Ha Long Bay

Monday, May 21st

For today, we booked a day trip to Ha Long Bay, which is about 2.5 hours away from Hanoi city. Our tour guide, Sunny, gave us a brief history about Hanoi and Vietnam in general during the van ride with 9 other tourists from Sweden and Chile. Some interesting facts include:

-Hanoi is home to about 7.5 million people

-"Hanoi" means "The City that the Red River Run Through"

-The Vietnamese flag is red to symbolize blood; the yellow of the star symbolizes the yellow skin of Asian people; and the star itself is the unity of the 5 social classes: academics, workers, farmers, tradesmen, and soldiers

-The Communist flag is the familiar "hammer and sickle" as on the Russian flag. The hammer and sickle represents workers and farmers respectively, unifying to defeat their enemies

Along the way to the departure bay, we stop off at a "rest stop." Rest stop my a$$! We pull up to a warehouse full of tourist goods from silk threaded art pieces, to marble sculptures, to crafted plates, to various orniments. When I say warehouse, I mean a warehouse! It's like the Walmart of tourist traps... and trapped we were for about 30mins. Not only were the goods on display amongst the thousands of square feet of displays, but the workers were right there doing the work to produce the items themselves. It was at the same time amazing to see the work done, and disappointing to be reminded of the sweatshop reality to produce these beautiful things. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

We finally arrive and our boat pulls up:

 

Here we are just waiting to board... rocking our pointy hats!

 

On our way, we approach the famous rock formations that make up but a fraction of Ha Long Bay. UNESCO has recognized this area as a world natural heritage site:

 

More hanging out with our pointy hats:

As cool as it was to lounge around the bay amongst these beautiful natural monoliths, the greatest part of this tour would have to be our last stop while on this cruise: Dong Thien Cung Caves

 

These caves were discovered in the mid 1990s and has since, also been recognized as a UNESCO natural heritage site. The stalagmites and stalagtites form shapes that are easily recognizable as animals or even human. The authorities have done an excellent job in designing and presenting the unbelievable rock formations in their greatest light possible:

Can you see the elephant?

What about the perched pigeon?

What do you see here on the ceiling of the cavern?

Walking through these organic, yet alien formations is like taking a stroll through Gaudi's brain. The rocks are at the same time fluid and natural, yet wholly skeletal and gothic.

Sorry, pictures simply cannot do the caves true justice. The sheer size of the chasms only lend to the awe inspiring monoliths that surround you.

This was truly an amazing experience.

Tomorrow, we have food tour planned. As if I don't talk about food enough, tomorrow's post should be pretty epic. Stay tuned!