It was less to reach Halong Bay, the greatest pride of Vietnam. An army of emerald green boulders dotted in the South China Sea and considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world. A bus, a French tourist who offered me hydroalcoholic gel - did you know that this virus from China is here too? -, rice fields through the window, a bus to the island of Cat Ba, a ferry, another bus and a stop .
- How far is Halong Bay? - I asked when I arrived at the hostel.
- A little, this is Lan Ha Bay - answered the receptionist. There is a bus that leaves at three this afternoon. For the next one, you would have to wait until tomorrow.
- Tomorrow I have a bus to Da Nang…
He gave me a brochure and moved on to the next backpacker.
Haste had played a trick on me and it turned out that I had chosen accommodation in the back room of Halong, a more remote and less crowded bay than its cousin sister.
I only had a few hours to visit the islets and I started walking, in a hurry, along a road lined with jungles where an endemic red monkey lives and the vegetation swollen rustles with tropical birds. I crossed a town, I saw an ox at the end of a street, clothes hanging on a palm roof, and the asphalt that descended towards a beach.
In the distance there was a small boat and a young local woman who I asked if it was possible to tour the islands. In many places in Vietnam I used to use mobile translators to communicate with some people, and that girl quickly understood that she was looking for a tour of the bay. No problem: I followed her to the boat where her father was fishing, a man hidden under the typical conical hat.
When her daughter said something in her ear, her smile lit up, endearing and childish, so toothless. She started the engine and the boat began to get lost among floating towns with docks made of drums, some on stilts, others colored. Children who learn to catch fireflies at the age of three and know how to walk on water, that is only learned in places like this.
According to a legend, the green of these karstic islets is the memory of a wall formed by the green flames of a dragon that helped the Vietnamese army to defend itself against Chinese enemies. Perhaps these beasts still remain hidden in the bowels of those caves carved into the rock that promise time travel, capable of spitting on you in Australia, or on the Costa Brava.
He was short on time if he wanted to catch the next bus to Halong Bay. Tick tock. The boat continued skirting the maze of greens until, at some point, she stopped. The old man looked at me with some complicity and hastened to lift the hatch on the deck to fix the engine. It took him fifteen minutes to fix the problem while this server was constantly looking at his watch.
When we were ready to leave again, I translated a new message through my cell phone. Reading it, he wrote another message on his translator: “no problem”. And we smile at each other. After turning off the engine, that good man sat in the bow. He fished all afternoon.
