Junks and Dongs

We landed in Vietnam as budgeting backpackers, but after a quick stop at the airport ATM we were all millionaires.  The Vietnamese Dong is both hilariously named and rapidly inflating, a dollar will currently buy about ₫21,000.  For brevity, the last three zeros may be dropped, leaving the kiloDong (kD) as the prime unit for haggling excitement.  In terms of purchasing power, 5kD will buy a beer on the street, 20kD will buy an amazing bahn mi sandwich, 100kD will buy a T-shirt and 500kD will buy a nice pair of shoes.

Our first activity was a trip to Halong Bay for an overnight cruise on a Junk.  Hanoi is about 130km inland, so getting to the boat required a bus trip.  This took five hours including a stop at The Production Workshop for Disable People.  The highway traffic was limited to a speed of 40km/h, which I believe is the maximum velocity a Honda Dream can achieve when loaded with a refrigerator.  Incidentally, there are about 3,000,000 scooters in Hanoi (pop. 8,000,000) and they are used for anything and everything, driven down stairs and on sidewalks, parked inside cafes and stripped on street corners.

The Marguerite Junk is a beautiful big boat, our cabin may have represented the nicest room we've stayed in in Asia.  The boats would have been even more impressive last year prior to the en masse whitewashing, which was done as a safety measure after a junk went down.  The weather was slightly overcast, but the limestone karsts with their forests and caves were still absolutely stunning.  Entertainments included kayaking, spelunking, squid fishing and spring rolling.  A lot of fun all in all.

Dave