Ha long, meaning 'where the dragon descends into the sea', consists of 3000 amazing islands on the coast of Vietnam, on the way to China. The legend says that a dragon created these green islands when water filled the traces of his tail but I guess there's some geological wonders (limestone karsts being developed through erosion of 20 millions years of tropical wet climate to be exact) behind this Unesco World Heritage site. The easiest way to get to know the bay is on a guided tour where you sleep one night on a boat (I paid 75 dollars for 2 days/1 night tour including everything). Even though the weather had gone down to something around +17 C and it was cloudy, the place still looked pretty amazing and otherworldly. I guess the scenery is familiar from some movies but I can't really remember if it's Jurassic Park or some James Bond.
Even though January is low season, the bay was full of boats. During kayaking, you could see the water being dirty from gasoline or oil. So no regrets I couldn't swim there. Our guide, who had the Vietnamese name of 'Dragon', was obviosuly proud of this natural site. He first took us to the 'surprising' or 'amazing' cave. At least one surprising thing about it was the Celine Dion music you could hear from the load speakers hidden behind the rocks. Cave instead was lit with neon lights so you needed a lot of imagination to wonder how it had been in the 19th century when the French explorers found the cave, now it was merely a tourist trap (but still interesting to see) even if it had all the possibilities of being amazing and surprising (it was huge!). No need for my head lamp there...
On the boat we got a lesson of doing spring rolls and again we ate delicious sea food. Travelling alone, I'm very pleased to end up in such a nice group of people. We were a German, Australian and American couple and a very nice South African family with their college-aged daughter with whom I share the cabin (and kayak). The interesting conversations vary from hiv in South Africa, vegetarianism, socialism, Paul Pot, Vietnam War (or American war as they call it here) to more usual travel stories. Again, I understand the great eye-opening opportunities of travelling, not only do I learn about the country that I'm visiting but I share these experiences with other travellers creating this vast synthesis of what I saw, what the others saw and how do we reflect upon the experience from our different cultural departure points.
People living in floating villages in the bay area sell drinks and snacks to the tourists.
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