Play the world in 80 days: The Halong Bay of Vietnam

Homo sapiens , aka humans are the master of the food chain on earth today despite of we are one of the weakest in terms of physical ability comparing to other animals. We don't have claws like tigers', teeth like sharks', horn like rhinos' and so on. We do so by creating tools and weapons. We created fire, bows and arrows, knife, guns, bomb and the list goes on. Even when we already long became masters of all living species on this planet, we continue to develop more powerful weapon to defend ourselves from.... erm.... aliens maybe?

"alien queen in aircon ducting suit and her green army of doom will destroy us all"

Whatever the reason it is, it seems that we are not getting any tired of that and continue to create things to help us win battle against whatever it is

We created super helicopter that can do back flip while shooting missile in all direction:

we created all terrain (including on water) vehicle...Btw can I have one of those, Santa?

we created even scarier alien to scare the sh*t out of other alien:

we created super soldier that can fly:

and super old lady that has super strength to push an army away:

not to forget looks can be deceiving for this deadly clone solder:

or machine gun dog:

Whatever the reason it is, it wouldn't be as cool as fighting war with dragons and dinosaur:

According to legend,when Vietnam had just started to develop into a country, they had to fight against invaders. To assist the Vietnamese in defending their country, the gods sent a family of dragons as protectors.

God could have just throw rocks, thunder, tornado or even plague from the sky

but it would not be as much cool as sending dragons to scare the sh*t out of the people

And This family of dragons began spitting out jewels and jade (can I have some please?). These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. Under magics, numerous rock mountains abruptly appeared on the sea, ahead of invaders' ships; the forward ships struck the rocks and each other. It's not obvious why the Americans lost the Vietnam war?

After winning the battle, the dragons were interested in peaceful sightseeing of the Earth, and then decided to live in this bay. The place where the mother dragon descended was named Hạ Long

Yes, Halong is derived from the Sino-Vietnamese 下龍, meaning "descending dragon". Located at northern Vietnam Quang Ninh province, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a popular travel destination more geographical information here.

To go to Halong bay from Hanoi, one can choose to take train, bus, or the popular choice would be a mini bus. We took off from Hanoi at around 7am heading towards Halong bay. The journey takes about 4 hours with scenery of old buildings and paddy field, by the time we reach is about 11++am.

typical scenery along the route

View from the harbor

Mr Ho had a great vision to turn one of the island in Halong bay into hub of business & leisure , pearl of Halong bay which will looked something like this:

I can't help to noticed that the twin tower at the middle resembles another iconic towers somewhere else in Asia:

Artistic view of the final design:

Top: Artist impression (Khu Nha Pho Cang)

Bottom: Actual Photo

Boats parked at the quay:

Laughing Buddha at the quay:

Because of the limitation of parking space, most cruise operator are only allowed to park feeder boat at the quay. Passenger would need to take feeder boat to their respective cruises. We had out 2 days 1 night stay with Phoenix Cruiser. The cruise is a three storey "Junk boat" that looked like this:

Window opening having oriental feel:

Vietnamese flag on top of the boat:

We were greeted by local cuisine as we checked in on board:

With the beautiful island and karstic mountains and caves, Halong Bay is truly a soul rehab place for the busy city slickers, an ideal romantic retreat for couple and a good vacation spot for group of friends.

A great environment to read a book

View from feeder boat to "surprising cave":

Floating Village, used to be lived on fishing. Now probably lived on selling stuffs to tourists:

Surprising Cave:

We shall call this the population stick :

And there is a hole at the place it is pointing:

Said to be a turtle which brings good luck and fortune (to itself maybe judging from all the money tourists thrown on it):

View from the cave:

Looked like a man's feet hanging?

There are also many activities that can be done around Halong bay: Hiking, Swimming, Kayaking,squid fishing and in the following pic, martial art practicing:

Squid fishing while thinking meaning about life:

Looking through the window of the boat, becoming philosopher:

Kayaking:

View of the karstic island under water:

During kayak, I spotted a small round whitish stuff on the surface of the cliff,thinking it could be my lucky day to pickup a pearl, I reach out for it and realized it was Styrofoam bead. According to some travel website, Halong bay is being polluted by tourist waste and natural shell and stuff depleting because of making of souvenirs. It is recommended to buy only manmade souvenir to preserve the nature environment of the bay.