Thursday, June 2, 2011
Halong Bay is mysteriously beautiful!
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| Majestic Halong Bay |
Mysterious and inspirational are words that come up when thinking of the natural wonder Halong Bay. Imagine nearly 2000 incredibly beautiful islands and rock formations, rising up out of the emerald green water of the Gulf of Tonkin, and you’ll get a vision of breathtaking beauty. Halong Bay looks like art by Mother Nature and will mesmerize every traveler.
Halong Bay is a bay near Ha Long City, in northern Vietnam in the Gulf of Tonkin, close to the Chinese border. The bay has a 120 km long coastline and the area covers about 1500 km². “Vinh Ha Long” means ‘bay of the descending dragon’. Halong Bay was first listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994 and in 2008 it was nominated as one of the world’s 7 Natural Wonders. Many visitors compare it to Guilin in China and Krabi in southern Thailand, but Halong Bay is often considered more spectacular.
The many limestone islands in the bay are covered by dense vegetation, all the way to the top. The view onto the limestone monoliths is spectacular, especially from one of the many boats sailing between the islands. Several islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Hang Đầu Gỗ (Wooden stakes cave) is the largest of these caves. French tourists visited in the late 19th century, and named the cave “Grotte des Merveilles” (cave of miracles). Its three large chambers contain large numerous stalactites and stalagmites. Many of the islands have acquired their names as a result of interpretation of their unusual shapes. Such names include Voi (elephant), Ga Choi (fighting cock) and Mai Nha (roof). There are nearly a thousand islands with such names.
Close to some of the islands are floating villages. They are one of the main attractions of Halong Bay and provide the inhabitants, besides fishing, with a second source of income. Most of the fishermen still work traditional, which means catching about 200 different species of fish and 450 types of mollusks in shallow water. Animals like chickens, monkeys and lizards live on some of the islands.
Take a boat trip to enjoy the beautiful view, the swimming in the bay, visiting some islands and life on the boat. Often trips like these are offered as a 2-day package. The easiest way to get to Halong Bay is to take the bus from Hanoi to Halong City, which takes about 3 ½ hours, and then take a tourist boat to Cat Ba, which takes about 6 hours. Everything else basically comes naturally and you only have to enjoy.
Source: backpackguru.com
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