How long has this been going on? (Ha Long Bay to Ho Chi Minh City)

Fear not dear reader the title is not a repeat or a misprint. Carly Simon does a sensational rendition of the Gershwin classic How long has this been going on? A song that has been recorded by numerous artists. I chose this version over that of Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan because I could echoes of Billie Holliday. Enjoy. It's worth a listen.

Another early morning start, dear reader, as the last excursion of our Ha Long Bay experience was a trip to a floating village. There is a number of these communities, dotted across Ha Long and Ha Lan, but the villagers are being encouraged by the authorities to return to living on land. Part of the reason for this is pollution of the waterways. They have tried to manage this through education programmes with some success. However, should a group not learn to live more cleanly with less environmental impact, they are relocated to land. Not a happy outcome for people who have lived their entire lives on the water. Therefore, over recent years, the floating village populations have declined.

Early morning light on the limestone.

At 6:45am, a light pre-visit breakfast was on offer but we felt we could forego this and wait till the post-visit brunch. An APT tour means you never go hungry. I’ve already started skipping meals or courses on offer. So at 7:30am, we joined the group on the tender to go to Cua Van village for a presentation and a tour conducted by locals.

The village has communal areas that are large open pontoon-type platforms, connected by ramps or simply tied up next to each other. Around the inlet, floating houses line the shore and you can walk from one neighbour’s house to the next. Each house has netted ‘tanks’ which contain fish that they have caught and are growing for later consumption.

One section of the floating village.

Transport around the village is by traditional row boat. The locals stand on a platform at the back of the boat which has seats for passengers. They then use oars to row forwards. Nothing happens at speed – you get where you are going when you get there, but no journey is any great distance.

Once we were on the pontoons, we were taken to the museum which presents a scale model of the village as well as cultural, historical and logistical information on the village. Like Australia’s First Nations people, this is a society whose continuity is supported by an oral tradition, in this case, song.

Once we had this background information, small groups departed for a floating tour around the entire precinct to see up close the houses and the other infrastructure.

The village has its own version of services. They have boats loaded up with all kinds of produce and products that criss-cross the village to provide home delivery shopping. A lady, by herself in a row boat, slowly rowed around the waterway, collecting with a net on a bamboo pole, any floating rubbish such as plastic cups or bags. I’m not sure she was winning the fight.

Every house has at least one hammock on the front porch and one dog. Obviously these things are not reliant on each other. On this Saturday morning, many of the locals were lazily swinging back and forth while they watched us tour past their homes. It occurred to me that you wouldn’t want to be a sleep walker around here or an unconscious midnight wander might end in a very rude awakening.

The ubiquitous dog.

Children attend primary school taught by teachers who live in the village from Monday to Friday. Secondary students must either go to the land-based schools (5am starts to get there) or go to boarding school.

We rowed around the village in one of the traditional boats. When I say that, we were actually rowed around the village by an old woman. The community is about one third of the size it used to be after many people were removed to the land because of the pollution problems. As we moved past the houses, the differentiation of wealth was obvious. Some houses had solar panels. Others had larger pontoon areas at their disposal. There were small boats for fishing and larger ones for squid fishing adorned with lights because they work at night and the light attracts the squid. The hammocks appeared to be occupied by the younger members of the community. The older people were mending nets, tending the fish or preparing food.

A squid boat.

Not everyone lived in a floating house, some lived on a boat. There were only a couple of these boats permanently moored but I doubt that they would be seaworthy, if they were required to move from their moorings.

More holes than swiss cheese.

Once the tour was completed, we were taken back to the ship and while we sailed back towards the marina in preparation to disembark, we vacated our rooms, checked out and went to brunch. The timing of check out was dependent on the ship reaching a location on the bay where there was enough internet signal for e-payments to be processed. Thankfully, when we arrived at the marina, we were spared another stint in the chaotic transit lounge as our bus was waiting to transport us to Hà Nôi’s domestic airport. Here Tea assisted us to seamlessly check in for our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), scheduled to depart at 3 pm. Once all bags were checked and tickets issued, we went to the Lucky Restaurant, within the terminal, for a final meal with Tea, a light lunch.

Mending nets.

Tea is an excellent guide and has diversified his business to try and build a better life for his family. He has his own website where he sells bags and other merchandise. You can reach it here. On the bus trip to the airport, Tea phoned his daughter and a number of us had the opportunity to speak with her. She is a very confident young lady of 9 and was preparing for an English-speaking competition to be held the next day. Her English was extremely good. I hope she did well.

After that we sadly bid Tea farewell and headed through security, an interesting experience because, despite having to take off everything except our clothes (shoes, watches etc) we all set the alarm off for no explicable reason. Patted down, we redressed and headed to the crowded departure gate. Naked travel will soon be a thing.

We were interested to see what this flight would be like since, in early 2024, we will be travelling on Vietnamese Airlines for part of our next European excursion. Boarding commenced on time and we found ourselves squashed onto airport buses to be taken some distance away to the plane. With some trepidation, we located our seats in economy. Bonus!! We had scored the bulkhead row with additional legroom. Our glee was short-lived, however, as we quickly discovered that both crew and passengers saw the space in front of us as a thoroughfare to go from one side of the plane to the other so we were almost constantly moving our feet out of the way throughout the flight. Thankfully, the duration of the journey was less than two hours and we landed in HCMC to be met by another APT guide. After luggage retrieval, he steered our group out of the terminal and through the carpark to a bus to transport us to the Park Hyatt Hotel, a 5-star establishment in the heart of the Saigon retail district. This would be our home for the next two nights.

Cruise Director, Long, whom we had briefly met on our first evening in Hà Nôi, was waiting to greet us and expedite our check in. This was critical as we arrived after 6pm and were expected to attend the welcome dinner for the larger cruise group at 7 pm. By the time we made it into our room and the bags arrived, it was almost time to go to the mezzanine level where we saw the rest of our fellow travellers. There are around 67 in the group. Many had arrived earlier in the day and were already seated, socialising and eating. We all felt a bit frazzled but settled during dinner and had the opportunity to chat to Long, who outlined the organisation for the next couple of days and answered any questions. 

After the noise and rush of dinner, a couple of our group repaired to the quiet of one of the hotel bars for a calming nightcap before heading off to bed. Unsurprisingly another early start awaits us in the morning, as we head back out of HCMC to visit the Long Tan Memorial – a full day trip to the next province.

Until next time.