Where the dragon descends into the sea.



Majestic,
mysterious, inspiring and breathtaking - words alone cannot describe or do justice to the natural wonder that is Halong Bay. About 2000 karst rock islands rise from the emerald waters of the Gulf of Tonkin just off the Vietnamese North East coast. Many of these limestone formations have various sized caves which are illuminated for the benefit of tourists. The only way to visit these places is to book one of the, perhaps, 100 boats and enjoy the vistas from the comfort of a lounge chair on the upper deck. The best way to enjoy all this is to book a one or two night tour and go with the flow which may include some activities like taking a kayak around the islands and through the caves, a walking visit through some other caves, a hike to the top of one of the peaks and swimming at one of the constructed beaches.

Although some boats are a bit old, this adds the charm of sleeping and dining on an old Junk. The name Halong means “where the dragon descends into the sea” . Legend has it that a great dragon descended from the mountains into the sea whereby it's tail gouged out valleys and crevasses.

For the Vietnamese, this is an historical place. Nearby an important battle was
fought against the Mongol warriors of the Chinese army. The battle was won by
using an ingenious method of defence and attack.

The battle was planned and fought at the mouth of the nearby Bach Dang River. The army led by General Tran Hung Dao had prepared sharp pointed bamboo poles at a length
designed to remain underwater at high tide - they were set vertically in the river near the bank where it was shallow.At high tide Trang Hung Dao sent out small boats which passed easily between the posts, to lure the Chinese warships close to shore. When the tide receded, the ships were left high and dry impaled on the posts. The flaming arrows of the Vietnamese army destroyed the entire fleet. In Halong Bay, one can visit the Hang Dau Go cave (cave of the wooden sticks) where the sticks were prepared and stored. In every Vietnamese town, you find a Trang Hung Dao street in honor of the General and nearly every street which runs parallel to a river is called Bach Dang in commemoration of the victory.

A boat trip around Halong Bay should be on the itinerary of everyone who visits Vietnam.
A few days ago we had left Sapa and Tavan on a cold evening. The weather can change very
quickly in Sapa as the town is at cloud level. One moment you have beautiful sunshine and the next a large cloud enters the valley covering the town in a thick fog and light rain, dropping the temperature by several degrees within minutes. We had booked the night sleeper bus which left at 10 pm, this turned out to be a bad decision as the bus arrives in Hanoi at 3 AM. Suddenly you are out in a dark street surrounded by pushy taxi drivers. We were the last to leave the bus. Luckily I recognised the road we were on but not the exact location. Most people had already fallen for the lies of the taxi drivers and were on their way to be taken for a ride spending perhaps $10 to $15 for a ride around town only to be dropped off a few hundred
meters away. I asked a driver to point out on the map what our position was. He pointed to a place about 4 km away on the other side of the river. We started walking and were at our hotel within about 10 minutes . On our way, we were approached by another driver who said he
would take us to our destination for $5. "It is not far." he said - and he was not telling a lie this time. It was just around the corner 50 meters away.

Luckily our room, which was booked for the evening, was not occupied and we could make use
of it immediately.
Frank had another dental appointment about 4 km away at 9 am. Not wanting another long walk early in the morning we rented a scooter and rode off into peak hour traffic mixing with 100,000 other scooters going in all directions. Although very daunting, riding in extremely heavy traffic without road rules or rights of way, it is a safe way of getting from A to B. If there is no right of way then everyone takes it easy and gives way to other riders. In 4 kms travel you can witness corner cutting, running red lights, people driving on the wrong side of the road, even cutting across four lanes of traffic in the wrong direction is not a big problem. No one says anything or gets upset.

I love it !!