Hanoi - Halong Bay - Part 3

Part 3

I'm coming the last part of the Halong Bay, the grotto. Entering the cave reminded me of my visit to Bora Caves in Vishakapatnam, India way back in March 2012 where I lost all of the photos when the hard disk crash. But of course, Thien Chung Grotto is much more commercialize than Bora Caves in Araku Valley. The colorful lighting fixed inside the cave by the Authority looks almost similar. 

Thien Cung Grotto is located at the height of 25 meters above the sea level. Once inside the grotto, any tourists would feel like visiting an art museum with variety of sophisticated statues and reliefs. In the center of the grotto, there are 4 big pillars propping against the roof. The original inhabitants of Halong Bay have told an ancient story about Thien Cung Grotto over many generations. 

The myth is passed down from earlier generation to present generation that the Dragon Prince was fallen in love with “Nang May” (means Miss Cloud) who were there to pray for the rain. Vietnam was once on a very  bad drought which villagers went to pray for help from the descending dragon. The wedding was held lavishly inside the grotto in 7 days and 7 nights. All kinds of animals and all genies took part to share the happiness with the couple. The celebration was that fun and bustling like on the heaven. Nowadays, entering Thien Cung Grotto, visitors can gaze at the myth party sceneries in the setting of stalactites and stalagmites inside. 

So. our guide has repeatedly asked us to spot all the animals resemblance from the stalactites and stalagmites. He had also shown the area where the couples children were bought up including the nipple to feed the children when the mother decided to abandon the dragon prince, their grotto and their children after she discovered that the husband was having an eyes for many other women. It's a myth story okay, nothing seem serious about it.

The grotto has been discovered recently by the explorers. I fully agreed that Thien Cung Grotto is considered as one of the most beautiful caves of Halong Bay. The grotto means a "Heavenly Palace Cave" in english. It is located in the southwest of Halong Bay about 4 km away from Dau Go Island. It is considered as the most beautiful primitive cave of the Bay drawn many tourist to the spot. The cave is 10,000 square meters with complicated interior structure, many floors, and high ceiling. It becomes famous due to a unique system of stalactites and stalagmites with different forms and shapes.

Exploring Thien Cung Cave’s craggy cliffs is no an easy task. Going through a narrow door, you would be surprised by a large space inside the cave that the further you walk, the more beautiful formation of stalactites come to your eyes. On the wall of the eastern side of the cave, an impressive picture of stalactites and stalagmites give tourists the most fantastic feeling ever. The travel guide would never forget to tell you legends or folk tales interpreted from the picture by the local Halong people.

Our guide kept on pushing us to use our imagination to create a pictures of fish, flocks of birds, and the daily life of people from a giant natural rock pillar all naturally sculptured by stalactites inside our mind ever since we reached the center of the cave. It was beautiful to see above our head, on the ceiling of Thien Cung Cave, amazing rows of stalagmites drooping through million years that create a colorful pictures and melodies with the fixed man-made light. Besides, the wind flowing inside the cave has given a cool circulation.

Leaving the cave, tourist would feel a lingering sensation like just finish a tour to a massive art museum created by the Mother Nature. That was how we felt. 

The family of dragons that was sent by god to defend the country from invaders has spitting out the jewels and jade, as shared in Part 1 of this entry. These jewels turned into the islands and islets dotting the bay, linking together to form a great wall to protect Vietnam from 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. 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, the place where the dragon's children attended upon their mother was called Bau Tu Long island (means dragon's children). The place where the dragon's children wriggled their tails violently was called Bạch Long Vy island Hence, Thien Chu cave belong to one of the descending dragon son.

Remarks: Full historical background came before the photos to test a different style of writing.

Hanoi - Halong Bay - Part 2

Part 2

Halong Bay is located in the Gulf of Tonkin which includes about 1,600 island and islets forming a spectacular seascape of mature limestone karst pillar. From far, you would have a feeling of approaching an ancient kingdom, rich in nature. It became a new 7th Wonder of Nature, according to the Unesco Heritage website. The title was attributed to its sculpted by nature and a variety of coastal erosional features such as arches and caves which form a majestic natural scenery of clusters of conical peaks and isolated towers. The Unesco website adds that because of their precipitous nature, most of the islands are uninhabited and unaffected by human presence.

Personally, I was feeling awe and a proper word to express the sensation is to say a proper word to the Genius, the Creator behind all these creation (including creating us, a human being in form) is "Allahhuakbar", means God is Great and  MashaAllah and Alhamdulillah, both means a compliment and appreciation only to Allah for such beauty and for allowing me to witness a beautiful arrangement of the mature karst pillar in person (in allowing time and money spent). Islam and any other religions in the world is narrowing deep into a person's faith for believing in something which is invisible. Seeing these beauty is a way to see Him, i.e. through His creations which are visibly around us.

My apology for being so carried away with that. Anyway, Halong if translates to English carry a meaning “where the dragon descends into the sea” and legend has it that when the Vietnamese were fighting the Chinese invaders, the gods (means a mythological god) sent a family of dragons to help the Vietnamese defending their land. The family of dragons began spitting out of jewels and jade which subsequently turned into islands and islets dotting the bay linking together to form a great wall against the invaders. What we explored with our "White Dragon" boat was only 10% out of the whole huge bay coastal island and islet.

The symbol of Halong Bay (which is also a symbol of passionate love) is two chicken-shaped rocks of one “rooster” and one “hen” facing each other. Although they seem to be fighting each other, people often refer to it as “Kissing Rocks”. Kindly take note that the scenes from the James Bond movie "Tomorrow Never Dies" was filmed here. The Russian couple and I were trying to locate the rock statue but couldn't find it. Nevertheless, our guide informed about an islet that was on Dong200K which I'm sharing in below photo.

Although Vietnam has had her fair share of wars, the Vietnamese are very resilient, and from every nook and corner, woman power prevails. Women doing all kinds of work; as long as one had two wheels, business could be conducted. Would like to share a wisdom on man’s quotes; “We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us”, and secondly “Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer”. When we reached at the floating village, we saw that mostly women partake in the business, i.e. the girl who pleasantly rowing us in her bamboo boat had to drop school as working there has given her family more security financially. Her sister and mother both are working in the same spot. 

The limestone in this bay has gone through 500 million years of formation in different conditions and environments. The evolution of the karst in this bay has taken 20 million years under the impact of the tropical wet climate. The geo-diversity of the environment in the area has created biodiversity, including a tropical evergreen biosystem, oceanic and sea shore biosystem. Hạ Long Bay is home to 14 endemic floral species and 60 endemic fauna species.

Historical research surveys have shown the presence of prehistorical human beings in this area tens of thousands years ago. The successive ancient cultures are the Soi Nhụ culture around 18,000 to 7000 BC, the Cai Beo culture 7000–5000 BC and the Hạ Long culture 5,000–3,500 years ago. Hạ Long Bay also marked important events in the history of Vietnam with many artifacts found in Bai Tho Mount, Dau Go Cave, Bai Chay.

500 years ago, Nguyen Trai praised the beauty of Hạ Long Bay in his verse Lo nhap Van Don, in which he called it "rock wonder in the sky". In 1962, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of North Vietnam listed Hạ Long Bay in the National Relics and Landscapes publication. In 1994, the core zone of Hạ Long Bay was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site according to criterion vii, and listed for a second time according to criterion viii. Finally, I wish to share the rest of the magnificent view that Anne and I snapped during the boat adventures.

Hanoi - Halong Bay - Part I

Remarks: As Ha Long Bay has quite an interesting story plus quite a numbers of photos that I wish to share in this blog, I have decided to split into 3 separate entries. First being mostly about the journey, an itinerary and brief introduction about Ha Long Bay. Part 2 would be more about the floating village and the views why it is said to be as 1 out of the 7 natural wonders of the world. Lastly, about sharing the mythological story of the dragon and the place where it was claimed as his resident, the Thien Cung Grotto. We were amazed with the scenery of stalactites and stalagmites inside the cave. 

Part 1

A trip to Hanoi is not complete without a visit to the Unesco World Heritage site of Ha long Bay which is located about 165km from the Hanoi city.  Hạ Long Bay, in northeast Vietnam, is known for its emerald waters and thousands of towering limestone islands topped by rainforests. Junk boat tours and sea kayak expeditions take visitors past islands named for their shapes, including Stone Dog and Teapot islands. The region basically draws scuba divers, rock climbers and hikers. Most importantly, the hiker’s are attracted and would not miss an opportunity for a mountainous adventures at Cat Ba National Park.

