The Telegraph has recently selected the world’s most surreal landscapes, including Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, a world natural heritage recognised by the UNESCO.
Halong Bay, Vietnam: This stunning landscape features some 3,000 limestone pillars rising out of the emerald waters on the northwest coast of the Gulf of Tonkin. Local legend has it that the islands were created by giant dragons, summoned by the gods to fight Chinese invaders.
Valley of Desolation, Dominica: This valley was a lush rainforest until a volcano erupted in 1880. Fauna is now reduced to lizards, ants and cockroaches while boiling mud and fumaroles dot the landscape.
Painted Desert, Arizona, USA: Vibrant reds, oranges, blues, greys and pinks decorate the sun-baked Painted Desert on a high plateau in Arizona. Home of the Hopi and the Navajo peoples, the latter known for their ceremonial sand paintings, it’s an utterly unique part of the planet.
Purnululu National Park, Australia: Until the release of aerial photos in the early 1980s, this remote area in Western Australia was all but unknown to the outside world. Traditionally used by Kija Aborigines during the wet season, the rugged web of gullies, cliffs, gorges, domes and ridges hold aboriginal works of art and burial sites.
Petrified Forest, Argentina: This flat arid land in Patagonia’s Santa Cruz province is strewn with the stumps of fossilised trees. Some 130 million years ago, during the Jurassic period, wet forests of giant araucaria trees covered the area. During the formation of the Andes, large-scale volcanic activity buried Patagonia in ash and these forests turned to stone.
Wadi Rum, Jordan: The forbidding beauty of Wadi Rum was the perfect backdrop for the 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia. This desert wilderness is certainly cinematic – sand valleys and dunes punctuated by a maze of monolithic rock, natural arches, slender canyons and fissures, beautifully moody colours at dawn and dusk, and night skies sprinkled with a multitude of stars.
Lake Myvatn, Iceland: The Apollo 11 crew were sent here to train for their moon walks. It is lined with craters, lava pillars and mud pits, while volcanic islets are scattered across the water. If not for all the ducks roaming the sandbars, it could well be on another planet.
Cappadocia, Turkey: So inhospitable is the landscape here in the heart of Turkey that early dwellers went underground, building churches and houses into the soft cliffs. Above ground, honeycomb cliffs and volcanic cones – known as ‘fairy chimneys’ create dramatic landscapes.
Lake Bogoria, Kenya: So shallow is the earth’s crust in this sinister landscape that the surface looks like a giant witch’s cauldron, with scorching springs and geysers. Rich in sodium salts and minerals, the lake has no life bar the blue-green algae, eagles flying overhead and the incredible number of flamingos that feed here.
Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia: Blindingly white and dizzyingly high, this vast salt flat near the crest of the Andes could easily be mistaken for a Salvador Dali painting. Eerie and otherworldly, Salar de Uyuni holds intensely blue skies, red and green lagoons, pink flamingos, smoking volcanoes, giant cacti, hot springs and spitting geysers.
Source: Telegraph
Since my second backpacking trip through Europe, I wanted to journey to Southeast Asia.
I chose to visit Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, and developed a loose itinerary, starting in Bangkok, Thailand.
Halong Bay, Vietnam
Bangkok was everything I expected. The number of people everywhere was staggering, but before long I got used to the crowds, the heat and the food.
I visited many temples and shops, including the Grand Palace and the famed Khao San Road. The Grand Palace was amazing. Inside there were countless statues of Buddha. To my disappointment, Khao San was the typical tourist trap, with vendors selling T-shirts and bootlegged CDs.
After a few days I headed to Phuket, where I played beach bum for a few more days before flying to Saigon, Vietnam.
Scooting around Vietnam
Now, that was exactly what I pictured an Asian city to be – scooters everywhere! Crossing the street in Bangkok was like crossing a street in Des Moines compared to trying to cross the street in a Vietnamese city. The first time in Saigon was a big leap of faith. The trick is to just walk and keep your head turned to oncoming traffic.
I spent three weeks in Vietnam traveling from south to north. The highlights were eating the food in Hoi An, enjoying Hanoi’s famed Bia Hoi beer gardens and eating snake, and seeing the rock karsts of Halong Bay.
I had many choices of border crossings into Laos from Vietnam but I chose the crossing near Vinh in central Vietnam. This meant that I had an eight-hour bus ride from Hanoi to Vinh followed by a 14-hour bus ride to Phonsavan, Laos.
Phonsavan is famous for its “Plain of Jars” fields. These are fields of stone jars, each about 4 feet tall and 2 feet wide, scattered everywhere. Other jars are scattered in jungles surrounding Phonsavan.
Floating through Laos
After a day in Phonsavan I headed to Luang Prabang for a few days and then to Vang Vieng. My time in Vang Vieng was some of the best. There I went on a two-day trek that included hiking over mountains, spelunking through caves and kayaking the Nam Song River that runs through the town. The town has become a hotbed for young tourists who tube down the river. The river has a number of bars along its banks. Some have zip lines, bungee jumps and slides for the patrons to enjoy and all blare techno music.
Cambodia was the biggest surprise of the trip because I knew the least about it. The biggest draw to Cambodia is Siem Reap where Angkor Wat is located. Many people go only to see Angkor Wat but there are many more temples around Siem Reap and Cambodia. I felt like I was on another planet when I went to Angkor Wat to watch the sun rise over the temple.
