Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

Wow have we been busy! And the next couple weeks are going to be even crazier. To kick off the madness we took a trip up north a week ago for work and a little bit of fun. The North is different in a lot of ways – a center for government and academia and generally thought to be more conservative – which was interesting to experience firsthand.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to Ha Long Bay – a world heritage site and one if the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We spent three days on a Chinese Style junk cruising amongst hundreds of limestone islands, alternating between kayaking, swimming, reading, and eating delicious multi-course meals on the top deck amidst stunning scenery. We actually visited a place adjacent to Ha Long bay proper, called Bai Tu Long, which is a little less crowded, so we had much of the pristine landscape to ourselves. We visited a remote fishing village 30 km from the nearest port where we chatted with the locals and checked out their small scale aquaculture facility. Women from the village took us around via rowboat to see the local lagoons and let us try our hand at rowing (Nikki was pretty good!).

On our second evening, after an incredible sunset and some swimming/jumping off the top of the boat, the crew ferried us over to an island where they had prepared a candlelit dinner in a cave. Aside from the great ambiance, food, and wine – and the fact that the chef carved several mini-sculptures out of various fruits/vegetables – my favorite part was that the crew sang several songs and then invited the guests to sing a song from our respective countries. There were four Americans present, and we started things with the quintessential "take me out to the ballgame."  The Auzzies (waltzing matilda), Brits (beatles song), Irish (fields of athenry), Germans and French (I don't remember, but the there was lots of waving of wine glasses in the French one) all followed suit.

After returning to port Saturday, Nikki and I settled in for the three hour trip back to Hanoi through rice paddies and tried to get a little rest before the Marine Corps Ball in Hanoi that evening. The ball is a black tie event celebrating the founding of the Corps and carried out each year wherever Marines are posted around the world (we had a dress and tux specially made for the occasion). A bunch of our friends from Ho Chi Minh City made the trip north for the party and we had a blast dancing all night and exploring the city together a bit the next day. Hanoi just celebrated its 1000 year birthday, and Nikki and I had fun poking around the old quarter where each tiny street is named after the merchandise that was originally sold there. We also checked out the Temple of Literature, where mandarins, doctors, and other members of the elite were trained. Of course, we had to also visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, though the body of the revered leader was out for "maintenance."

After our brief tourist stint, we spent the next few days working from the capital city (staying at the actual Hilton in Hanoi). Nikki had the opportunity to meet her counterparts at the embassy and work on a couple of special projects, while I met with various members of the environmental community. For those of you interested, I've got a couple of irons in the fire these days – a mariculture planning project (http://www.icafis.org), my old work with MLPA (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa), and most recently helping with a NOAA-run capacity building workshop here next month. We of course made time for some great meals, including dining al fresco at a colonial-style French villa and a dinner at a place called KOTO that mentors/employs street children.

All in all it was a super fun AND productive trip and we'll have to go back to see everything we missed.