THE MAGNIFICENCE OF HA LONG BAY

Monday, August 12, 2013
HA LONG BAY, Gia Lai Province, Vietnam


August 12,

Our Hanoi Van picked us up around 8:30 a .m. to drive the three
plus hours to the port of Ha Long Bay. En route, we made the obligatory “tourist
trap” stop at a large building that seemed to house the majority of the
Vietnamese arts and crafts under one roof. 
Actually, they had some pretty fabulous things and a whole area where
there were about 40 or more young Vietnamese working on intricate embroidered
paintings. They ranged from very small
to very large and were really quite remarkable. 
And, of course, we succumbed and purchased two smaller ones along with a
beautiful silk blouse for me. The woven
and embroidered work of the Vietnamese, I think, could not be matched by the
handiwork we saw in the other countries we had been to and would be going to
and it was hard not to want to keep buying these beautiful treasures.

We arrived at the dock about noon and boarded the Calypso Cruiser, a traditional Vietnamese wooden
cruise vessel that reminded me of an old wooden Riverboat. We would be spending
one night and two days exploring Ha Long Bay and being served sumptuous meals.
The vessel accommodated around 30 passengers and had spacious and very
comfortable cabins with private bathrooms and small balconies, a beautiful dining area and an upper deck
where the viewing was unobstructed.

Ha Long Bay has an area of around 15,550 sq ft. that is
home to some 1,960 to 2,000 islets, most of which are limestone. The core of the
bay that we would be touring had an area of 3,340 sq ft with a high
density of 775 islets . The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million
years of formation in different conditions and environments and, for the past
20 million years, the erosion of the limestone formations, under the impact of
the tropical wet climate, has resulted in deep and twisted engravings in the
stone, in addition to creating caves, complete with stalactites and
stalagmites. I had seen many photos of Ha Long Bay but to be able to view this
awesome geological museum that has been naturally preserved in the open air for
the last 300 million years was nothing short of mind boggling. So much so that, in addition to being listed
as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1994,the New 7 Wonders Foundation officially named Ha Long Bay as one of new seven natural wonders of the world in 2012. What took them so long!

En route to the port, our tour guide told us the legend of how Ha Long Bay
was formed. The meaning of the name Ha Long means “descending dragon.”  According to local legend, when Vietnam had
just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders and,
to assist the Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of
dragons as protectors . During an attack, the dragons began spitting out jewels
and jade to destroy the boats and the jewels turned into the islands, linking
together to form a great wall against the invaders.

As we started our journey, we were served a delicious lunch and were joined
at our table by one other passenger….Trevor…a crusty Aussie who had been a
dairy farmer, had recently gotten divorced, sold his holdings, which I got the
impression were quite extensive and was spending most of his time in Vietnam, a
country with which he had fallen in love. 
He claimed to be in his early fifties but appeared to be a lot older. At first we were a little leery of having to
share our table with him but, he turned out to be quite the character, a great
story teller and very delightful (Phyllis, you would have loved him). We exchanged contact info before the end of
the trip and I wouldn’t be surprised if, one of these days, he shows up on our
doorstep.

As we leisurely cruised through the limestone islands of Fighting Rooster,
Dog Rock and Incense Burner, just to name a few, we passed by some of the little houses on barges that were typical of the dwellings found in the four fishing villages located in Ha Long Bay . Then, we arrived at our first destination, the amazing Dau Go cave. We had to take a little
tender to the island and then climb up about 90 steps to reach the
entrance. This cave was created in the
Pleistocene epoch around two million years ago and was 27 meters above the sea
level. It consisted of three huge
chambers and there were hundreds of stalactites cascading down from the 25
meter high dome as well as bizarre and twisted rock formations rising up from
the floor of the cave that, with a little imagination, took on the shape of
warriors, monsters, elephants and more. At
times, as we progressed through the first two chambers it felt like we were
going down into the bowels of the earth and then, when we arrived at the third
and largest one, it was like we were entering a movie set right out of Star
Wars. It was, indeed, a very surreal and eerie experience.

Next stop was to another island where there was a lovely little beach where
we spent an hour or so relaxing and cooling off in the bay . Then, back to the
boat to clean up for dinner which, definitely, rivaled the dinner menu on some
of the cruise lines we’d been on in quality and, certainly, variety and was far
more intimate. I’ve included a photo of our dinner menu below.

The sunset was magnificent from the view deck and we spent a bit of time
relaxing on the lounge chairs, savoring the silhouette of the jagged islands of
Ha Long Bay before retiring to our comfy cabin to get a good night’s sleep.
And, sleep did, indeed, come quickly as we had been up since 4:30 in the
morning.

 

Other Entries

Comments

Joan Pastrick
2013-09-25

Lovely. What a great voyage.

Susan Hess
2013-09-28

You've described some terrific places but I sense you were really captivated by this adventure. Very special I suspect -- even Trevor! You've certainly found some special places in this world!!

Tina
2013-10-15

Are you back in Mexico?

2025-02-16

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank