Ha Long Bay

Ha Long Bay a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and a popular travel destination, located in Quang Ninh province, Vietnam. Administratively, the bay belongs to Hạ Long City The Bay of the Descending Dragon for many represents the pinnacle of their experience in Vietnam. easily one of the most popular destinations in the country. Ha Long Bay is both mystical and magnificent, an incredible feat of nature that almost never fails to impress. 

It's not the cliffs themselves that make Ha Long Bay unique, but rather their sheer number. A huge bay, dotted with nearly 2,000 mostly uninhabited limestone cliffs. Specific feature of Ha Long Bay is the abundance of lakes inside the limestone islands. For example, Dau Be island has six enclosed lakes. All these island lakes occupy drowned dolines within fengcong karst.

Created over millions of years, tectonic forces slowly thrust the limestone above the water-line. During this process waves lapping against the stone carved out a number of vast, striking caverns, as well as other geologically interesting formations, such as tunnel caves and uniquely shaped massifs.

Getting there?

Day trips (around 20 USD) and longer trips are offered as packaged tours from Hanoi. Be aware that some tour organizers transport you from Hanoi to the port at Ha Long Bay in a local bus, which picks up locals along the way who will be seated on small plastic chairs in the aisle of the bus. Thus, the bus will go slower and will stop very frequently. Furthermore, it was observed that even locals who are picked up finally refuse to take the bus and exit, once they see the overloaded bus. At least once they were prevented from leaving the bus for a while by the tour organizers.