopping for
anything, including the steady stream of traffic just barely scrapping past us as
we travel down narrow highways! Did I mention there is no air-conditioning
either? The breeze coming in the window provides some relief from the
penetrating heat, but this is sadly offset by the toxic stench of fuel, rubbish
and dust drifting through the air - I now understand why so many Vietnamese
wear face masks when they are travelling!
It is interesting to observe the various characters that
make their way on and off the bus each time the bus pulls over (often in
locations that appear to be in the middle of nowhere). Several male passengers
appear well acquainted with this method of transportation and lounge around
lazily, spreading themselves across multiple seats where space permits and with
apparently little intention of relinquishing their seat should another person
require its occupancy. Other passengers look decidedly less at home on this
rickety old bus; such as the woman a few seats in front of me wearing six inch
heels and a silk button down shirt, or you know, me, huddled up the back
of the bus keeping very close guard of my overstuffed backpack and trying hard
not to pass out from heat exhaustion! Nevertheless, comfortable or not, the
means of affordable transportation from Nam Dinh to Ha Long are somewhat
limited and so those who desire such a paradisiacal destination as Ha Long Bay
must suffer through this decidedly unpleasant fate…
About an hour or so later… somewhere between Nam Dinh and
Ha Long City,
In the past half an hour or so the unpleasantness factor of
this particular journey increased significantly! Linda and I had the unenviable
experience of being harassed by several Vietnamese men who took a fancy to the
foreigners sitting at the back of the bus speaking English and scribbling in
notebooks. They therefore decided it would be fun to spend their time taunting
and harassing us for our food and my notebook and then later had a go at Linda,
making rude insinuations about her Chinese ethnicity. Whilst we didn’t feel
immediately threatened for our safety we certainly weren’t keen on this charade
continuing for another three hours until we reached our destination. Eventually
we rang Khiet (one of our placement mentors) who spoke to one of our fellow
travelers whom we had befriended before boarding the bus in Nam Dinh. Following
the phone call the woman swiftly berated our harassers with a slap to the arm
and what appeared to be some rather harsh remarks and the men sheepishly made
their way back to their seats with grins on their faces.
Just after things settled back down the bus came to a
stop at the Vietnamese version of a rest stop and unfortunately I really needed
to use the bathroom… I had cringed using the rest rooms at the supermarket
before our departure and this made those look like the Ritz Carlton! After
squeezing my way into the tiny cubicle I couldn’t bring myself to sit on the
filthy seat and instead crouched awkwardly trying very hard not to drop my
luggage on the soaking wet floor (I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just water!) in the
process. During this particularly delightful experience I became incredibly
glad for the packet of tissues I had thrown in my bag on the way out the door
as toilet paper was nowhere to be found! Eventually I escaped the bathrooms
from hell, bought a cold drink and have been sitting in the heat writing and
waiting for others to finish eating lunch just long enough to be extremely
uncomfortable…
A little while later… somewhere in northern Vietnam;
I am finding it somewhat off putting the frequency with
which I look up from my notes to see a large truck or other oversized vehicle
less than ten feet in front of us, driving on the wrong side of the road into
oncoming traffic, only swerving out of the way at the last possible moment and
nearly grazing the side of our bus on the way past…
A
little while later again… still too far from our destination;
So we were just pulled over by a uniformed official who had
a heated conversation with the driver before sending us on our way… have
no idea what that was about. I’m really starting to miss Australia’s wide,
smooth, open roads! In many places here the road is narrow and uneven- the
highway (if you can really call it that) is a single lane in each direction for
the majority of the time with a disproportionately large number of oversized
vehicles travelling along it. For travelers occupying less hefty modes of
transportation (mostly bikes- motorised and otherwise) the shoulders are
mercifully wide although I really hope no driver swerves right in a hurry!
For the most part the landscape consists of rice fields and
banana trees, often for many miles towards the horizon, and every so often we
pass through yet another small but densely populated town or city. Many of the
sights in the towns are ones that have become quite familiar to me over the
past few weeks; Students riding their bicycles to school, men and women tending
to the crops often with buffalos grazing or working in the fields nearby and
countless people sitting at roadside stalls and shop fronts selling their goods
to passers-by. Just now I am starting to see more rugged, mountainous terrain
ahead which is rather stunning to observe, but I am really hoping we are going
around the mountains and not over them given our highly precarious current mode
of transportation…
1.40pm…
still on this darn bus!;
From time to time here in Vietnam I have moments that
absolutely confirm that I am a long way from home. Many of the things that
initially took me aback, such as the insanity of the traffic and the absurd
amounts of luggage carried by bikes of all descriptions, have become at least
vaguely familiar if not comforting, but occasionally still I will witness
things that make me do a double take. For example, yesterday I saw a woman
casually riding down the street outside the school with what appeared to be her
dinner laid across her carry basket- in the form of a dead, but still fully
intact, pig. Just now I have had another such experience as I witnessed an
older man lead a buffalo out to work in the fields- not such an unfamiliar
sight except for the fact that he was leading the buffalo out of his living
room and through the front door!?!
2.20pm… are we there yet?
The land surrounding the highway is now dense with farming
agriculture and quarries and in the background mountains and cliffs emerge as
haunting silhouettes to the immediate scenery. Increasingly the landscape is
similar to the quintessential picture shown in travel brochures… hopefully that
means we are close to our final destination! Getting excited now!
3.10pm…
Just saw a sign saying 12kms to Halong City! Thank goodness!
Right now I am dusty, sweaty, hungry and in desperate need of a shower but I
have to say the emerging view is pretty great!!
Eventually we did arrive at our destination in Halong City where we were unceremoniously dumped on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere. We hailed a nearby cab, and headed to our hotel where I didn’t really care about the soft comfy beds so much as the fact that we finally had access to air conditioning and showers! I spent the afternoon wandering the docks near our hotel before meeting up with about 14 other YPWB volunteers for dinner. The following morning began bright and early as we went for a hike up a mountain in the middle of the city, from which we beheld absolutely stunning views of the bay and then we headed off to the port to board our cruise. We spent the next 24 hours swimming and kayaking, eating amazing food and enjoying absolutely breathtaking views of Ha Long Bay. I thought about writing another blog post to try and describe the beauty of Ha Long Bay but I don’t think words could possibly do it justice… They say a picture’s worth a thousand words and I took nearly a thousand photos (yes I know that’s insane for a 24hr trip) so I thought instead I’d simply share some of the best of the weekend… showing the experience before we had to endure the journey home again!
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