by Mark and Haley LaMonica

Created on: December 16, 2008

Finding Tranquility in Vietnam

Having spent three nights amid the chaos of Hanoi, we were looking forward to some relaxation on the peaceful waters of Halong Bay. After a quick breakfast with Ben, our travel companion and friend from college, we met our guide Cuong who would be escorting us on our roughly three and a half hour journey east to the coast. While we had spent the past three days dodging Hanoi's notorious traffic on foot, we gained a new appreciation of the "anything goes" approach of Vietnam's roadways as our van inched its way out of the city. Crossing the Red River we left Hanoi behind, yet even as our view changed to rice paddies, we could not escape the constant honking from all manner of vehicles.

Having survived the drive, we found Halong Bay Harbor to be as congested and frenzied as the streets. Snaking our way through the throngs of tourists, we tried to keep pace with the porter who had whisked away our luggage. We boarded our launch at the base of a steep cement staircase. Pushing off from the sea wall, we motored among the multitude of boats guessing which junk would be our home for the next three days. Arriving at the Bai Tho 38 we dropped our bags in our respective cabins and made our way to the dinning room to meet out senior guide, coincidently also named Cuong, and the rest of the staff. Although the boat was designed to sleep eight guests we discovered that we would be the only three on this trip accompanied by the nine staff. As the crew pulled up anchor, we settled in for our first of what would become six strikingly similar, primarily seafood meals. Whether lunch or dinner, course after course emerged from a small open air galley tucked beneath an overhang in the stern of the boat. Our waitress smiled proudly as she lay before us heaping piles of steamed clams and whole head-on prawns that she helped us to remove from their shells. We squeezed kaffir limes into a mixture of salt and chili peppers to create a quick dipping sauce for the simply prepared shellfish. One lunch we were treated to whole steamed crabs whose orange and pink shells reappeared at dinner as the serving dishes for crab cakes. A loud crackling sound signaled the arrival of the main course of one of our dinners as a whole, wok-fried white fish was presented sizzling under a pile of chilies and greens. Every meal included a plain starch, various vegetables, and, for reasons we were yet to discover, some form of squid. While the food may have varied in palatability,

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