Wednesday and Friday of this week were of basically the same schedule. We slept late, loaded up on beautiful fruits and sweet breads (and even cookies!) at the breakfast buffet and then walked the fifty feet or so from the door of our beachfront bungalow to our cabana and cushioned chairs on the beach. We got up to order drinks from the bar or snacks to nibble on that were delivered to us beachside. The beach sweepers often spent time sweeping away trash and "ocean trash" to keep the beach pure and sandy. Sometimes overcast skies brought rain, but our thatched roofs protected us and we didn't have to budge. The private beach is only somewhat...seemingly during some hours of the day. At times, there are only twenty or so guests on the beach with us and at times it looks like Gulf Shores on the 4th of July. Throngs of tourists (mostly Vietnamese) have filled the beach at times, but the people watching and culture-observing it has provided has been well-worth the occasional crowd.
All other countries we've visited here, it has been the low-tourism season. Here, Vietnamese children are recently out of school and it is the high season. We've loved watching and observing people from afar. We are far from the only white people here, but we are certainly in the minority. We had heard rumors that people would randomly stop on the street and want to snap a photo with us. Thinking those who had shared that rumor were exaggerating, seeing nothing of that in Hanoi, fresh off the bus-boat-bus in Cat Ba, a man placed his ten-year old son next to us and took a photo. We witnessed this on the beach as well. The Vietnamese women seem to be very conservative. Mimi, our food tour guide, had told us that women here don't like to dress in sexy or revealing ways as people may think they have a "bad profession" as she called it. We have been hard pressed to find a Vietnamese woman in a bikini. If they are, many remain in shorts or a cover up. Many women even swim in shorts or swimming suits of sorts that cover the shoulders and certainly stomachs. The men on the other hand have been a bit less conservative. No, not a ton of speedos, but short swimming trunks, occasional shirts just rolled up when wandering about and large silver chains around their necks. We've watched groups of grown men playing soccer, trying diving tricks into the waves and piling sand onto one another's bodies. Groups of women or families all in matching attire have spend well beyond a half-hour trying to accomplish the perfect photo.
We've both enjoyed a lot of time for reading as well as people watching. I finished Anna and the King of Siam. It was a bit of a slow starter, and I was often lost during some of the political and diplomatic chapters, but the overall story was truly inspirational. It has been years since I have seen The King and I or Anna and the King, but after reading some information online, it seems the latter was much more accurate. (Of course, there's no reason to cast aside "Getting to Know You.") Anna was an incredible young woman, in her late twenties for most of the story, whom, after being widowed accepted a job as the governess to the king of Siam's children. (Siam is now Thailand.) She educated his many children, many of the women in the harem, and even some of their slaves. She also worked side by side with the king, translating letters and documents. While he was certainly not deprived of charm, nor of feeling, he often acted as a spoiled child. He was quick with his temper which sometimes resulted in imprisonment and even execution. Anna, known to many as the White Angel, worked to free many of these people punished unfairly. She helped to free slaves. Sometimes the king would listen to her and meet her demands, but sometimes he became frustrated with her. Nevertheless, her good-heart and stubborn nature meant she stood up to the king more than just about anybody else around. Her greatest accomplishment may have been in having five years to teach the king's son, Siam's future king. The love and admiration for Lincoln was shared with him, and he understood the cruelty of slavery. In his reign, prostration (the act of "lessers" constantly throwing themselves on the ground) was abolished, religious freedom was granted and slavery was made illegal. As a teacher, this sort of impact on the world was truly inspirational to read.
On Thursday, we booked an all day cruise to get out and see more of the area. We did this almost begrudgingly, wanting to ensure that we had time to relax and also escape crowds of people. After reading reviews, we found a boat that took about twenty passengers and advertised that it went to non-touristy places. Perfect. It was a large boat, so we had plenty of space to spread out. There were a couple Canadians on board, a Russian, but the majority of the others were from Belgium and Denmark, proficient in a multitude of languages, apologizing when they spoke to one another in their common tongue rather than a language we understood. Much of the boat ride was riding around the 365 limestone islands in this area. They were truly stunning, and I was infinitely sorry that I had cautiously left my good camera back in the room.
