Monkeys in Sweaters

In a country of 97 million people, a flight from home, a quiet voice across a crowded boat called out our names.

Ha Long Bay, and a very small world

We were surrounded by eager backpackers, laughing boisterously over silly common experiences the way Jay and I do, when we heard a quainter voice from across the boat: "Jay? Nancy?" It was the friends we had met on our tour of the Cu Chi Tunnels the weekend before. Coincidences like that are always welcome, and this one came as we set out into one of the world's great natural wonders.

For my Oregon friends: I had imagined Ha Long would be a bit like Cannon Beach, stunning and makes-you-feel-small. But like so many things, pictures do not do this Goliath of limestone in the Gulf of Tonkin justice. It was bigger than I had imagined. A short mountain hike gave us a panoramic view as the fog parted. We swam, kayaked and indulged. We explored a large cave, then had a monkey sighting, then refueled with scrumptious meals to cover the calories we had burned. A final kiss on the cheek from a local toddler, and we headed, freshened, into the work week.

(If you want to know why Ha Long looks like that, I took the limestone apart properly in The Year of the Dragon.)

Da Nang, and the dorky pun board

Lesser known fact about me: I keep a Pinterest board full of dorky food puns and silly quotes for rainy days.

On an impromptu weekend in Da Nang, sharing some of these silly-isms with new friends had me belly laughing. Add spying endangered species in the jungle (monkeys who appeared to be wearing sweaters), dance parties with my husband in pools and in the ocean, and a long walk to a banyan tree. Add dinner at La Maison 1888, a well regarded restaurant for which we had to borrow shoes, and Jay had to borrow pants. Capris, technically. We felt pretty swell, which is roughly how I feel when I dive into a good avocado pun.

How a monkey lives on leaves

The forest above Da Nang is the Son Tra peninsula, and the monkeys in sweaters are almost certainly red-shanked doucs. They look dressed for a gala: gray body, white forearms like long gloves, a pale gold face, and maroon "stockings" from knee to ankle. Son Tra holds more than 1,300 of them, the largest stable population of an endangered primate found only in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

What makes them strange is their diet. On Son Tra, leaves are more than 87 percent of what doucs eat, and most of that is young leaves. Leaves are a terrible food: mostly cell wall that no mammal can digest on its own, and often laced with chemical defenses.

Doucs solve this the way a cow does. They belong to the colobines, the leaf-eating monkeys, which have a stomach with several chambers. The front chambers work as a fermentation vat, full of microbes that break down plant cell walls and can neutralize some of the plants' toxins before the food moves on. The arrangement is so close to a cow's that researchers studying colobine digestion have used cattle rumen fluid as a stand-in for the monkeys' own gut microbes.

So the monkey in the sweater, sitting very still in a tree, looking like it is waiting for a waiter, may not be lazy at all. It has a fermentation vat to run.

Phú Quốc, for Christmas

Merry Christmas, Glædelig Jul, Giáng sinh vui vẻ. Missing our friends and family from afar, we took a weekend away to celebrate the season on Phú Quốc with some new expat crew, too much delicious food, beach runs, and the not-so-big jolly man himself. It is a pretty fabulous little slice of heaven, and we very much recommend it. We could not wait to get back and explore the other side of the island.

Nha Trang, for my "26th"

Squeal, what an incredible birthday surprise: Jay booked us a week in Nha Trang. (Oregonians, think Vietnam's Cannon Beach. Yes, that is twice now. I stand by both.)

The adventure started with a sunny trek to the Ba Hồ waterfalls, where we cliff jumped, swam and bouldered in the jungle. Our guide, Tu, knew we were all about the path less traveled and gave us an insider's look.

The morning of my "26th" birthday brought a gorgeous floral bouquet from a few of my favorite people on the planet, and the hotel made a beautiful cake. Joy. Then came sunny runs, crazy monsoons, a lightning storm watched over rooftop cocktails, and our first couple's scuba dive. If you have never danced underwater with your best friend, I recommend it, 10 out of 10.

We went home by way of beach time, temple tours, and hop-on, hop-off pedicabs. What a celebration.

If you go

• Son Tra peninsula is just outside Da Nang. Go early, go quiet, and bring binoculars; the doucs are easiest to spot feeding in the morning. The local conservation group GreenViet has run viewing trips.
• Ha Long Bay is worth an overnight, not a day trip. The hikes, caves and kayaking all happen off the boat.
• Nha Trang's Ba Hồ waterfalls reward a guide who knows the quieter pools. Wear shoes you can climb in.
• Phú Quốc was one of the first places in Vietnam to reopen to vaccinated international tourists, on a pilot basis in late 2021. Leave time for both sides of the island.
• La Maison 1888 has a dress code. Pack real shoes. Pack real pants.

Making up for lost time

We had spent our first months in Vietnam unable to leave the house. Once we could, we made the most of every weekend we got: a boat, a pun, a monkey, a dive. Lockdown had taught us exactly how much a free Saturday is worth, and we spent every one of them like we knew.