Halong Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site and is supposed to be really beautiful. The Bay contains thousands of limestone karsts and islands of different shapes and sizes each topped with thick jungle vegetation. Some have monkeys on them. A number of the islands have beaches. One of these beaches is where I’m going to stay for the next two nights.
On the 3 hour minibus ride with my tour group there are two French guys and a family from Holland visiting a friend who is a Dutch expat living in Saigon. The expat has been living there for two years, and has been living abroad for many more. She says she can never go back to Holland because it's too organized, boring and the climate is depressing. She likes Asia because she likes how flexible and energetic it is. At this, the father from Holland vigorously defends his beloved homeland.
We reach the harbour of Halong Bay City, and it is teeming. The high season for Vietnamese tourists has just ended and the high season for foreign tourists has just begun; essentially Halong Bay doesn't ever have a low season.
We board our boat. Here are some scenes along the way.
An Aside: I Have been Ugly for 7 Weeks!
While everyone is sunbathing on the top deck, I speak to our Vietnamese tour guide, Thanh, on the bottom deck about the politics in Vietnam. He begins to get friendly and talks candidly about it in a way that he was unwilling to in front of the other Westerners. His candor extends to views on skin colour. I had heard two Italian guys ask him earlier about it. They had wondered why everyone was so adverse to the sun, and Thanh had said that though there was a preference for white skin in Asia, he didn’t suffer from that and thought that dark was beautiful as well. When I overheard that, I thought it was a load of crap. Now Thanh is willing to express himself truthfully to me. He tells me that if a Vietnamese girl allowed herself to get as dark as I was, no man would come near her, and that he was really lucky that his girlfriend was so white. Essentially, I’m really ugly here and have been for the last 7 weeks. As far as I can tell, being really dark in Asia is akin to being obese in North America. Just as people in North America will starve themselves and go on crazy diets, take crazy pills and undergo elective surgeries to slim down, People in Asia will likewise go to extremes to stay white, like cover themselves from head to toe even in 40 degree weather, put whitening products in every product imaginable, and go to salons to bleach themselves.
I had a similar conversation with Cuong. When he studied for two years in Thailand, he made friends with a lot of Westerners, and he was really perplexed as to why they always went for the dark Asian girls. He said there were so many light skinned beautiful ones but the preference was for tanned.
There is a saying in Chinese that roughly translated as “One white makes up for three bads.” Meaning that if you’ve got light skin, it makes up for three physical or character flaws…that’s just how prized white skin is.
The prejudice against dark skin doesn’t make me feel bad about myself, just a bit self-conscious when I realize that everyone over here thinks I’m really ugly. Part of me is responding to all of this darkphobia by seeking out situations to get darker, though I think I’m pretty much nearing my dark limit. I feel this weird need to stick it to the man and represent for all the darkies.
Today will be our kayaking day. I end up splitting up two Italian friends from their two person kayak because the guide wants one of them to kayak with me since I've never done it before. I provide the raw mindless power, and Stephano provides the direction in the back.
His friend is left in a one person kayak which he maneuvers with ease. 
Seeing Halong Bay by kayak is absolutely beautiful. We get a chance to kayak into a few small caves, some of which have really low ceilings due to high tide.
This one tiny cave was really tight and the ceiling was so low at one point that we had to bend backwards at an almost 90 degree angle at the waist and hug the kayak in order to progress forward with our hands. Stephano said we couldn't do it, but we both prooved him wrong.
Here's some more photos. 
We go swimming after, and I decide not to wear a life jacket. For the last month of teaching, I have been going to the school pool twice a week during lunch to get more comfortable with swimming. Maybe it's paid off, because I stay in the water for at least 20 minutes without any support or need to hold onto the side of the boat. Awesome! I dry off in the sun and fall asleep on the deck. 
We then arrive at the Ocean Tour beach and three German sheppards great us! This is a big change to all those small dogs I've seen In Asia so far. Turns out that the German Sheppard is standard issue in Halong Bay as gaurd dogs for against thieves trying to steal fish or stuff from houseboats. 
The beach itself is very small but quaint. My cabina is not conveniently situated beachside like the majority of the cabinas, it is instead higher up on the side of the mountain. This turns out to be a prime location as the view is fantastic and there's a garden of flowers in front and dozens of lazy butterflies bobbing about. It's worth the rocky climb at the end of the day to get to my room.
In my room, the mosquito net almost makes the bed look like a princess' bed. 
I write eleven postcards!We end up having a barbeque on the beach, which is quite nice with the ocean breeze and sound of the surf.
Next to me is an Austrian couple. The woman is a high school teacher and the man is an engineer. We engage in friendly conversation, and the woman finds out that I am a teacher too. She then looks at me in a funny shy way and says "Can I ask you a question?" I respond with "I know what you're going to ask me. You want to know how much money I make." They both burst out laughing and begin talking in German and smiling. The woman then says, "How did you know I was going to ask you that question?" I explain to her that every time I travel in the summer and meet European teachers on vacation, they always ask me the same question once they find out that I am a teacher too. It seems that almost all European teachers (barring the Swiss) get paid diddly and don't get much respect in their profession to boot. They always complain about this. She adds that the prevailing idea from the public is that teachers are a lazy bunch that don't work much and get too much vacation so they should stop complaining. The animosity towards teachers is fairly high in Europe. Though teachers in Canada get some of that criticism, it seems to be an on-going and pervasive sentiment in Europe. She says she constantly has to justify her profession. I have never had to really do that before.I then proceed to ask the Italians and the French at our table about the situation for teachers in their countries; they concur with the Austrian woman. She was very curious about the situation for teachers in Canada. I can only speak for Toronto, but I told her in general that I and most of my colleagues feel that we are adequately paid, that we are lucky to be in our professions, and that we feel generally quite respected (my mom is so proud that I'm a teacher). Am I deluded? After more talk, I realized that only in Canada do teachers provide voluntary unpaid extracurricular activities, like coaching and supervising clubs and committees. It is unheard of in Europe for a teacher to come to school before the start of classes or remain after school to coach or supervise clubs without being paid. She said that the mentality in Europe is completely different. The French guys completely agree. If you suggest extracurriculars to an Austrian or French teacher, (or perhaps any teacher in European) the teacher would think you're mad. As well, in Austria and France every teacher is assigned to a school randomly. They have no choice where they end up. They may be placed at a school very very far away from where they live. The Austrian woman says because European teachers get paid so little in Europe and have so little respect, this leads to low teacher morale and an unwillingness to devote more time to the job then necessary. She said only in a country like Canada, where the teachers feel valued and get paid well, will they offer voluntary services to enhance the school community. I never knew this before, but it was quite an eye opening conversation. I've always loved being a teacher, and now I have a greater sense of pride in being a Canadian teacher.
I am beginning to read “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” by Daniel C. Dennett. I remember when I was first introduced to the idea of evolution and its mechanisms in first year biology at UofT. A weird paradigm shift happened in my brain during one lecture and I never saw the world the same again. I felt not just small in physical size, but inconsequential in time as well. I “sensed” that humans and all species were in this temporal flux of continual change and impermanence that was like a lovely mindless dance. Constant design without mind. I remember my imagination be gripped so intensely by this beautiful idea, and it made absolute sense to me. It still does. Reading this book brings back the rush of feelings and provides new provocative insights on one of my favourite topics.
The sound of the waves constantly lapping the shores is hypnotic. I sleep very well in my princess tent.
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