Today was day two of our cruise within Ha Long Bay. I started the day with Tai Chi on the deck. I can't say I did it any justice, but I followed the instructor's moves as best I could. It was good to start the day with a little light exercise.
In the morning we took a day boat through the bay past some of the two thousand islands that cover the area. Our destination was Cat Ba island for some biking and touring. At the island we took a newly built road five kilometres to a nearby village since the old lower road was still under water. There was a lot of rain and flooding in the area about two months ago that has yet to subside completely. The last time it happened was about 90 years ago, and it has really hurt the villages on the island, who are only now getting their houses and rice paddies back.
We took three bikes out, with Elizabeth on the back of our guide's motorcycle on the way out and John on the way back. Riding on a motorcycle was again a highlight for the kids. Elizabeth wore a helmet on her ride but John was struggling to get this helmet to fit on the way back. I was insisting he wear it when our guide and driver Hung said he would take care of it. I went ahead only to see John zoom by on the back of the motorcycle without a helmet. I guess that's one way to take care of it.
It was a hot ride but we brought along a lot of water. At the village we said hello to some local volunteers who were helping out. These dozen or so young people went gaga when they spotted John and surrounded him and touched his hair. John was holding a puppy at the time so he really had no choice but to take it, much to his chagrin.
We saw some old houses built in the sixties when the walls were typically made with mud and straw. When we are touring these type of attractions the kids are usually not that interested and would rather occupy themselves finding a puppy or cat to pet, which happens oftentimes and happened again today.
On the way back from the village Catheleen's bike was giving her some problems due to a loose peddle, so we switched bikes. I was taking a look at how to tighten the peddle bolt when a local on a motorcycle stopped to assist. After taking a look he flipped the bicycle over, balanced it on his motorcycle, and asked me to hop on. So I rode the rest of the way back balancing a bike upside down between me and the driver. We have yet to rent bikes without having some problem. We'll need to check them better before we rent any more, but sometimes the problems show up later, like today.
We did some kayaking and swimming off the two deck day cruiser we're on today. The kids especially liked jumping off the top deck, and we kayaked around the islands and beaches. The swimming was good around the boat but not so from most of the beaches, which are covered in plastic bottles and other garbage. That's one of my biggest complaints - this country has a lot of garbage around, which takes away from the natural beauty.
Today we saw a number of small fishing villages floating on the water. The islands here in the bay are so steep the there are no harbours around for a village on shore. So the locals have adapted over the last couple centuries to living and fishing from floating villages. The villages are basically floating rafts with houses on top. The government here has been trying to get rid of these communities for some time, and there is a deadline this year to try to relocate the last of them. The government wants them dismantled since it is expensive to provide services like health and education. If someone is very ill, for example, they need to be rescued to the mainland by boat or float plane.
The fishing boats run by the villagers are very small. On one boat we saw a family on board with clothes on the line drying. One person was winding up these nets around a big cylinder. The nets used square wires to form boxes when in the water and collapsed when wound up. I was told the nets were used to catch crabs.
Here is a photo of us with the volunteers at the village on Cat Ba.
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