Watch our video of the Red River and Halong Bay
Going round in Halong Bay circles
We’re sitting in a small sampan in the Lan Ha area of Halong Bay, slowly going round in circles.
Two nearby boats are doing the same.
Up ahead more sampans powered by stand-up oarsmen are heading – in a straight line – to the bright and dark cave.
The boats are wooden basket-shaped vessels seating up to six and rowed by a man (or woman) standing at the rear facing forward.
Riitta is Finnish and used to row every day when she was young but stand-up rowing in Halong Bay isn’t quite the same!
Andrew rowed at university but he too found the Halong Bay version of stand-up rowing hard going.
Pandaw passengers Riitta and Andrew were both been keen rowers and they persuaded their boatmen to let them take over the oars.
Phom Pha, the Angkor Pandaw dining supervisor, tried his hand at stand-up rowing in Halong Bay, North Vietnam.
Phom Pha, the dining supervisor on the Angkor Pandaw, joined in … and we all ended up going round in circles.
It’s not as easy as it might look.
Into the cave
Halong Bay’s dark and light cave is sometimes called the day and night cave. A tunnel cuts through the limestone rock and leads into a beautiful lake with vegetation-covered steep cliffs.
The dark and bright cave is actually a narrow tunnel about 50m long that cuts through a karst island and leads into an enclosed lake with steep cliff faces covered in thick vegetation.
At some times of the year you may see orchids and monkeys but not in winter when we were there.
We could have taken kayaks rather than sampans and we met a group of young people paddling out as we rowed in. They looked cold, wet and exhausted so for us I think sampans were the wiser choice.
The Angkor Pandaw
We were on the Angkor Pandaw, a replica of the ships that plied the Irrawaddy in Burma from the 1930s until they were scuttled in the second world war to stop them falling into the hands of the Japanese army.
Passengers board the Angkor Pandaw at Tuan Chau international jetty in Halong Bay, North Vietnam.
There are sixteen of these Pandaws, varying in size from 10 to 28 cabins.
The cabins are finished in teak and brass, beds can be arranged as two singles or one double and there is an en-suite bathroom and air conditioning.
Pandaw staterooms are finished in teak and brass, beds can be arranged as two singles or one double. Photo: Pandaw
You won’t find a mini-bar or TV here and when the internet is available it’s often only in the lounge area.
The cabins are very comfortable but passengers usually spend more time on deck watching the world drift by.
Halong Bay in winter
Our ten day cruise was to Halong Bay and the Red River.
Halong Bay is the most popular tourist attraction in North Vietnam and every day dozens of white-painted, junk-style boats set out on one, two or three day cruises among the sugar-loaf shaped karst (limestone) islands that dot the bay.
The Angkor Pandaw looks different and followed a different route so for much of the time we were the sole tourist boat to be seen.
We only saw other tourist junks at night when we all anchored relatively close together.
White-painted tourist junks anchor for the night among misty karst islands in Halong Bay, North Vietnam.
March is coming to the end of winter so the weather was damp and misty, no good for sunbathing or swimming but it made for some interesting photographic effects.
Roving the Red River
Halong Bay is spectacular but the lower reaches of the Red River are not.
It gets its English name from the reddish-brown silt-laden water. One of several Vietnamese names is Sông Cái (meaning Mother River) .
Heavily-laden barges travel along the Red River in the delta area of North Vietnam. The river is a highway for ships, barges and dredgers and the delta is a major agricultural area with a high population density.
The river is a highway for ships, barges and dredgers and the delta is a major agricultural area with a high population density.
But although the scenery hereabouts is dull, the people and villages are far from it.
A theatre in a pond – the Thanh Ha water puppets
Vietnam’s famous water puppets originated in the Red River delta as far back as the 11th century.
Water puppet festivals were held inside a flooded rice paddy, with a pagoda built on top to hide the puppeteers who stood in the waist-deep water.
A Vietnamese orchestra provided music and singers told the stories about rural life and folk tales being acted by the puppets.
Princes, warriors and turtles are all part of a traditional folk story is performed by the water puppeteers at Thanh Ha, North Vietnam.
The shows used to take place as part of new year celebrations but Pandaw have now organised regular performances for their passengers.
And we weren’t the only ones enjoying the show. Kids and other villagers joined us to see farmers, fishermen, animals, princes, snakes and fire-breathing dragons dance across the water, sometimes with smoke and fireworks as an accompaniment.
Fireworks and smoke add to the excitement of a water puppet performance at Thanh Ha, North Vietnam.
Spring is in the air – the Ninh Giang festival
Later that day as we approached Ninh Giang we could see the boat landing was crowded. There was no way we were going to get ashore there.
