Halong Bay, located in the Gulf of Tonkin in Northern Vietnam is famous for its 3,000 limestone islands dotting it's waters. Ha Long, in Vietnamese, means "where the dragon descends into the sea." We caught a three day tour (another crazy story), from Hanoi to Halong Bay including a beautiful night spent on the boat in the bay. After the second day we broke away from our Halong Bay tour group to spend an extra day on Cat Ba island. Due to the sharp, steep topography of most of the islands, Cat Ba is the largest and only inhabited island in Halong Bay.
We checked out the hotel the tour had booked us in and relocated to another with panoramic views of Cat Ba Bay, definitely the nicest room we've been in for only 5 dollars! We don't quite know how the price was possible, but suspect it may be due to the low season coupled with major construction next door(though we lucked out and the construction soon ended after we checked in).
The day was clear, and though temps were a little low for swimming, we still set out on foot to the nearest beach. Along the way to the beach we met a 19 year-old Vietnamese kid named Luc. He was eager to talk with us because his English teacher had specifically told him to practice his English with foreigners. We spent the afternoon together, hiking to beaches he had amazingly never been to. Perhaps because they were fully equipped with beach umbrellas, lounge chairs and bathing suits for rent for tourist during the high season.
During this time of year, they were completely vacant and we waded in the South China Sea and played tic-tac-toe in the sand. Luc's English was pretty broken, but impressive for only studying five months. We tried to learn some Vietnamese, but couldn't get past the tonal variations of "ng," used in many words.
Luc told us about his family who live in the floating village in the adjacent bay. We saw many of these fishing-based communities scattered throughout Halong Bay. They are comprised of dozens of single-room, floating houses and I believe are the direct result of the lack of building space on the many islands. Luc told us his mother usually went out daily to fish while his father tended to the fish they are rearing on their houseboat. We saw a setup like this in another floating village, there are large holes formed into the dock on which the house is built allowing access to the water. Heavy nets are suspended in these "rearing" tanks and caught fish and shellfish are kept in separate nets where they are fed until ready for sale.
Luc also has two brothers and three dogs. The dogs don't swim much, but stay on the houseboat, and one brother works on a large fishing ship out at sea catching squid. Luc helps his family with fishing, but his primary responsibility is to study English, he hopes to go to school in Haiphong City on the mainland. We agreed to meet again later that evening and go out for tea, Luc said he would bring his friend along.
That night we met Luc and his friend at the large fountain on the pier. Luc wanted us to also meet his English teacher and led us away from the well-lighted main street far away to dark alleys. The entire time Luc did not seem exactly sure where to go and kept stopping us to run off and confer with others. He also insisted that we lead the way in a particularly dark alley causing some hesitation on our part. Were we walking into a trap?! We agreed to follow his lead and our minds were eased when we reached a clean, small lighted room filled with a dozen Vietnamese young adults seated on plastic kid chairs in front of a blackboard. This was where Luc's teacher taught night classes. We removed our shoes and were eagerly ushered into the room where we were seated separately amidst the students. The teacher asked if the students could practice their English with us and if later, we would help them with their lesson. Sure, we said and settled in for the barrage of questions.
The teacher facilitated as a translator when necessary as the students were at varying levels in their learning. We talked about Washington (it's North of California, you know, Los Angeles, "uhh"...Hollywood, South of Canada- many still didn't know where we were talking about!), the weather there, our jobs, our ages and what we thought of Vietnamese culture. We tried to ask them about their jobs, ages (19-35), names, and future goals. One girl asked Heath if he would sing a song for her, he politely declined. Another group pointed out my streak of grey hair and told me it meant I had bad blood, but was intelligent, thanks, I think!
We helped with their lessons by reading over a new list of words so they could listen to our pronunciations and repeat them. We then used the words in short stories. We didn't leave the class till it finished at 9pm. Unfortunately, I don't think Luc had anticipated our prolonged participation, his friend had already taken off and he seemed sad that we hadn't made it out for tea. We did exchange emails and promised to keep in touch though. We were also invited to breakfast by Heath's "girlfriend" the following morning at her restaurant (though we missed our tour bus as a result, another story).
Meeting Luc and teaching a Vietnamese English lesson on an island in the middle of Halong Bay was a bizarre, but incredible experience that we were lucky to have.
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