Day 13: Saturday 21 Oct 2000
Halong Bay

This entry posted on:
23 OCT 2000 at 0730	Vietnam
23 OCT 2000 at 0030	UTC
22 OCT 2000 at 2030	EDT
22 OCT 2000 at 1730	PDT

Not to say the Ha Long boat wasn't comfortable... quite the contrary, as neither of us had any complaints and both of us slept straight through 'till morning. But like camping, sleeping on a boat is just one of those things that's not conducive to sleeping late. There's lots of people up and about, there's plenty of activity, folks are up to stuff, making breakfast, noise, movement, etc. We got up around 6:30 and had a quick breakfast of fried eggs, cheese, and three pieces of sweet white bread which tasted a little funny. Our British friends got the idea of making sandwiches, but unfortunately, Mike and I had already made short work of the eggs and were forced to eat the bread dry. After another short swim break, we set out for Cat Ba Island. We learned later that this was a lucky break for us. See, generally, only the three day tour folks get to go to Cat Ba, which is where they spend their second night. We two-nighters usually don't get to see Cat Ba. But we caught a break when one of Handspan Travel's boats came up lame. Which meant that we had to drop the 3-day-ers off at Cat Ba and pick up another batch of them to bring back to Ha Noi. Cat Ba is an amazing place. It's basically a resort island like Catalina, with swimming, fishing, and hiking. But there isn't much flat land to speak of and, with the exception of a row of hotels, bars, restaurants, and discos along the waterfront, most of the city is in the middle of Ha Long Bay. That's right, Cat Ba City is primarily a floating one, consisting of boats, rafts, canoes, junks, and pontoon houses all anchored out in the bay in loose clumps... a floating city! It's really quite amazing. In addition to houses, they have schools, electricity, and even television. Unfortunately Bernie and Stephen were in the group staying at Cat Ba, and we were sorry to see them go, but we were happy to see Norman and Mark from our Perfume Pagoda trip among those waiting to board for the trip back to Ha Long City. You know, I'll never be a package tour guy. I don't want to spend an entire vacation running around on some hyperactive, perma-smiled tour guide's personal schedule. That just ain't me, man. But there was something really wonderful about these little one, two, and three day tours that made up most of our Vietnam vacation, and that was getting to meet and spend time with interesting people you might otherwise never get to know. Both Mike and I really enjoyed that aspect of our package tours and thought that it really added a lot to our experience. Also, I know Mike feels, like I do, that some of our best times were spent just hangin' and shootin' the shit with some of the people we met. From Cat Ba, we were scheduled to take a circuitous and scenic route back to Ha Long City. We spent most of the next four hours or so sitting on the top deck with Andreas, Sandra, and various others just chatting, taking pictures, watching the misted limestone cliffs roll by, and wishing the sun would show itself. We also took a quick stop for some of the group, including Norman and Mark, to take a quick dip. Mike and I remained dry for picture-taking and Mike actually captured on film what we believe to be the first ever attempted six-man top-of-a-Handspan-tour-boat simultaneous death plunge. But I won't lie to ya, it was a long hour and twenty minutes back to the dock and an even longer four hour ride back to Ha Noi. And we had even worse times waiting for us upon our arrival in the Vietnamese capital. For the first time, the German train schedule-like smoothness that had characterized our trip to this point, finally began to falter. It's really hard to explain how this happened to us without making us look like complete boneheads. You see, there were several items (among them airplane tickets to Ha Noi, the first three nights at our Ha Noi hotel, etc.) which we had counted on being able to pay for with a credit card, but which, for various reasons, weren't able to. So, we arrived back in Ha Noi on a Saturday night, after the banks had closed, with only a bank holiday Sunday between us and our departure time, without enough cash to pay for our hotel, a taxi to the airport, AND the $10 departure tax. We were royally screwed. And for most of Saturday night, we frantically ran about the city trying to solve what was fast becoming a major crisis. First, we tried the only ATM in Ha Noi, which of course was temporarily unable to advance cash on any of the cards we had with us. We then spent most of the rest of the night walking around the city stopping at every single four or five star hotel we passed along the way trying to get one of them to advance us some cash, but discovered that this is a service they only provide for guests. Virtually every single frustrating conversation we had followed the same basic script: Lars and or Mike: Hi, we'd like to get a cash advance on our credit cards. Person in position to help: You go to bank. Lars and or Mike: (After a slight pause in which we tried not to reply with sarcasm, "Oh hey, a bank, what a fantastic idea! Never thought of that... Where'd you get that little gem of advice, the bottom of a Cracker Jack box? It's freakin' Saturday night Asshole!!!) Yes, we tried a bank, but they are closed and none of them have ATMs. Person in position to help: (with a flash of recognition) Ah!!! ATM! There is ATM at ANZ Bank! Lars and or Mike: (after another long pause in which we tried not to hit them square in the face) Yes, we know there's an ATM at the ANZ. It's broken. But I guess it's not their fault. They were trying to be helpful, and when there's only one ATM in town, you can bet everyone knows where it is. At the ritzy five-star Hanoi Opera House Hilton, Mike, after being refused a cash advance by the last hotel in town, looked the concierge dead in the eye and asked, "how much for your cheapest room?" Both men behind the counter burst out laughing, but Mike was NOT kidding. Not at that point. Their cheapest room was somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 dollars, but what choice did we really have? We had to have cash... for buying swag for all you guys if nothing else, right? We decided to have dinner and talk it over. But wait, we had no money... no problem, the Aussie manger of Al Fresco's (We had been using B.J. and "Al's" as our Embassy because they spoke English and were happy to give us whatever advice they could, even offering at one point to feed us and let us settle up the next day) suggested we eat at Fat Jax, a nice little bar and restaurant high above the Hanoi Hilton Prison complex in an enormous apartment tower. Our bellies full of food and draught Tiger Beer bought on credit, we walked our tired, sorry asses back to our current hotel to inform our cute little desk clerk about the bad news... we would have to leave her for a hotel that could offer us a cash advance service. She said "hold on now, not so fast you crazy little American boys. Give us 'till tomorrow afternoon and we'll see what we can do for you." We had no idea what she was getting at. We were appreciative of the effort, but afternoon was too late. We wanted to have a good deal of our shopping done by then. She waved us off again. "No problem... I take care." We said OK, but went to bed very unsure of what was going to happen. We absolutely HAD to get a hold of some cash or else we wouldn't even be able to afford the departure tax to get home to you. We decided, as we fell asleep, that if they weren't prepared to hand us cash first thing in the a.m., that we would pack our stuff and leave for the Hilton. It was a long, hard, sleepless night...

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