subject: sleep on the boat
sent: sunday, december 02, 2001 11:25 am

I arrived in Hanoi in the evening. the taxi dropped me at the Mahn Dung guesthouse, a 'friendly place', located in a 'small, quiet street in the old quarter'. the first thing I learned about Hanoi is that 'quiet' is a quite relative word. compared to other streets in the old quarter, it was quiet... but compared to Laos, it was way too loud. I decided to get out of this 3-million-honkink-motorbikes-city as soon as possible and booked a tour to Halong Bay: 'two days, one night, sleep on the boat'

Halong Bay. 2000 small islands, scattered in the ocean. the grave of an ancient dragon who dropped hundreds of pearls there, which turned into stone when he died. a gallery of natural art. the islands and boulders pass slowly, while the boat makes its way through the stone-and-water-maze. dinner at Cat Ba island... and then back to the boat, to spent the night there.

'sleep on the boat'... want to know how this feels? you sit on top of the deck, under the night sky, in the open water, surrounded by hugh boulders. you talk about travelling, about life and death, about love and the universe. have a last tiger-beer, a last 555-cigarette. then you lay down on your mattress, the sky your ceiling, the boat your bed, the ocean your guesthouse. and what a perfect guesthouse it is: the waves rock you gently, while the boat circles slowly around the anchor point. you feel like in a natural cradle or an endless water hammock. the moon smiles at you. the stars send little rays of light through the clouds. and you find yourself humming this is all I want is all I need and wondering why you never did this before. and why you spent all this summer nights at home in your bedroom instead of taking the mattress outside in the garden...

sweet dreams to all of you

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