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CRUISES: Vietnam and Beyond with Royal Caribbean International

Story and photography by
Nancy & Eric Anderson 

Slowly the big white ship inches into the “Bay of Descending Dragons.” It’s still early morning and a deep, almost inky blue colors Halong Bay, a waterway in the Gulf of Tonkin that has now become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We are sailing about 150 miles north east of Hanoi through this strange, mystical bay of 1,969 stone islands, several with hidden grottoes and secret caves. Nearly1,000 of those limestone and schist islands have names: Man’s Head Island, Incense Burner, and Dragon Island for example.

Dragon? The name drives us to the Rhapsody of the Seas’ guide books. We read:

“Long ago, the Viet people were attacked by aggressors. The Jade Emperor sent the Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons to help. While the enemy vessels were launching attacks against the mainland, the dragons descended in flocks from the sky. They spat out pearls which changed into jade stone islands the moment they touched the water. These islands linked to form citadels that checked the enemy’s advance and smashed their vessels. After the invaders were driven out, Mother Dragon and her Child Dragons did not return to Heaven but stayed on earth, right at the place, Ha Long, where the battle occurred.”

Today, as in past centuries, floating fishing villages dot the 75-mile coastline, each community composed of about a dozen bamboo and wooden boats tied together. Some have television sets, dogs and open fires aboard and some, with large nets, go out to sea in the early morning and sell their fresh fish to the cruise lines that are starting to discover this bay of increasing interest to Americans. It is the easiest approach to Hanoi which lies about three hours distant by road.

It’s a long drive but the road runs by small villages bordered by primitive shops; past rice fields tended over by patient peasants; and amongst swarms of bicycles and motor bikes. Hanoi, ahead of us, has a population of 4 million. The city has 2.5 million motorbikes and a death rate of 30,000 a year: the world’s highest. It’s easy to see why. The bikers passing us at a steady clip carry unbelievable objects on their vehicles, such as: two live fat pigs trussed up as if they’re being kidnapped; a stuffed armchair; something that looks like the engine of a 747; a bale of netting twice as long and as wide as the bike itself. By a 2008 law the bikers now wear helmets although we still see some unadorned heads, maybe as empty as Gary Busey’s.

Beyond becomes bedlam. The pace on the streets in Hanoi is frantic yet they all seem to know what they’re doing and where they’re going. It looks like you could buy anything you fancied just standing on a street corner. A few hundred yards from the cluttered streets we catch the glint of the Lake of the Returned Sword. The lake, in a story reminiscent of Excalibur, got its name in the 15th century when the king who had fought the Chinese for Vietnam’s independence lost his sword in the lake. Folk lore had it the sword had been a gift of the gods and now, with victory assured, the sword had been reclaimed. This placid lake contrasts with the busy street. All seems serene: a mother and child wave at the obvious foreigners, a bride being photographed looks up and smiles but it’s hard to forget Truc Bach Lake is nearby where John McCain parachuted down with broken arms and a broken leg. Then, half-drowned, he was clubbed and bayoneted by the mob.

That said, there is no real animosity shown to American tourists. This country, 2,000 years old, suffered Chinese occupation for the first thousand. After that, a series of invasions occurred from Kublai Khan and his Mongols in the 13th century, through Dutch and Portuguese interference in the 18th century to the arrival of the French in the 19th century, ostensibly to get rubber for Michelin. We found Vietnam a country that had been at war for two millennia, the first 1000 years with China then with whichever neighbor made a challenge. In the last century or so according to historian Edgar O’Balance, Vietnam has seen 27 wars or armed conflicts of which The American War was number 17. Our war wasn’t special to them.

Says Ha Phan, a local guide commissioned by Royal Caribbean, “Our army was essentially one of unsophisticated farmers. The soldiers hardly knew where or what America really was. Your country was fought as a vague enemy with no real identity. Furthermore, 70 percent of our population is post-war. Thirty percent might recall the pain of the War, but they’ve gone back to their farms and they’re content, as they age, to enjoy what’s left of their lives.”

How sad. Death without enlightenment. And we have our Wall with 58,1950 names on it. We recall someone said, “War is what happens when politicians run out of ideas.” Yet the mausoleum to Ho Chi Minh reminds us that often politicians do have ideas and they may be more dangerous than those who don’t.

Ha is fluent in English and is optimistic. “Language is the children’s tool for success,” he says. He continues: “When countries open doors to strangers, both benefit. Travel and education are the catalysts for change.”

Change is coming to Vietnam – slowly.

We drive back to the ship in the setting sun past rice fields being ploughed by water buffalo. It’s a Biblical scene. Vietnam may be the world’s third-largest provider of rice but it’s still a labor-intensive, painstaking, back-breaking life for its farmers. “Our most high tech farm instrument is the water buffalo,” says Ha. He explains the numbers: “A family of four gets 700 square meters [that converts to 7,535 sq ft] from the government. That will grow two tons of rice. The family will sell one ton for the equivalent of US$100 and live on the other ton.” He adds that 70 percent of the population is engaged in agriculture but in 10 years that number will be down to 30 percent.

