Ha Long Bay, Vietnam
December 30, 2000
Arrived in Hanoi a couple days ago, and the next day took a bus to Ha Long Bay. I was going to just spend the night out at the Bay, but then it extended into two days. Met a Swedish girl and an Israeli guy on my way out there, and we shared a room for those couple nights. Its pretty cool hanging out with an Israeli again. During my 10 months in South America, I spent alot of time traveling with Israelis. After they get out of the army, they usually travel in either one of two different directions. Either they travel India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia, or they travel nearly all of South America. I met a few hundred easily among the thousands backpacking South America a few years ago. They usually escape for about six months. Back when I was in South America, they aren't to be messed with by the locals. While your normal backpacker traveler (often times fresh from college, tends to be a good target by the local thieves), there are quite a few stories of Israels fresh from the army taking on the would-be-theif, which for any other kind of traveler, would mean serious problems.
The Trip to Cat Ba Island (in Ha Long Bay) was really nice, it included a five hour boat ride in each direction. An interesting thing happened on our way out there. A local fishing boat, saw the foreigner-filled boat, and came over, attached their boat to ours, and proceeded to try to sell fresh fish. Of course none of the foreigners could grill or fry fresh fish, but it didn't thrwart out would-be seller. Her and her husband stayed with us for at least 20 minutes with the highest hopes imagineable.
On the Island, we met quite a few other travelers. One of which was an African-Canadian guy, who taught English in Bombay, India. In the past, he'd also taught for a total of five years in Nicaragua and Dominican Republican. I shared all my Washington Heights stories from when I lived in New York City, which is a predominately Dominican neighborhood. A pretty interesting guy.
I'd also met a Swiss guy who lived in New York, and we swapped stories or bar hopping in Williamsburg (another New York neighborhood where I lived for awhile). Its the hippest spot in the city, and according to some trendy American magazine, its the trendiest spot in the country next to the Mission in San Francisco. I'd been to the Mission in San Francisco, and I'd have to say that Williamsburg outshines its West Coast adversary. But anyhow, we shared a few Williamsburg stories. The other thing about this guy, is he went to Brazil for several weeks once upon a time ago, and it had never left his memory. He said he cried at the airport when he had to leave Brazil - a feeling I can easily relate to as I spent six blissful months in that country and felt a strong saudade (Portuguese word for an intense feeling of missing something or longing for something).
Probably the most interesting story came from a Vietnamese refugee who now lives in Oklahoma of the United States. Apparently, he'd been one of the many boat people who escaped from Vietnam after the war ended. He strongly supported the US Army at the time, and when the South was given to the North, he'd been brutally questioned and struggled against the new Communist country at that time. He told me his story. Apparently, most of his family left at the time of the war, some to Europe or America or Australia. He was studying in the city of Dalat when the US Army left, and he was left behind. At that time, he and a few of his close friends became fisherman, as a way to plan an escape. At that time, Cambodia was in the brutal hands of Pol Pot, and anyone escaping to that county, almost meant certain death among with many of the Cambodians that Pol Pot was brutally torturing and killing.
Anyhow, him and three of his friends, escaped far out to sea, planning for the currents to take them towards the Thailand peninsula. After sailing for several days on the boat, a large Thai fishing boat, saw them, and took them aboard. The awkward thing was neither of them knew each others language. The sailed for a few days, and then in the middle of the night, the thai crew woke them up and told them to jump overboard and start swimming in a certain direction. They didn't know what was going on? These men were just telling them to swim? They did, and about an hour later, they came to shore. Later they realized they were in Thailand. Unfortunately, they arrived in the middle of the night, and had no idea where they were.
When the arrived, they were in the dark, and trying to cross a river or something, a strong current took one of this friends, and swallowed him. They never saw him again until a few days later when they questioned by the local authorities after they'd been 'captured' by the local police. For the next month, they lived in a living hell by a local police force in a small provincial Thai town who couldn't understand these 'boat people' escaping from Vietnam. My friend telling me the story told me that they were beaten nearly everyday, but there was one guy who took sympathy on him. He knew the address of his sister living in Europe, and so he wrote her a letter in Vietnamese, and the good police guy, mailed it to her. She mailed him a letter back, and when one of the 'bad' police guys saw the letter, he opened it in front of my friend, took $50 from the letter, and ripped up the letter. My friend said he cried and wanted to kill that man so badly at that moment. Fortunately, now his sister knew where he was at, and she came and got him out and his friends out of there. He knew someone in Oklahoma, so that is where he went to live once he'd finally got out of Vietnam and Thailand.
Next Journal Entry: Hanoi, Vietnam
January 2, 2001
You can email me at:
Wintermoon2@yahoo.com