Let It Be

Notions of life back in Los Angeles crept into my though patterns as I cruised Ha Long Bay in a wooden junk with eight other tourists.  We left misty Hanoi early to travel four hours to the World Heritage site.  We set sail in the bay in the South China Sea, immediately surrounded by thousands of limestone islands.  Very few are inhabited, but all are majestic.  I imagined them bathed in light like the many photos I saw in guidebooks.  I imagined being warm as I sat on the soggy chaise on the upper deck.  We docked to explore a cave, climbed cliffs to view a lagoon, and wandered through a garden of lychees and pineapples.  I chatted with two friends from Devon and a couple from Belgium.  The brother and sister and couple from Paris were more difficult to engage.  Back on board we sought heat in our individual cabins.  No sunset, no moon.  We passed the evening hours in layers of fleece, dining and sharing travel stories.  We rose to another gray day, breakfast followed by kayaking in the nearby inlets.   We paddled to a quiet cove.  Our guide fiddled with his smart phone and broke the silence with The Beatles LET IT BE.  We sang.  I laughed.  The rest of the day was spent en route, to the dock, to the bus, to the rest stop, to Hanoi.  I felt like one of the herd, on the beaten track, escorted to the natural wonder for a brief glimpse.  A lot of traveling and sitting for a very brief encounter with a must see attraction.