Our tour bus discharges its passengers at the dock for the high-speed tender trip -- as exciting as a Disney Ride -- across Halong Bay to the Rhapsody of the Seas. We climb up the gangway reflecting on the fates that made us Royal Caribbean passengers and not simple Vietnam farmers. We were also thinking though some seasoned travelers claim they can rent a taxi and personal driver more cheaply for a small group than buying a ship’s shore excursions, South East Asia would not be the place for that idea. There are too many canals with bridges that might delay a cab ride back to the boat (the ship will wait for its own delayed excursions but not for private cabs) and too many ways for a driver with limited English to misunderstand our needs for us to be watching the time and sitting in a taxi as if we were Ichabod Crane confronting the Headless Horseman.

Saigon, of course is more sophisticated than Hanoi. It streets are even busier and certainly noisier. It’s an easier city to explore. Most Americans have heard about the Rex Hotel with its roof garden plaster elephants, the home-from-home of journalists during the War. They know the 1880 Notre Dame Cathedral was built to show the power of Christianity and of Catholic France. The windows were brought from Chartres. It is nevertheless disquieting to walk past the War Museum and see a downed F-5A US fighter at the entrance as a war trophy. A Huey helicopter, an A-1 Skyraider attack bomber and an M48 Abrams tank are also on display. Sensitive Americans may prefer to stay outside than endure the North Vietnam version of the War’s history within the building.

The war certainly impacted the Vietnam countryside and this is seen for sure on the way to the old capital city of Hue. Another female guide, the only Communist we’d found amongst our escorts, took us with pride to the memorial park created for the North Vietnam heroes who had died in the Tet Offensive. A mother saw us, sensed we were Americans and told her child in broken English that war was terrible and mistakes had been made on both sides. She is right, war is terrible and nations never learn.

After such solemn thoughts it’s always an upper to get back to the comforts of the Royal Caribbean International. The cruise line was founded in 1969 and, when we sailed in early 1992 on the new 73,941 ton Monarch of the Seas, we were aboard the largest ship afloat. The Rhapsody of the Seas we are now on is a 1,998-passenger, 78,491 ton ship, but no longer is it the largest in the Royal Caribbean lineup. The cruise line placed the Liberty of the Seas in service in May of 2007. It weighs 160,000 tons and carries 3,634 passengers. The entire cruise industry believes more is better, although to some people size can be overpowering. The actress Beatrice Lillie, on the 1969 maiden voyage of the QE2 famously asked of her 65,863 ton 1,800-passenger ship steward, “When does this city land?”

Of course many passengers, ourselves included, never want the ship to land. Some of the best days on any cruise liner can be those at sea. “There were voyages before Valium,” a Vermont psychiatrist once told us. He’s so right. Large ships often have to tender the passengers in with smaller boats but, at sea, size becomes a plus. A ship like ours had so many almost-secret corners and alcoves it was fun to find our own personal space. Favorites always include the library and the internet café but those more energetic than we were had another activity: rock climbing on a wall more than three stories high! And if not even that would challenge today’s passengers, Royal Caribbean, on some of its ships, now has inline skating tracks, bungee trampolines, and something called FlowRider®, namely a surf simulator 32 feet wide by 40 feet long powered by water at 34,000 gallons per minute.

It’s apparent cruising is no longer a vacation format just for older retirees and indeed Royal Caribbean’s strength is it’s the cruise experience for families. Its excursions are particularly varied so families can have choices. The cruise line feels if you get satisfied first time cruisers, they’ll be back a second time. It has even positioned itself as a reasonably priced company offering value to families because it knows if parents bring children with them on a cruise, one day the children may return on their honeymoon.

Grandparents on the cruise were particularly captivated in Cambodia when they visited a kindergarten to find small children dancing, smiling and singing for them in English. The children were so delightful not even the posters on the wall behind them -- of Walt Disney characters -- could possibly break the spell. It’s clear that as in any country, the children singing for us are the future. It’s not just preschoolers who held our interest on shore excursions. Older performers, as beautiful as only Thais can be, charmed the passengers, too, on an overnight excursion to Thailand that took us to Bangkok, still a mysterious city of temples, pagodas and statues (and customs) strange to Western eyes. One temple had a roasted pig laid on the offering table beside a bottle of carbonated water made by a company called Love. Bangkok and, two days later, Singapore reminded us of the powerhouse South East Asia has become. It gave us hope that Vietnam and Cambodia will have a blueprint, a road map to follow that will bring them and their people safely and fairly into what the futurists say is ahead of us: “The Asian Century.” 

 
 

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