Streams of people were crowding onto a ferry. Some carried flags and banners, all were wearing colourful costumes.
We had arrived on the day of the local village spring festival. Serendipity!
About 35% of the North Vietnamese population is Buddhist. Most of the rest have no religion although you can find Catholic, Hindu, Muslim and Cao Dai (a religion founded in Vietnam in 1926 with the left eye of god as its symbol).
But when it’s time for the festival everyone can join in.
The Buddhist marchers and their colourful costumes at the spring festival in Ninh Giang, North Vietnam.
Festivals usually take place in spring with people praying for good weather, good crops and good health.
Ferry crowded with spring festival participants in Ninh Giang, North Vietnam.
In this case a Buddhist monk was on board the ferry as it moved into midstream and he cast offerings into the water to make it holy. Villagers would then take the holy water to wash the statue of Buddha in the local temple and they also took bottles of it home. Our guide, Tuan, says they drink this for good health but having seen the colour of the Nam Dinh river here I’m not sure it would work too well.
Rainy weather didn’t matter for these bandswomen at the spring festival in Ninh Giang, North Vietnam.
We managed to clamber ashore just a few metres down the river bank from the landing place and were in amongst the rest of the festival parade.
Sweet treats and flying visits
This was just our first day on the river and as well as water puppets and the festival we had more treats in store.
Literally.
Ninh Giang is well known for its special banh gai cake.
Phil enjoys the sticky rice and lotus seed steamed banh gai cake in Ninh Giang, North Vietnam.
Banh gai is made with sticky rice and lotus seeds, rolled into balls then wrapped in banana leaves and steamed for an hour. It’s really popular in this part of the world.
We tried some – it was sweet, aromatic and chewy; very pleasant.
But wait, there’s more!
With rain falling steadily we took a bus to Stork Island, a nature reserve, actually a couple of islands in a large lake.
Over 20,000 storks, herons and egrets winter over at Stork Island in the Red River delta, North Vietnam.
From September until April each year 20,000 or more storks, herons and egrets flock to the lake and in spite of the weather, it was an amazing experience. We were rowed in a sampan around the lake and watched thousands of large birds coming home to roost on spindly looking branches.
As darkness and more rain fell we headed back to the Angkor Pandaw over muddy tracks along the top of dykes that protect the arable fields when the river floods.
A hot shower, and the cocktail of the day (Sweet Dreams a head-banging mixture of gin, rum, vodka, tequila, blue curacao, lime juice and lemonade) were followed by a feast of deep fried spring roll, stir fried vegetables, shrimps and stir fried chicken.
A delicious way to end a busy day.
Fellow cruisers
The twenty-four passengers on board the Angkor Pandaw were mostly retired and included five ex-teachers, five doctors, a specialist in alpaca knitwear and a member of the aristocracy.
Our home countries spanned the globe; seven from the UK, seven Australians, four Swiss, and a brace each of Manxmen, Americans and New Zealanders.
And with relatively few of us we soon got to know everyone.
Our two tour guides, Duoc and Tuan, helped in this when they organised contests and quizzes.
The cocktail hour introduction to key crew members on our first night aboard.
There were also seventeen crew members – engineers, chefs, barmen, dining room staff, housekeeping, captain and purser – so we were very well looked after.
Cathedrals, pagodas, craft villages
The Red River and its tributaries flow past many towns and villages that specialise in a particular craft: bamboo, bonsai, carpentry, ceramics and metalwork.
We visited peaceful pagodas and a busy cathedral.
Tam Coc, also known as Halong Bay on Land, has the same karst outcrops as Halong Bay, great for a leisurely row along the river and through more caves.
A cheerful sampan lady at Tam Coc, North Vietnam.
We sipped green tea and rice whisky in one of the oldest houses in a historic village.
We tried our hand at shopping for vegetables in a local market.
In Hanoi we didn’t make it into the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum because of the huge crowds of school children and women’s groups already queuing.
School children enjoy their day out visiting the Ho Chi Minh memorial in Hanoi, North Vietnam.
We enjoyed cocktails and canapes as we danced around a bonfire in the rain on a sandbank in the middle of the river.
Pandaw passengers loved our sandbank beach party in North Vietnam in spite of the rain!
We watched cultural performances on shore and on the boat.
And wherever we went we were greeted by smiling faces and people who were as fascinated by us as we were by them.
For more information about this cruise see the Pandaw website here.
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Pandaw’s cruise of the Red River and Halong Bay shows how much more there is to this lesser known, but fascinating area of North Vietnam.