nha trang to halong bay. it was an exciting trip, mainly for the gorgeous views, but also because
i dawned a sweatshirt for the first time in nearly a year and we ate
delicious food while taking in the views.We waited in anticipation outside our guesthouse in Hanoi where we were
told we would be collected for our trip to Halong Bay. On the bus and
heading for what would turn out to be an amazing birthday celebration
for Kim with great people in an amazingly beautiful location
how often nha trang to Ha Long Bay.Ha Long Bay is impressive, an oasis of calm after the hubbub of Hanoi,
with huge limestone rocks and islands rising out of the turquoise water.
Legend has it that a family of dragons created the islands to protect
the Vietnamese from invaders, then decided to live there and descended
into the water, hence the name, which means ‘descending dragon’. It is
certainly deserving of its UNESCO World Heritage Site status.
By the time lunch was over, we had arrived at Thien Cung (Heaven)
cave, a vast grotto covered with stalactites and stalagmites and dating
back about 700,000 years. This also was a place of legend, with a
beautiful woman marrying the dragon prince here and bearing him one
hundred children. The guides pointed out the shapes of various animals
who attended the wedding depicted in the rock formations, as well as a
rock’s shadow that cleverly forms an outline resembling the woman
herself.
The cave was only discovered in 1993 by a fisherman seeking shelter
from an approaching storm, which was undoubtedly fortuitous. Having seen
the magnificent terracotta army in Xian a couple of years ago, which
was itself only discovered in 1971 by a farmer digging a well, I
reflected on how many other wonders there are out there waiting to be
uncovered, by a Spanish shepherd searching for a stray sheep or a
Bedouin seeking shelter from a Saharan storm