Thursday, September 20, 2012

Ha Long Bay, Viet Nam.

24th August, 2012.

Ha Long Bay was one of the highlights of our whole amazing tour.  It has quite a few credentials:

  • In 1994, Hạ Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.
  • In 2012, the New 7 Wonders Foundation officially named Ha Long Bay as one of New Seven Natural Wonders of the World.
  • Hạ Long Bay is also a member of the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays of the World.  (There are 32 of these, and Australia doesn’t have any.)

The official number of limestone karsts and isles in Ha Long Bay is given as 1969 (the year Ho Chi Minh died).  Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves, other support floating villages of fishermen, who ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of molluscs. Another specific feature of Ha Long Bay is the abundance of lakes inside the limestone islands.

Because the bay is so outstanding, its pristine beauty is threatened by the onslaughts of tourism, but efforts are being made to manage this sustainably.

The day was a little misty, which made the islands appear dreamlike and mysterious.  I must have taken hundreds of pictures - here are some of them:

 

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Pat and Dorothy.

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Woodley.

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No, he’s not in prison.

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Looking out.

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All in the wash.

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In all this dreamy landscape, at least Pat was real.

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I was glad we weren’t on this boat.

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I hope he found whatever he was looking for without mishap.

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Spooky caves.

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Fishing village.

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Island with a hole through it.

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The hole.  Notice the fishing rods positioned at the base of the rock.

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Fishing boy in red shirt.

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Coming through.

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That boy again, checking his rods.

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Floating village dwellers.

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The red flag of Viet Nam.

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These “Kissing Rocks” are quite famous …..

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….. but I couldn’t believe my eyes as they appeared out of the mist.

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Now they’re in quite a clinch.

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Passing by.

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Fisherman’s floating house.

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Farming goldfish.

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Fish tanks.

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Our guide Rex shows us some of their produce.

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I almost missed this iconic junk with the sails, but Pat pointed it out.

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It seems that the once-iconic sails are only used on luxury tourist vessels today, so we were lucky to see this one. 

We were served up with a fresh seafood lunch on our cruise – the best meal of our entire trip!

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