In a couple of weeks, I’ll be celebrating five years of wedded bliss to the lovely Mrs Field. But following a moment of madness on honeymoon in Vietnam, I did well to get past the five day mark.
After spending time in the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi – probably the most hectic city in the world – we were ready for part-two of our honeymoon. A relaxing cruise around the magical limestone karst island-dotted Halong Bay, with a night on board a traditional junk anchored at sea, followed by a few nights at a luxury hotel on Cat Ba Island.
The first thing that struck me as our junk pootled out to sea from the harbour at Halong City was how quiet it was. As lovely as mainland Vietnam is, there comes a time when you can’t take the constant beeping of scooter horns anymore. We had reached that point, and loved the almost total, blissful silence as we were overtaken by butterflies the size of seagulls and seagulls the size of small planes.
I say almost total silence because I could hear dogs barking. Halong Bay is scattered with tiny floating villages and fish farms, and unbelievably these are protected by guard dogs, prowling around their meagre perimeters to ward off would-be poachers.
That night we were treated to one of my all-time favourite holiday meals with fresh crab and tuna amongst Vietnamese specialties. Before heading for our cabin, we lay on the sun-loungers on the junk’s top deck and stared up at the stars in pitch darkness – there must have been millions of them.
The next day, we were encouraged to get off the boat and into the water, with a kayaking trip around some of the karsts with our tour guide. Kat and I didn’t fancy that, so decided to swim to some nearby beaches. We both took deep breaths, and plunged into the warm emerald waters. As soon as my feet had left the deck, my heart sank – “there goes my wedding ring”, I thought. It was a size too big for me when I bought it from Ernest Jones, and it had been on my to-do list to get it re-sized when the honeymoon was over.
However, on resurfacing I was gobsmacked to see my ring hadn’t budged. We spent a leisurely afternoon jumping repeatedly from the boat, relaxing on secluded beaches on uninhabited islands with jungle vegetation on top like spiky green Mohicans, and getting horribly sunburnt.
Later that evening we were dropped off at our resort on Cat Ba Island, and as I gladly accepted a welcome cocktail in reception I noticed something didn’t feel quite right. My left hand was not feeling as itchy as it had since the wedding. AAARRGGHHHH! THE RING’S NOT THERE! I ran back to the minibus that had dropped us off, and searched frantically for something shiny, although in my heart I already knew – it had slipped off on my second (or third, fourth, or fifth) jump from the boat and would never be seen again.
Returning to reception sheepishly, my confession to Kat that I’d lost my wedding ring was to this day one of the hardest things I’ve had to say. I can still picture her face, and I had a lot of grovelling to do to save our marriage!
I’d love to be able to show you a picture of the original ring, but our wedding photographer must have been the only wedding photographer in history not to take one of those close-ups of the two rings, possibly on a cushion. This is the nearest you’ll get.
So if you ever find a platinum wedding band on the floor of the South China Sea, engraved with “Fez & Kat 2/10/2010”, please get in touch.
abitofculture 
Grovelling early in your marriage is good training for the grovelling that comes later in married life…………I think it is called an occupational hazard. Nice photos by the way, especially the last one.
True! That last photo is the only decent one the official photographer took. He’s gone out of business now, and sold all the images to us so there’s no copyright infringement!
Never mind. I know you have a happy ever after. It’s raining in Krakow today but it won’t stop us enjoying the wedding. Love to Kat x
Thanks, and enjoy Krakow Jo – get the vodka down your neck!
Lucky man! I once lost a pair of sunglasses when I forgot to take them off before jumping off a boat in Santorini.
I’ve done that too – not nice when you wear prescription sunglasses and can’t see much when you resurface!
Aww, lovely wedding photograph – and happy anniversary when it comes. I am on my second wedding ring too, but I did get the first one back so I alternate them*. (Long story – too long for a comment!) Anyway, the ring is but a symbol and you still had the real thing.
* I took much longer than 5 days to lose it though…….
Thank you! You’ll have to write a blog post about your ‘incident’!
A sad but interesting tale – good to learn a little more about you, and lovely photos.
Thanks, sad at the time but worse things happen at sea, as they say!
I am so sorry to hear about your wedding ring, glad you still had great time in Vietnam..
You know, it’s not easy to predict the current under the sea, so I am going to dive in Indonesia (fingers crossed) in November, I will let you know if I spot your ring – you never know where the sea will bring it around 😉
That would be great! If you find it I will buy you a pint (after I eat my hat!)
Great story … well, at least it is a good one 5 years later! What an awesome honeymoon spot!
Cheers – I’m just about forgiven now!
I can imagine how much your heart must have sank. I bet writing this post brought back the feeling somewhat.
Lovely photos of Halong Bay. From what I’ve heard it is getting overcrowded now so you were lucky that you caught it in time. I’d still love to visit one day.
It was pretty busy 5 years ago! Put tour guide said to get away from the crowded waters he would take us to a more secluded bay nearby called Bai Tu Long – but I bet all the guides say that. I’d love to go back though.
Oops! Well, luckily she forgave you 🙂 Lovely wedding photo!
Thanks, it took a while but I’m in the clear now!
Beautiful wedding photo. 🙂
Cheers, that one has been made into a canvas print and is hanging in our lounge!
Beautiful pictures! You look good together, wedding ring or no 🙂
Ah, thank you – she made me buy an exact replica so you’d never know!
How beautiful. I am glad that I saw Your photos.
Thank you, although it’s not hard to take nice photos in Halong Bay!