I was also utterly fascinated by the fishing villages we saw, a real separate culture only a short boat ride away from the main island. These people spend almost the entirety of their lives on these floating houses surrounded by squared off patches, as a gardener might have, but these patches dip into the sea and are surrounded by nets where they grow fish. Some catch and raise crabs, others jellyfish, shark, squid and a variety of fish. Many catch large groupers that they keep at the house because it is a lucky fish. We went in one home where they pulled up the floorboards to show us the "monster" they keep there as luck. Our guide showed us the school where no one goes because it is difficult for them to get there, but also because many don't see it necessary. They marry at the age of 13 or 14, and are happy to go ahead and start their own family, they worship the Mother Ocean who provides everything to them. We even saw a small temple they visit to worship her and make offerings to her. A fresh water boat and a supermarket boat makes regular visits to the villages. The people do make trips to town to the supermarkets, but our guide says the locals can easily tell who these people are based on their clothing and that they are often treated differently and looked down upon. We were also surprised to see dogs on almost every floating home, many no bigger than a dock with narrow planks surrounding the fish "gardens." The dogs (and even a few cats) are kept there to scare away the birds who find easy prey in the fish nets. This amazingly unique culture was fascinating to see.
Also on our boat tour, we got to enjoy swimming in the very salty warm waters, away, our guide promised us, from the massive jellyfish we had passed.
Another appealing aspect of this cruise was the cave kayaking it promised! We stopped at one of the fishing homes that seemed to diversify their living by also renting kayaks out for the day. Here, we piled two by two into kayaks and cruised around the lovely limestone islands covered in tropical green while unsuccessfully looking for monkeys. We entered one cave with danger signs.
Our guide told us that during low tide we could go far in, but as it was high tide we could only go a hundred meters or so in. It was easy to see why. After turning a narrow corner, we had to duck under stalagmites that hugged the ceiling and bats that flitted about the almost completely darkened den. At times there was no room to use our paddles so we had to use our hands to grip the cave walls to move along. The other caves we entered were more tunnels that took us to enclosed lagoons, hidden gems.
Very pleased with our outing for the day, we returned the next day to our beach cabana with reading, naps and people watching. My bum barely moved from the chair until the nearly full moon began to dance on the water.
We haven't ventured into the water much here, in part as the breeze has kept the air very comfortable and there hasn't been a great need to get our skin salty. We've also seen a fair amount of people come out of the water complaining of bites and stings.
Our accomodations here have been nice, while also a bit odd. We admit that our first beach stay in Railay Beach spoiled us as the price was incredibly reasonable and the room incredibly nice. We are thankful here to have our own, ocean view bungalow just feet from the breakfast room, the bar where we've eaten dinner overlooking the moon on the waves and of course the beach.
The bungalow is nice, relatively simple with its own front "porch," but the bathroom is a bit odd. It is attached to the bungalow, and while mostly covered, it is basically outside with a rock floor. Thankfully, they provided us with shower shoes! As has been the custom in many of our bathrooms, the shower is just a part of the bathroom, rather than its own section. In some ways, I really like this. Many European showers are ones you can barely turn around in, so this is a nice change. Our shower here has actually had some of the best pressure of our whole trip, and it comes from a coconut with water that is pumped through bamboo pipes.
And I can't forget about our massages! The masseuses came to us under our own cabana on the beach. We have enjoyed massages in each country and decided each one deserved our fair treatment. This one certainly got bonus points for being on the beach, but it was also the toughest massage we've had so far. We both felt a bit beat up afterward, and if the man had looked more like James Bond, I may have thought his neck pop was a move to try and break my neck instead. Nevertheless, it was relaxing addition to our beach retreat.
Cat Ba certainly has more to offer than we saw. There's a national park there, a viewpoint that was used during the war and a town. However, the town seemed as busy as Hanoi, just smaller and we were eager to escape that. As for climbing to viewpoints, well, I could say that the questionable skies kept us away, but it was rather the desire to chill that kept us on the beach, and you know, I'm glad that we did.
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