I guess if you could just step into one of those Chinese brush paintings, you know the ones with the steep cliffs rising up out of the ocean, incredible forested formations, picture postcard beauty in every direction, Halong Bay would be the place to do it. We took a breathtaking two day cruise through the most beautiful ocean scenery I've ever experienced, moving through channels of amazing giant tock sentinels, gorgeous colors, circling birds, a floating fishing village, something out of James Bond (literally). They made one of the movies here, not sure which one.
Not that it was a perfect trip, as there is a certain 'cattle call' mentality involved in these touristic things, boat after boat, bus after bus of westerners and Vietnamese, a jaded attitude on the part of some of the Vietnamese guys who are plying the tourist trade, but those things definitely pale in comparison to the beauty and good times we had on the trip. I got thrown in with a pretty cool group of youngsters, average age 23, although there were two older couples as well as myself, one Chinese, one Cambodian. But there was a crew of youngsters who were my main companionship.
We were a Mexican, a Spaniard, a Pole, 2 Americans, 2 Aussies, a Brit and 2 Finnish girls, and we formed a nice and happy group, especially when I pulled out the guitar and we sang and played for hours on the upper deck, drinking some smuggled in rum and cokes, and then a bunch of beers. We were the party boat, but it was more about music than alcohol, and I was totally in my element, and they were totally appreciative of my contribution to the good vibes. We sang tons of songs, made up a few improvs, and just had the kind of blast that made everone feel great about our boat and our group. And the song they loved the best was my new 'Have a Happy New Year' piece that I had written earlier this week. They loved it, learned it, and after singing it earlier in the evening, it became our closing song as a reprise. The Polish woman said,'It's the best new year song I ever heard'. So it was super gratifying to create something they really connected with. It may have a future.
The Cambodian couple was interesting to me, even though we didn't share a word, just some friendly smiles. They were maybe a couple years older than me, maybe my age, and I noticed that the man had a bad leg that made it hard for him to climb the stone steps into this amazing cave that was part of the tourist itinerary. I thought, hmmmm, I wonder if his injury has anything to do with Cambodia in the 70s when the Khmer Rouge went about brutalizing and 'reeducating' millions of people. Then I noticed that the 4 fingers of his left hand had been hacked off at the big knuckle. It didn't look like a table saw accident, so I definitely thought of some hideous stuff that he might have gone through. But I couldn't, and likely wouldn't have if I could have asked about it. But his disfugurement was a silent counterpoint to a bunch of happy go lucky western tourists. They were the only Cambodians I'm met so far in this part of the world. Hmmmm
I was definitely the 'eminence gris' of the party, being thirty years older than the rest of the crew, but also being the glue that made a lot of the fun happen. at one point, one of the women asked if I was married, and I said no. They asked how old I was, and I said, you tell me. This is after I had been jamming for a couple of hours and getting lots of laughs and good vibes. One woman said, early 40s, one said 45, I almost said, nope, 49, but instead I said '57', and the Polish woman (cute, by the way, a 'yes', not to put too fine a point on it) actually had an audible gasp when I said it. When I asked her 'did you just gasp?' she said her father is 56 and he seems 20 years older than me. So that's been a bit of a theme, the same thing happened in Song Cong where people were really surprised that I'm as old as I am. I'm not saying this for vanity, it's just what's been happening. I think it's genetics and lack of stress? Hell, I play music every day and make people happy (mostly myself), so I guess it's serving me well. And I've never had a high cholesterol reading. (oh yeah, I've never had my cholesterol checked, but still) But like the doc said, 'And if you had a high reading, would you take lipitor?' Uh, probably not...
I'm nearly out of dong (I love how that sounds), and I've been wanting to not change money until I get to Thailand, so I switched from my $15 room at the hotel to a $6 dorm spot at the Hanoi Backpackers Hostel, where I've been hanging out on the internet. Great place, actually. I set up a cheap cab ride for tomorrow morning at 6:30am, and it looks like I'll even have enough money to get some decent dinner tonight. Kinda hungry actually, maybe something besides noodle soup for a change.
I dig Hanoi, and dig the fact that I got to know the city a bit. It's been a fascinating week and a half here in Vietnam, and I'm really glad that I got here. The highlight was definitely the time I spent celebrating Tet with Lan Anh and her family, and I feel good about having captured something of the feeling in a new song, one that I hope becomes part of the repertoire. I took not one photo, but I got a song, so I'll take that trade every single day...
Next stop, Bangkok, change planes to Chiang Mai, jam with my friends tomorrow night. Life is good.
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