Ha Long Bay - The Northern Coast
Drifting south from Vietnam’s north coast in a wooden junk,
your eyes will be riveted on what, at first, appears to be a jagged wall of
emerald green. After an hour or so the wall swallows you up, and you find
yourself in a fairyland of otherworldly limestone peaks, jutting from the water
at sheer angles – this is Ha Long Bay,
one of the most spectacular places in the whole of Vietnam.
From Guilin in China to Thailand’s Phang Nga Bay, the
limestone towers of the bay are by no means unique, but nowhere else are they
found on such an impressive scale: an estimated 1969 islands pepper Ha Long Bay
itself, with a further two thousand punctuating the coast towards China. Local
legend tells of a celestial dragon and her children, sent by the Jade Emperor
to stop an invasion, which spat out great quantities of pearls to form islands
and razor-sharp mountain chains in the path of the enemy fleet. After the
victory the dragons, enchanted by their creation, decided to stay on, giving
rise to the name Ha Long (“dragon descending”),
and the inevitable claimed sightings of sea monsters.
In 1469, King Le Thanh Tong paid a visit to Ha Long Bay and
was so inspired by the scenery that he wrote a poem, likening the islands to
pieces on a chessboard; ever since, visitors have struggled to capture the
mystery of this fantasy world. Nineteenth-century Europeans compared the
islands to Tuscan cathedrals, while a local tourist brochure opts for
meditative “grey-haired fairies”. With so much hyperbole, some find Ha Long
disappointing, especially since this stretch of coast is also one of Vietnam’s
more industrialized regions – a major shipping lane cuts right across the bay.
The huge influx of tourism has, of course, added to the problem, not least the
litter and pollution from fume-spluttering boats, but a sizeable proportion of
tourist income does at least benefit the local communities.
The winter weather
is another factor to bear in mind; from November to March there can be chilly
days of drizzly weather when the splendour and romance of the bay are harder to
appreciate.