Vietnam, Ile De La Paix , November 23nd 2006.

The morning paddle was a circumnavigation of Ile De La Paix. We went down around the south end of the island and into some real swell coming from the open ocean. I felt like I was really sea kayaking for the first time in weeks! I saw one gap between two sections of the island that had a shallow spit between them. I was tempted to take the short cut by landing and portaging across, but I wasn’t sure what our route was going to be. If I had checked out better maps before this trip I would have known that this trick would have worked. Later Joe Toback pointed out a small cave in one of the points and hinted that I should check it out. This time I boldly dashed through the cave and a little rock garden on the other side, joining up with the rest of the group after they took the long way around. As we paddled up the west side of the island we moved back into protected waters again. But I had gotten a short fix of caving and rock gardening!

When we got to the north end of the island we went into the cave to the secret lagoons a third time! This time Joe led us directly to the third cave. His timing, or perhaps it was Nguyen Ngoc’s timing, was perfect and the tide was higher than the last two times we were there. The water was deep enough that my kayak and even the big wide doubles were able to enter this cave, maneuver around the jog and out into the third secret lagoon! I got to explore all three of them after all. The third lagoon was smaller than the other two it was connected to, but things were different here. The water was full of chocolate brown jellyfish that we hadn’t seen in the other lagoons.

Before the afternoon paddle the Junk motored north past Ile De L’Union and all the way to Suprize Island, the normal tourist belt of Halong Bay. They did this so that we would be closer to the mainland and able to motor the rest of the way out again the following day. We got into our kayaks and paddled around the area for a while. We had to be careful going around points or crossing between karsks because there were Junks full of tourists motoring by in all directions. The Karsks here were particularly attractive, with caves above ground and arches to go under. We followed another group of dinghies and kayaks through a large cave into another not-so-secret lagoon. We landed at the mouth of one cave that we were able to walk into. This cave went through the limestone, through some narrow crawlspaces and opened to the sky in several places. At the last opening we climbed out and found ourselves looking down at a small lagoon that had no visible connection to the ocean.

Between the busy morning, the long motor trip up to the tourist area, climbing into caves and paddling around the karsks, it was almost dark by the time we got back to our Junk. There we had a fancy dress-up Thanksgiving dinner waiting for us. Joe had recommended that we bring,buy, or have something special taylored in Hanoi to wear for this event. I had a pair of Oriental-styled silk pajamas made; With these on, a coolie hat, my reading glasses, my graying goatee and a squint in my eyes I tried to convince my friends that I was the long-lost son of Ho Chi Min.