Days Spent on a Fishing Boat in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Ha Long Bay is blessed with a stunning landscape. Limestone karsts jut out from the water without any rhyme or reason and the best way to explore is to do it the way the locals live their daily lives, i.e., live on a fishing boat. Our boat was on the rustic side and came with a crew of two. It was equipped with a very tiny kitchen, a “western toilet” that used the “eastern” method of flushing (i.e. pour water from a pail into the toilet to flush it) and a large "room" in the middle that had two minimalist plank beds. The best part was the deck above ... fitted with two modest lounge chairs which commanded a panoramic view of the scenery around. We basically went wherever we wished ... although given that I was photographing a story as well, it meant that I had wake up our captain at early morning hours to catch the perfect light.

Our captain also happened to be a veteran diver and took us kayaking into these caves that lead to hidden lagoons ... one of the few times in my life that I felt like James Bond! However, kayaking through dark caves is not my forte ... the few minutes spent in the dark seemed like hours. What a relief I felt when I (literally) saw light at the end of the tunnel!

Nights were magical too. At night we would dock in these quiet coves where there's maybe a fishing family (living in floating houses) or another boat, that's all, and all you see are the karsts and the stars. Although, one of the nights was a bit harrowing as the captain miscalculated the time it would take to get to the docking place so we had to cross the bay in the dark. Our boat didn't have any
lights (no life jackets either, I noticed), and it was a moonless night. You know something's wrong when the captain gives you free beers. There were, luckily, two very bright stars (which we later learned were planets) that lit up the water and provided us with navigational direction. We were never so happy to get to the cove that night.





How can I even write about an experience in Vietnam without mentioning the food? Vietnamese cuisine is one of my favorites ... and when you add super fresh seafood on top of that, you're in culinary heaven! This boat just pulled up next to ours and the fisherman literally grabbed the freshest crabs right from the underbelly of his boat with his bare hands!!!










As much as we would have loved to spend many more days on our boat, my shoot was done and our visa was running out ... and just like that, our time in Ha Long Bay was up. Vietnam was a magical experience and a culinary wonder and I'm sure I hope to be back at some point of my life and recount the days spent on that tiny boat of ours.