Kauffman Commentary

Today is a long travel day, about 3 1/2 hours by bus.

Traffic in Saigon and Hanoi looks like motorcycle ants swarming around cars and buses. Yesterday we were starting to load our bus and a motorcycle tried to cut between us and the bus at the exact time when the bus driver opened the door. She hit the door, she didn’t go down, but it stopped her. She yelled at the driver and then just went on. I can’t say enough about the motorcycle craziness, they ride with kids between the parents and while texting on their phones. I didn’t want to even look, but it was terrifyingly enthralling. These big bus drivers earn their money.

The main highway between Hanoi and Ha Long Bay is six lanes and very smooth. On the way we saw the construction of new VinOcean housing units. They are 3 story units costing about $300,000 and are 3000 sq. ft. About. 80% are already sold before construction has finished The owner also owns the hotel where we will be staying at Ha Long Bay. (VinPearl)

From Hanoi it is only 2 1/2 hours by bus to China. The Chinese have loaned a lot of money to the Cambodians to improve their infrastructure. The Vietnamese biggest investors are from Singapore, Taiwan and Korea.

About 10 minutes from the port we stopped at a pearl shop. They demonstrated how cultured pearls are made. The first step is to take mantle tissue from a saltwater oyster. Then open another oyster and implant the tissue and a shell bead. Then put the oyster back into sea water for at least a year. The oysters can be out of the water for this process no longer than 6 hours.

At the port we took a tender to the larger boat. The rock formations are limestone and are just beautiful. There are around 1,900 of them in all. It was a cool day, about 55 degrees. Being winter here made it quiet, with very few boats and tourists. We had a filling lunch with shrimp, french fries, stuffed crab, white fish, squid, cabbage and steamed rice.

Fun friends we’ve connected with on the trip.

This cave was not found until 1993. It was only a short distance from the entrance to another cave that was used to hide munitions by the VC during the Vietnam war. We had the whole place to ourselves today.

Our hotel tonight. The Vinpearl.