The road to Ha Long Bay

The Toll Plaza

I have mentioned earlier on that we get the hotel to do necessary booking for us with a local tour agent, but thousand apologies readers as I have forgotten how much we paid for the trip. It was definitely slightly higher if comparing with the rest of our group who  came from many countries. We checked the price we paid while waiting for our guide to get a boat ticket. A Korean girl bought hers at the airport, others booked online from the travel agent website and as for the rest of us, through the hotel front desk.

A view along the journey - green green paddy field

When the travel is closer the karstic Islet

A comfortable tourist van of 12 person came to pick us up at the hotel lobby as soon as we finised our breakfast. We were the last couple to join the van. It took quite a long ride and I discovered that I left my camera in the hotel. It was so annoyingly disturbing that carelessness and I became inseparable. Anne was more than happy to share her camera with me as she will get to have more of her photo in her camera. The journey was quite lengthy and some of us chose to sleep during the ride whilst some made conversation and saying hello to a day stranger turn friends.

See the advert, www.aptravel.com and the comfortable van we ride. We snapped the photo just in case we lost the van while wandering inside the tourist complex

Free and clean toilet facilities

After about 2 hours of drive, the van stopped for toilet and coffee break. The stop was a tourist centre where everything sold in the huge complex are extremely expensive (I advised you not to shop at this place. You may do your shopping at the Hanoi Old Quarter). Should you craving for coffee and snacks, you could limit your spent only to that though the price was almost double. Beverages also were charged at higher rates than the outside market. This are the reasons why I tried to avoid taking tour with the travel agency. The have a contract with this kind of scam and business.

We continued our journey after everyone has get back to the van and by that time, we became friendlier with the rest of the group. Our guide, who has a quite unique name (so unique that I forgotten them... hehe) is very friendly and accommodating to our requests and nonsense. He was explaining about Ha long bay and sharing his proud about his country (everyone does that). He instantly became our good friend for a day.

Our tour guide for the day.. p/s: I was appointed as his assistant :)

The services that we paid are inclusive of all the transportation cost (to and from Ha Long bay and Hanoi city), the tolls, the lunch, all entrance fees but excluding the bamboo ride at the floating village. We were served with a seafood on the cruise. While enjoying our meal, we kept on looking outside the boat and were too eager to snap photos. Because of our excitement, I lost USD100 notes from my purse. Somebody (who happened to be in our group, sat next to me) has slipped his hand into my backpack and took out the money from my wallet while I was in the toilet and Anne was at that time snapping photos. Admittedly, it was equally my fault for leaving my bag unattended, simply trusting a stranger who I barely knew that sharing a friendly conversation in less than an hour.

I know... I should not be trusting. I discovered that the money was gone when we arrived at the floating village whereby we have to pay for the bamboo ride. Anne and I were both very shocked as we remembered well, how much USD currency we two had in our purse as we thought of spending them all in our last day in Hanoi. Someone, means ME has to paid for my own carelessness. And, yes, I am famous for it, my family are not surprised at all when I told them that I lost USD100 in Ha Long Bay and I also lost my Salvatore Ferragamo shade in Angkor Watt. They merely gave me a look "you deserve it mother, we were the one who has to take care of you whenever we were travelling with you".

The meal that cost me losing my USD100 :(

Anyway, some facts about the Ha Long Bay that I wish to share in the first part of the entry. In 1962, the Vietnam Ministry of Culture, Sport and Tourism designated Hạ Long Bay as a 'Renowned National Landscape Monument'. 32 years later, in 1994, Hạ Long Bay was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in recognition of its outstanding, universal aesthetic value. In 2000 the World Heritage Committee additionally recognised Hạ Long Bay for its outstanding geological and geomorphological value, and its World Heritage Listing was updated.

While boating in a bamboo boat

In October 2011, World Monuments Fund included the bay on the 2012 World Monuments Watch, citing tourism pressures and associated development as threats to the site that must be addressed. The goal of Watch-listing is to promote strategies of responsible heritage-driven development for a sustainable future. In 2012, New 7 Wonders Foundation officially named Halong Bay as one of New Seven Natural Wonders of the world. In addition, Hạ Long Bay is also a member of the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays of the World.

Until the next entry...