A Globe of Mystery Awaits You

Halong Bay in Vietnam is a breathtaking place with over two hundred remarkable jagged islands and islets rising from the emerald water of the Tonkin Gulf.

 This wonderful panorama of limestone tops enshrouded in mist, tumbling into lightly lapping sea and enclosing within its folds remarkable hidden caves is a UNESCO Globe Heritage place.
The near-vertical pinnacles conceal the remains of many caverns and grottos, made over millions of years ago through a hard process of erosion whereby water trickled via limestone cracks enlarging them to make beautiful caves and resulting in the unique towers seen today.
About a three hour ride south of Hanoi, Halong Bay Vietnam draws a steady stream for visitors year-round, who generally opt for several days for cruising on a characteristic Vietnamese junk.

Surprise Cave

Beyond the wonderful seascapes on a bout trip through the bay, a remarkable range of adventure travel chances are on offer: travelers to Halong come to explore the beautiful caves, among them the lovely “Surprise Cave” with its three enormous caverns, where illuminated stalactites grow down to touch the increasing stalagmites; to scuba and kayak dive around the islands and in around some of the more remote, less easy to get to caves, such as the Dark Cave; to obtain to know “true-life” Vietnam, cycling through remote small villages and farm fields, where self-reliant domestics raise and cook their own food; to experience one of the Vietnams most remarkable culture specs- nestling in the sheltered bays, and the floating villages.

Tam Coc Cave

For an off-the-beaten-path adventure, “inland Halong Bay” or “Ninh Binh”, north of Halong is a wonderful paradise, meandering waterways and beautiful and green rice paddies where contorted limestone caverns, pinnacles, hills and spires, shaped like mythical creatures offer the setting. Here, pagodas, ornate temples and Buddhist shrine increase from the center of little lakes and rustic houses perch under natural overhangs or nestle into the living rock. A motorbike ride into the closely mountains is a best adventure and half-day boat tour to Trang or Tam Coc into caves and old temples is well value the tour.
What make the full region special are not the towering cliffs themselves, but rather their sheer number and special shapes. Legend has it that the islands were made by a wonderful dragon that lived in the mountains. As it charged towards the sea, its tailed gouged out crevasses and valleys, and as it spat out jade and jewels, these turned into, the remarkable towering pinnacles for which the Halong Bayand its neighboring are renowned.