HANOI 2005 Part 5

Here is the last part of this Vietnam trip of mine. Thank you for keep reading and waiting for it. If you're new to my blog or still don't read the former parts of this trip...they're here: part 1, part 2, part 3 and part 4.

**EXTREME SATURDAY @ HA LONG BAY**

Source: WIKIPEDIA

This picture can tell why I put the headline 'EXTREME'...Ha Long Bay (Vietnamese: Vịnh Hạ Long) is a UNESCO World Heritage site located in Quảng Ninh province, Vietnam. The bay features thousands of limestone karsts and isles in various sizes and shapes. The following is some hi-light information on Ha Long Bay from WIKIPEDIA;

The bay has a 120 kilometre long coastline and is approximately 1,553 square kilometres in size with 1969 isles. The area admitted by UNESCO as world's natural heritage is 434 km² with 775 isles of which the core zone is limited by 3 points: Đầu Gỗ island on the west, Ba Hầm lake on the south and Cống Tây island on the east, the protected area is from Cái Dăm petrol store to Quang Hanh commune, Cẩm Phả town and the hinterland zone around.
The bay is a sea islands in tropical wet with 2 seasons: hot and moist summer, dry and cold winter. Average temperature is from 15°C- 25°C. Annual rainfall is between 2000mm and 2200mm. Halong bay has the typical diurnal tide system (tide amplitude ranges from 3.5-4m). The salinity is from 31 to 34.5MT in dry season and lower in rainy season.
The bay consists of a dense cluster of 1,969 limestone monolithic islands, each topped with thick jungle vegetation, which rise spectacularly from the ocean. Several of the islands are hollow, with enormous caves. Hang Đầu Gỗ (Wooden stakes Cave) is the largest grotto in the Halong area. Its three large chambers contain large numerous stalactites and stalamites.
Some of the islands support floating villages of fishermen, who ply the shallow waters for 200 species of fish and 450 different kinds of mollusks. Many of the islands have acquired their names as a result of interpretation of their unusual shapes: such names include Voi Islet (elephant), Ga Choi Islet (fighting cock), and Mai Nha Islet (roof). 989 of the islands have been given names. Birds and animals including bantams, antelopes, monkeys, and iguanas also live on some of the islands.
The bay was World's Natural Heritage listed by UNESCO at the 18th meeting of the Committee of the World Heritages of UNESCO (in Phuket, Thailand on December 17th, 1994) for its outstanding universal aesthetic value according to the criteria (vii) explained in the Operational Guilined for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention. On December 2nd, 2000 at the 24th meeting of Committee of the World Heritages in Cairns city, Queensland state, Australia, Halong bay was admitted as World's Natural Heritage extensively for its outstanding universal geological and geomorphological value according to the criteria (viii) of that Convention.
Halong bay was introduced to nominate by New Open World Foundation as World's 7 Natural Wonder having result on 08/08/2008.

WOW!! that's amazing, isn't it? (I know, also amazingly long for readers who skipped read it ^_^) Being one of the World's 7 Natural Wonder is very terrific.

INFORMATION: For those who stayed in Hanoi and decided to visit Ha Long Bay as a one-day trip, it is possible to do so but be prepared for more than 10 hour trip start very early in the morning.

It is very kind for me, my colleagues, and for those who joined in this training that the host arranged the whole things for us. I'd like to express again my sincerely thanks to them again here.

My Saturday trip started at about 7 a.m. The kind host arranged 2 vans for bringing us from our hotel to Ha Long, a city located 160 km northeast of Hanoi. After sitting for 3 hours in the van, we reached Ha Long Bay just before 10 o'clock. We're at the harbour where I can't see much of famous long beach. It's windy. The air was fresh and not so hot.

After waiting for some minutes, our dear hosts led us to a boat. The pricing in 2005 was 120.000 VND per person (fare+lunch). The boat brought us straight to the core zone of this UNESCO World Heritage site.

After a while on the boat, we arrived at Hang Đầu Gỗ (Wooden stakes Cave) which is the largest cave in the Halong area. Its three large chambers contain large numerous stalactites and stalagmites.

stalactites = a column of rock that hangs from the roof of a cave and which is formed over a very long period of time by drops of water containing lime falling from the roof of the cave (in Thai: หินย้อย).
stalagmites = a column of rock which rises from the floor of a cave which is formed over a very long period of time by drops of water containing lime falling from the roof of the cave (in Thai: หินงอก).
(source: Cambridge Dictionary Online)

It's quite hard to stay long in the cave, even it's very big, because of breathe difficulty. I and my Thai colleagues finished the inside-the-cave walk 30 minutes before the promised time with the rest of the team. We, then, walked to another cave. There, I and Mr. Suteep walked quickly through that big cave...my stamina depleted (The last picture above is me running in the 'another' cave).

From the cave, our boat started again. This time it brought us around the core zone, let us looked at terrific scenes of Ha Long Bay. We also had our lunch, a yummy sea food lunch, in the boat.

Our trip ended where we started at almost 3 p.m. I was exhausted and slept all over my trip back to Hanoi. One good thing was that my flight was on Sunday so I didn't need to be hurried...

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YES!!! I've completed another series!!! If you ever wrote something and can finally ended it, you might know my feeling...If not, try one yourself now and post your link as comment here. I'll be your reader for sure ^_^

The next trip I'll write about is in my hometown, THAILAND!!! YAH!!!

Bye you all... 'Till next trip...