After that we waited in the lobby for our ride to Halong City, which was supposed to show up at 8:00. There were several other guests waiting in the lobby going on various tours that day. A driver would show up and the front desk staff would know who was going with who. Eventually we were the only ones left waiting and it was way after the time we were supposed to leave.
Something I forgot to put in my last post was this picture of Lisa getting her shoes shined and fixed by one of the shoeshine kids on the street our hotel is on. This was the previous morning when we were leaving and he convinced Lisa to let him shine her shoes, which really needed it, and he also fixed the front of the sole that was peeling off and had been bugging her for a while. And he only asked for like a dollar or something, so of course she gave him a pretty big tip.
Unlike in the States, here they don't shine your shoes while you are wearing them but instead have slippers for you to put on while they work.
Anyway, as we were waiting for our ride to Halong City the shoeshine kid was outside again looking to get Lisa to come get another shine. Problem was, she was wearing the same shoes he did the day before and they still looked fantastic from his work. I really think the kid had a crush on my lady.
Finally our ride showed up and we went out to a crowded mini-bus. Luckily we were the last pick-up, so we didn't have to go through the whole snaking slowly through the city for an hour or so picking up a bunch of other people. Lisa and I sat down, with me on a seat that folded out from the row into the aisle, next to another American. We started chatting him up, his name was Richard and he was from San Francisco. A really super nice guy who was traveling alone. A few times he would say something about his "friend" not being able to come on the trip with him this time. My wife and I, being people who have had a ton of gay friends and like hanging out with gay people, have pretty good gaydar and it was beeping.
I don't remember what exactly we said but we threw in a few comments here and there to make it clear we were "gay-friendly" people and Richard finally started using words like "partner" instead of "friend" when talking about his other half.
After a few announcements by the guide of our bus, including a bunch of jokes about how the Vietnamese drive, we were left to chat with Richard for the whole trip. I always love talking to other Americans when we travel to the more "exotic" foreign countries because they tend to not be Republicans. Conservatives are usually afraid of things that are different from them so they stay at home or only travel to places where other white people live.
And certainly a gay man from San Francisco is not going to a member of the GOP, generally speaking. So we had a great time talking to Richard on the ride, spending a lot of time on the topic of politics and how it can be embarrassing these days to be from America when you travel to another country.
We had hoped to be hanging with Richard for the whole time in Halong Bay but it was not to be. He was only doing a day trip to Halong before leaving for Laos the next day, so when we got to Halong City we had to say goodbye as we were going to be on different boats. We were somewhat disappointed because talking with Richard was the best time we had talking to someone since we had met Roger from Australia in Cambodia.
We said goodbye to Richard, exchanged emails and then followed our new tour guide with about a dozen other people.
The pier area in Halong City was a chaotic scene with throngs of tourists trying to stay with their guides while having to navigate through all the other people trying to follow their guides. Losing our guide wouldn't just be an inconvenience because of missing the boat, this guy also had our passports. This was how it was in Vietnam all the time, by law the hotel you are staying at has to hold your passport.
We had started talking to a couple from Australia as we were walking with the group. The conversation started because our tour guide, when he was collecting passports, noticed that it was the woman's birthday that day and made kind of a joke out of it. So after telling her happy birthday and commenting on how this was a cool way to celebrate, we started talking with them about all the same stuff you talk with fellow travelers about; the places you've been so far on this trip, where you are going next, the craziness of the ride here, that kind of stuff.
Finally we made it to the actual pier and we walked down the concrete steps to the water's edge to climb aboard the small boat that would take us to the larger boat for our tour.
We snaked our way through the harbor and the maze of other boats waiting for their groups of tourists.
(click on photos for larger image)
Then we came to the Halong Phoenix Cruiser, the Chinese junk that would be taking us on our tour of Halong Bay and that would also be our hotel for the night.
Next - Cave exploring and kayaking in Halong Bay
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