Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Tuesday | November 18, 2014

This day brought something new – seasickness (mine). Ugh, what a morning.  (No one actually blew technicolor chunkies but, like the waters outside our veranda, our stomachs were churning, nonetheless.)

We woke up to 8 foot swells and fairly significant whitecaps due to a prevailing wind off the starboard bow. As such, the port side was rocked quite heavily. Of course, getting up early and trying to read on my Kindle while I was being rocked like a baby on a wind up swing didn’t help. And neither did all the wine – and two glasses of port – I drank last night.

At 9:00 AM, I staggered down to the Studio for a Qi Gong session. Dr. Kong instructed us on the three Dan Tians Energy centers in the body. By performing a series of simple exercises each day, one can open the Qi, leading to improved health and energy. We then spent the next hour doing a series of 120 exercises we have been prescribed to perform each day. (Let’s see if we really keep that up . . . Along with our transcendental meditation.) Dr. Kong gave each of us a DVD that outlines the exercises for us so we can perform it religiously at home. Additionally, he gave us the website for Qi Enhancing Exercise: vimeo.com/87874052.

At 10 o’clock, I got a haircut. Ordinarily, this would not be of moment necessarily captured in a blog but there were two unique things about it. First, I have to admire any barber who can cut hair while the ship rocks like the business end of Beyoncé at da club. And second, it was definitely the best haircut I’ve had in many years.

After eating yesterday’s remaining dim sum in the apartment, I headed upstairs to sit in the sun and watch our entry into Vietnam.

The sail in to Ha Long Bay, Vietnam was spectacular. Land first came into view around noon, and for the next three hours, we were treated to unbelievable views of the more than 2,000 islands that rise from the emerald waters of Ha Long Bay in the Gulf of Tomkin.

This mystical landscape was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994. But as we stood on the deck and took in the islands, and the amazing views, one could not erase the haunting impressions of US aircraft carriers cruising these waters in the 1960s and 70s and the thousands of soldiers for whom these islands were the last piece of earth they ever witnessed before meeting their fate.

To celebrate the harbor entry, the ship served a special poolside lunch barbecue, with live musical entertainment. Besides consisting of nine different types of salad, it also featured grilled chicken, local market fish, chicken satay with peanut sauce, beef kebab with sweet soy, red curry marinated shrimp, sirloin beef burgers, vegetable skewers and baked potatoes. The soup was a gazpacho and it was terrific. In style typical of The World, eight desserts were offered.

And then, we arrived outside Ha Long Bay where, in the foggy distance, we saw a bridge indicating the civilized society of Vietnam.

But against that same backdrop, we saw dozens of antiquated Vietnamese fishing boats, that could as easily have been sailing these waters in 1215.

For quite a while, I traversed the 12th floor observation deck with camera and binoculars at hand.

At 4 o’clock, I went for my individual appointment with Dr. Kong. He and his nurse spent the entire time dropping the arches of my feet over 3/8 of an inch. When they first said they would do that and it would improve my posture and any pressure on my back, I was very skeptical. But they had me stand in various positions while they rubbed their hands over my feet and back, and then did the same thing while I was lying down. Applying barely any pressure, their practice seemed to work. I am curious to see how long this effect remains.

I decided to enjoy dinner in East tonight. It was an interesting dinner.  Rather than ordering off the menu, we asked our chef to make his “Mystery Dinner.” By that, we were invited him to provide us with whatever he wanted to cook that night.  (We also had two bottles of nice French wine.)

While the food we ate was delicious, it certainly was not plentiful. At the conclusion of this five-star meal, I went back to the apartment and ate a bowl of Frosted Mini Wheats. But perhaps most importantly for readers of this blog, I was informed that there should be no bandwidth congestion in my uploading photographs to the blog.  (I have received two letters from management which informed me that I have exceeded my data access limit for the day; I need to work out ways to continue updating this very important news source, while not running afoul of regulations that could have me pushed into the Golf of Tomkin.)

I returned to the apartment and finished packing for our two day trip to Hanoi tomorrow morning.