I spent two months in Southeast Asia and there are still parts I didn’t see. I enjoyed every minute. Many people ask if I felt safe. I did.
Last April, I finally had a chance to get a glimpse of the country where my maternal grandfather fought in the Vietnam War. Based on the stories my grandfather told me while I was growing up, I arrived in Vietnam expecting to see evidence of the war. Instead I was surprised to see how modern the country is.
Halong bay view
But honestly, the thing that really impressed me was the food, and the bakeries in particular. Although we have bakeries in Korea, the coffee and bread in the bakeries of Vietnam overwhelmed me with their flavors, a mix of tastes and textures from France and Asia, surely a remnant of the country’s colonial past.
I was in Vietnam at the invitation the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry and Asia Europe Foundation to report on an Asia-Europe Meeting workshop that took place from April 28 to 29 in Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh Province in the northeastern corner of Vietnam. At the workshop, ASEM workshop participants agreed to forge stronger ties through cultural diplomacy linking Asia and Europe. Read more »
2 days and one night aboard a luxurious boat on Indochina Sails on Halong Bay
One of the must do’s if you are visiting Hanoi is a side trip to Halong Bay. I personally have done it twice – once on a bit of a budget and most recently in style on Indochina Sails. Indochina Sails presents a truly elegant cruising experience on its lacquered wood junk.
It all starts with a morning drive from Hanoi, which is about 3 hours – your boat can arrange transport from your hotel. Undoubtedly around the halfway point you will stop at some souvenir shops…these are usually prearranged with the driver (unbeknown st to the passenger) and we suspect he gets some sort of commission. You can either spend time here or go quickly. I will say on my more budget trip the caliber of the shop reflected the caliber of the trip. However on this one, we managed to stop off at a place where they were making pottery and statues, so for some of us, it was actually truly interesting to wander around the workshop and see the vases being hand painted and then kiln fired.
On 12 March, 2010 the Staff and Management of Indochina Sails made a gift of twenty new desks and chairs, along with a large assortment of school supplies to the students of the Cua Van Floating Primary School. The school is located in the Cua Van Floating Fishing Village and has about 70 students aged from 6 to 14 years old. The village itself is home to about 600 people, who live there permanently, on about 130 floating houses.
Cua Van Primary School in Halong bay, Vietnam
The school is an important part of our daily itinerary. We visit the Fishing Village every afternoon and on days that school is in session our guests are allowed to visit. It is a fascinating experience, as you can see from the pictures. The schoolrooms and equipment are very basic, and the dedicated teachers do a fantastic job with limited resources.
Halong bay view
On December 14th 1994, at the 18th session of the World Heritage Commission in Phuket-Thailand, Ha Long Bay was inscribed in the World Heritage List by UNESCO. The decision to recognize Ha Long Bay as a World Heritage area confirmed the exceptional and universal value of its landscape.
For Vietnamese people Ha Long Bay is not only a great landscape but it is also a sacred and long-standing symbol of the country. In the Vietnamese people’s consciousness the stone islands in Ha Long Bay are not only limestone but biotic. When the Nation was in danger a Mother Dragon and her children descended from the sky to create Ha Long Bay and stayed forever to defend the country.
Read more »
At a tourist booth at the international airport, arriving foreigners are offered enticing brochures, including a thick little booklet with a lovely pastel urban lake scene on the cover and the incongruous title: “Hanoi, City of Tourism.”
Sapa field,
Incongruous, because for many Americans, what was once the capital of North Vietnam evokes different images. Not too long ago, this was a city of fanatical communists and the infamous Hanoi Hilton prison where downed U.S. fliers were held.
A vacation to Southeast Asia is a bargain hunter’s paradise, once you get past the airfare prices. Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City can provide travelers with worldwide cuisine, tailor-made shopping deals, and bustling nightlife, all on the cheap.
The U.S. dollar will get you about 18,685 Vietnamese dong (as of press time), and many travelers can comfortably get by on less than the equivalent of $50 per person per day. The region’s countless options for affordable food, accommodations, transportation, and tours make sticking to a budget easy. The city’s infamous street food carts offer delicious options for all three meals, but there are also plenty of higher-end establishments if you want to splurge.
For the Vietnamese people, Tet is the most sacred time of the year.
Peach Flowers of Tet – Vietnamese Lunar New Year
On lunar New Year’s Eve, each member of a family and of society exchange sincere good wishes, strengthening common cultural ties. Tet is also time to reflect on the spiritual life.
In Hanoi, on the stroke of midnight, the whole family sits down to eat together. The house has been cleaned well in advance. The family altar is decorated with fresh flowers, fruits (5 kinds of fruits with 5 different colors) and red candles. During Tet, angry words are forbidden. Most Hanoians visit pagodas, and make sure to bring home a leafy branch, an ancient symbol of prosperity.
Some 70 per cent of Vietnam’s population is engaged in agriculture, which uses over 20 per cent of the country’s area and produces 15 per cent of its GDP.
Farmer in Northern Vietnam – Copywrite Brenda Sunno
Vietnam has two huge deltas: the Mekong in the south and the Red River in the north. From time immemorial the Vietnamese have known how to build dykes and avoid flooding, creating more land for wet –rice cultivation. Thousands of kilometres of dykes have been built along the Red River to protect this vast fertile delta and its population.