Day two of our junk cruise - we are awake early, lying in bed looking at the clearer view (still all the other ships) from our bacony. I'm too late up for the 6:30 taichi on the sun deck, but I catch up with my uown tai chi set 1 during the last 10 minutes. It's warm and nearly sunny. At 7:30 we pull out and slowly wend through some beautiful islands, hearing the birds, aiming for the floating fishing village and cultured pearl farm. We take the tender over to the village and board 4 at a time small boats poled by ladies from the village.
It is quiet and peaceful, the swish of the single oar, the morning bird song, an eagle or two soaring, a flock of white long-necked unidentifiable birds across the water. Finally we get what we came for! It's magical. We circle some islands, into a cave bridge and see a huge ocean-going freighter parked outside, reminding us it's a busy seaway on the outside of this island group. There have been traders here since Marco Polo ad strong influences of Japanese and Chinese pasts.
We share our little boat with a delightful couple from Hong Kong on a long Easter weekend jaunt, he's in finance, she's in marketing, we gel. He is from Veracruz in Mexico, and she is from Germany. They are delightfully in love and later I take the definitive happy photo of them on their balcony next to ours.
We disembark at the commercial pearl farm, where they raise 3 sorts of pearls, including (if you can believe them) the black pearls from French Polynesia...a guy illustrates the wole procedure from implaning the seed to opening an oyster to discover its contents, surprise, a perfect white pearl!
Of course, there's a fancy store, polished looking saleswomen offering pearls lke Barbara Bush had (only $5,000 a string...), prices are outrageous but there's no doubt about the quality of the beautiful pearls there, whever they may have come from!
We pack up, a 5 minute job with our overnight bag, and leave our cabin as someone else will occupy it in a few hours. We enjoy a nice brunch and retreat for the return voyage to the sun deck and last views of the lovely karst islands before hitting the busy boat dock again. It's all downhill from here, on the 4 hour drive back to Hanoi, and iffy weather that soon turns to drizzle.
Back on the dock, we are a captive audience again. The sales touts circle. I am sitting alone and eventually succumb to a string of small black pearls, ideal for my camping trips when I don't care where they are left - we agree on $10, I give her a Canada pin and we have a smiley photo together. Sweet!
After the long bus trip it's nice to be back in our lovely cool suite but the weather is still socked in with threats of occasional thunder storms. They had a deluge this morning but it's over now, just drizzle.
We shower, rest, reorganize and walk a few blocks to Highway 4 (the highway between Vietnam and China) for some excellent northern special food. There are stuffed ant egg pancakes, crispy scorpions, and deep fried crickets, but we are not brave enough for any of them. Ted orders pork in betel nut leaves and I get sea bass wraps and as usual, we share these excellent dishes. The owner has developed an ecologically sound retaurant as well as world award-winning liquors from rice wine, some as high as 27% alcohol. With a few beer chasers we try about 5 of them, powerful stuff. The manager comes by to visit and fill us in on all their products. Put us to sleep no problem that night...I sm sure some of these will be coming back to Calgary...
It is quiet and peaceful, the swish of the single oar, the morning bird song, an eagle or two soaring, a flock of white long-necked unidentifiable birds across the water. Finally we get what we came for! It's magical. We circle some islands, into a cave bridge and see a huge ocean-going freighter parked outside, reminding us it's a busy seaway on the outside of this island group. There have been traders here since Marco Polo ad strong influences of Japanese and Chinese pasts.
We share our little boat with a delightful couple from Hong Kong on a long Easter weekend jaunt, he's in finance, she's in marketing, we gel. He is from Veracruz in Mexico, and she is from Germany. They are delightfully in love and later I take the definitive happy photo of them on their balcony next to ours.
We disembark at the commercial pearl farm, where they raise 3 sorts of pearls, including (if you can believe them) the black pearls from French Polynesia...a guy illustrates the wole procedure from implaning the seed to opening an oyster to discover its contents, surprise, a perfect white pearl!
Of course, there's a fancy store, polished looking saleswomen offering pearls lke Barbara Bush had (only $5,000 a string...), prices are outrageous but there's no doubt about the quality of the beautiful pearls there, whever they may have come from!
We pack up, a 5 minute job with our overnight bag, and leave our cabin as someone else will occupy it in a few hours. We enjoy a nice brunch and retreat for the return voyage to the sun deck and last views of the lovely karst islands before hitting the busy boat dock again. It's all downhill from here, on the 4 hour drive back to Hanoi, and iffy weather that soon turns to drizzle.
Back on the dock, we are a captive audience again. The sales touts circle. I am sitting alone and eventually succumb to a string of small black pearls, ideal for my camping trips when I don't care where they are left - we agree on $10, I give her a Canada pin and we have a smiley photo together. Sweet!
After the long bus trip it's nice to be back in our lovely cool suite but the weather is still socked in with threats of occasional thunder storms. They had a deluge this morning but it's over now, just drizzle.
We shower, rest, reorganize and walk a few blocks to Highway 4 (the highway between Vietnam and China) for some excellent northern special food. There are stuffed ant egg pancakes, crispy scorpions, and deep fried crickets, but we are not brave enough for any of them. Ted orders pork in betel nut leaves and I get sea bass wraps and as usual, we share these excellent dishes. The owner has developed an ecologically sound retaurant as well as world award-winning liquors from rice wine, some as high as 27% alcohol. With a few beer chasers we try about 5 of them, powerful stuff. The manager comes by to visit and fill us in on all their products. Put us to sleep no problem that night...I sm sure some of these will be coming back to Calgary...
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