Halong Bay is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, with nearly 2000 limestone islets. I built my current itinerary around seeing Angkor Wat and staying overnight on Halong Bay, which necessitated seeing Viet Nam north to south, working back toward Cambodia.
It's been worth it - Halong Bay is beautiful and mystical.
Part of that is arguably undesirable. Viet Nam apparently has 300 hazy days per year. I haven't worn my sun-hat once. Views from the roads outside Hanoi were hazy, as though seen through a fine mist of light smog.
Halong Bay was worse. Every view was in shades of grey as though seen through the morning mist - all day long. Would have been nice to get some photos just showing the islets, rather than the atmospherics.
I was up to see the sunset and the following sunrise. However, neither was visible - the greyness just faded to black and then got bright again.
Still worthwhile and unforgettable, though.
The Economy
So Viet Nam is a communist state. Really??? Every city-centre house (at least in the old quarter of Hanoi) has a Money Face - the front room downstairs is turned into a shop and tended by the grandparents (no wage bill). I've seldom seen anywhere more driven by private enterprise!
Apparently, the big change was in 1986 which saw an end to collective farms. The land was distributed, with 360 square metres per person. So a family of five would get the best part of 2 hectares, which wouldn't need 5 to farm. The others turning to handicrafts.
Some colloquial names for food found in a field probably date back to before that time:
Flying prawn - Crickets
Paddy field chicken - Rat
Baby tiger - Pussy cat
Guide Giang isn't tall. She puts this down to a great lack of calcium in the diet of her whole generation. They all now take condensed milk in their coffee because that's what they were used to as children.
Houses
Houses in and around cities look like they're built on standard plots - maybe 3 to 5 metre frontage and 10 to 15m deep (e.g. 45M² as 3x15). Some occupy double plots. Apparently, tax is based on plot size, so there's an incentive to build high. Additionally, each plot is developed independently, by contrast with the UK where a street or block is filled with houses of one design, maybe mirror-imaged. Modern estates mix a half-dozen standard designs.
The effect is to make Vietnamese streets look like rows of broken teeth - all different heights and shapes. Sometimes an 5-metre wide 3- or 4-story house is the first built in a new street; looking weirdly thin in the middle of a field!
Death Rituals
Viet Nam is supposedly 85% Buddhist, but most are non-practicing leaving the likely figure at 15%. Buddhists believe in reincarnation, and so in the north of Viet Nam they bury their deceased for only around 3 years. After this time the body should have decomposed (chemicals can assist if not). The remains are exhumed and it is the job of the eldest son to clean the bones. The cleaner, the better the form upon reincarnation (potentially as an animal). The bones are then finally reburied in a different cemetery.
Hoi An
Da Nang, just up the coast, is a big port where a growing number of big hotels has been built over recent years, with the hope of turning the current rare tourist into a huge local industry.
Little Hoi An is by far preferrable. Ancient, small and picturesque - small enough to stroll round with great cafés and local market stalls.
It has flooded twice a year for a very long time and the locals take it in their stride. During the day before my arrival, the water dropped about 2.5 feet (based on the dark line and freshly-dated chalk mark added to the collection on the wall of the old merchant's house. I took off my shoes and waded through their back room to look out the back door; being warned about the invisible stairs down to the quayside.
I took a similar stroll today and the water has fallen another 4 feet, as guaged by the length of the brick legs on the old Covered Chinese Bridge.
I like Hoi An, and I haven't even seen the beach. Nevertheless, it's an early flight to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon) tomorrow.
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