Ha Long Bay boat sinking

This morning I was surprised and saddened to see news from Vietnam that a tourist boat had sunk in Ha Long Bay.

Back in 2005 I took a very similar trip and it was a highlight of my visit to Vietnam.

evening in Ha Long Bay

The story is really horrible.  The boat sank – fast – at about 5am so most of the vacationers were asleep in their beds.  There were no rough seas, there was land (and other tourist boats) nearby.  This was an easily survivable accident had it happened at any other time of the day.

I’ve often read about tragedies like these around the world and wondered how close I’ve been to something like this.  When I think about these incidents, I always assume that I’ll be able to survive – that I have the right instincts that will show me the way (kind of akin to George knocking over the grandmother while running from the apt. fire in that Seinfeld episode, truth be told).  But an accident like this – in the middle of the night – it’s kind of hard to be ready for something like this.

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