30 | October | 2011 | Teresa Van Haalen Ventures

Hi friends,

We’re in Sapa now (Sunday), but to catch you up, we left Hanoi on Tuesday morning (our Tuesday), to take a 3 hour van ride to Ha Long Bay, now being considered for one of the new “Wonders of the World”. Once we arrived at the boat, we were escorted to our room, a comfortable little suite in the forward part of the vessel (an old, nicely refurbished junk), and were served a 5 course Vietnamese lunch. We truly lucked out with our boat, the Sans Suici, because we happened to be the only couple who had booked at that time for 2 nights, so we really had the boat pretty much to ourselves (including the guides). And except for a few couples who were on a different “shift” than us–basically one group left right after we arrived, or others arrived just as we were leaving, we had our own yacht.

The bay is amazing, and a wonderful break from the vibrant, fun and noisy city of Hanoi. Almost 2,000 granite and limestone islands scattered like pebbles over a huge bay (used to be called the Gulf of Tonkin until after the American War). We were treated pretty royally, with a guide taking us to some amazing caverns, guiding us kayaking through some tunnels, watching monkeys scatter up the cliffs when they saw us, and serving us yet another gourmet lunch. We capped the experience off with a night of karyoke on the boat, with John chiming in with “House of the Rising Sun”. (Can you see that?……)

People are really wonderful to tourists here, and I don’t think, just because they love the dollar (although they certainly do!). But everywhere, and particularly as you move further north (and it was the north who won the American war!), there is very notable pride in the fact that the French and the Americans were both driven out (1954 and 1975, respectively). “Uncle” Ho’s picture and slogans are everywhere up here. John is reading a really great book called the “Beauty of Humanity Movement” that takes place between 1954 and now, in VN, and I just finished Graham Greene’s wonderful “The Quiet American” and am now working through an Anne Frank-esque diary about a young doctor who was working on the Viet Cong side of the war with wounded soldiers between 1968 and 1970, until she was shot. (Quite the folk hero now with young women). Too bad it’s taken this American citizen 40 years to get a semi-grip on what was happening to this country from the French occupation until after the America intrusion.

OK. Enough of that. Halong was a wonderful, romantic get-away. Today we are in the western mountains of Sapa–hiking–no slacking off,