5 Essential Things to Do Around Halong Bay, Vietnam

This week, we venture back to Asia for a taste of exotic flavors and sights. Today’s guest post is from David Jr of Malaysia Asia blog, an online resource on all things Southeast Asian. Here, he shares with us some essential things to do at one of his favorite spots in Asia – Halong Bay, Vietnam.

Almost every traveler who visits Southeast Asia makes it a point to visit Halong Bay: a picturesque bay set amidst emerald waters and craggy limestone cliffs. Next to Ho Chi Minh City, Halong Bay is right up the list of must-see destinations for travelers in the region

So what can one do around Halong Bay besides taking that once-in-a-lifetime cruise into the UNESCO World Heritage site here? Fear no more as I had one extra day around Halong City when I visited Halong Bay, Vietnam recently. So here are 5 things you can do around Halong Bay if you have time to kill waiting for your junk boat cruise.

Bai Chay Tourist Wharf and Jetty
Bai Chay Tourist Wharf. It is here that most of the travelers will arrive at before heading out on the Halong Bay Overnight Cruise. Depending on your departure time, you may or may not have time to explore the area.

Vietnamese Coffee
Try some Vietnamese Coffee the Cafe 555 opposite the Bai Chay Tourist Wharf. Well, you need to walk about 100 meters to your right if you exit Bai Chay. The cafe is located in between a row of shops by the main road. They serve some potent coffee here so if you are a coffee lover, you hit jackpot here. If you don’t drink coffee, they have other drinks there too.

Karaoke anytime of the day
Try the Cafe Kinh Moi Karaoke just further down the road from Cafe 555. Start your karaoke sessions early if you must here. Singing is inside but if you so desire to do it outside, by all means.

Halong Market
Take a taxi to Halong City and visit the Halong Market. This market is right in the heart of Halong City and you cannot walk there unless you have a few hours to spare. Best would be to take a taxi there. Once here, explore the dry and wet market. A number of interesting items can be seen here while it would be wise to stock up on snacks and drinks for your Halong Bay Cruise.

Vietnamese Snacks and Herbal Drinks
Indulge in the local Vietnamese food and drinks at Halong City. In and around the Halong Market, there are quite a number of exotic foods available if you are up to it. One of the must-try items are the Squid Cakes which are similar to Thai Fish Cakes, these are sold in the open area behind Halong Market.

A number of stalls sell them and they are reasonably cheap and quite tasty. If you walk around the wet market area, you will come across various local foods and delicacies. One of them, the deep fried mini crabs sold cooked or raw. Also, if you have an iron stomach, try some of the local mixed rice dishes and finally wash it down with some local Vietnamese Herbal Drinks. Don’t forget to buy some local fruits for your Halong Bay Overnight Cruise trip.

Halong Bay Casino
Take a walk to the Halong Bay Casino (Royal International Casino). This super small and only casino in Halong Bay can be seen just located by the main road to Bai Chay. Walking here can take you about 10-15 minutes from the wharf. Foreigners need to show your passport to enter and there is no deposit required.

A coffee lounge with slot machines on the ground floor is open to all while there are two gambling halls, one on the ground floor which is closed on weekdays while the main hall is up on the first floor. So small that I walked round it in less than two minutes. So if you’re feeling lucky, head on to the Halong Bay Casino.

Source: Wild Junket

Posted by: Indochina Sails

The World Heritage of Best Vacation – Halong Bay Vietnam

Halong Bay to attract approximately 90% of visitors who are connected to Vietnam. This handsome bay four-sided figures covering 1500 km in the placement of the Gulf of Tonkin Gulf in the South China Sea. Although a small part of the sea, the water is calm and strange emerald. It is almost 2000 islands. Fleet magical land along the Gulf of dolomite lime, and many grottos and caves that are designated for visitors to enter the fun

Welcome for visiting Guilin (China) and Phuket (Thailand) is often different sites through Halong bay looks like a plus because of geographical settings. However, on visiting Vietnam to guess, all have the same opinion of Halong bay is much broader and more diverse.

This is so beautiful, after a period of very small minds, Halong Bay is recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage in December 1994. These are two of the four soil Heritage listed Vietnam. See a movie in 1991 and French Indochina was an explosion in Halong Bay.

The film is particularly well-liked was about the existence of a French woman living in Vietnam and French Indochina in the dominance of the mid-19th century until the mid-20th century. The important role played by Catherine Deneuve.

As the film makes the roads around the ground, not only French-speaking tourists began to create a trip to Halong Bay, except for land at the time, including a spectacular ocean view on the journey.

Before he went so well liked, it is very difficult to get from Hanoi to Halong bay, 170 km. In 1995, it took no less than six hours of heavy two-boat crossing the river, because it is not easy to come in and absent from the bus. Furthermore still, despite these problems, visitors are not including Halong Bay as a small part of their journey.

Recommendation in Halong bay,Vietnam: Indochina Sails

Ha Long Bay takes 2nd place in top 10 best boat journeys

Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has been ranked the 2nd among the 10 best boat journeys by the UK’s Lonely Planet Travel Magazine.

Ha Long Bay

“Bobbing on the emerald waters of Halong Bay and moving through its 3000-odd limestone islands is simply sublime. The tiny islands are dotted with beaches and grottoes created by wind and waves, and have sparsely forested slopes ringing with bird tunes.

There are more than 300 boats based at Bai Chay Tourist Wharf waiting to sweep you away to the World Heritage waters. Day tours last from four to eight hours, though (recommended) overnighters are also available” the magazine written.

Norwegian Fjords gets the first place. Next positions are Amazon River, South America; Franklin River, Australia; Quetico Provincial Park, Canada; Kerala’s backwaters, India; Milford Sound, New Zealand; Island-hopping, Greece; Disko Bay, Greenland; and Galapágos Islands, Ecuador.

Ha Long Bay is a popular travel destination in the Northern Province of Quang Ninh. Covering on an area of around 1,553 km2, the hot tourist spot has including 1,969 islets, most of which are limestone.

In 1994, Ha Long Bay was recognized as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage site. It has jumped to second place among the 28 finalists of an online voting for the world’s new seven wonders and helping to bring 5.3 million visitors to Quang Ninh in the first eight months of the year.

Source: Vietnamplus

Supported by Indochina Sails

Ha Long Bay listed among the world’s most surreal landscapes

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

Vietnam Country Guide And Travel Information

Vietnam is a country most people have heard of but until recently few have had the opportunity to visit. http://ping.fm/mYkvx

Indochina Sails thực hiện chương trình siêu khuyến mại trong tháng 4

Chương trình 2 ngày 1 đêm trên tàu Indochina Sails ở  Vịnh Hạ Long

Với 10 năm kinh nghiệm hoạt động trong lĩnh vực kinh doanh du lịch trên Vinh Hạ Long cùng đội tàu  được đánh giá là giàu kinh nghiệm, Indochina Sails trở thành một thương hiệu uy tín. Bằng chứng là từ năm 2007 đến cuối năm 2008, 4 chiếc tàu hạng sang là Indochina Sails I, II, III và Valentine đóng mới được đưa vào hoạt động, nâng số lượng phục vụ du khách gấp nhiều lần so với trước đây. Chinh phục khách hàng bằng chính nỗ lực không ngừng, tự học hỏi và hoàn thiện về cơ sở vật chất, trang thiết bị trên tàu cho tới kỹ năng phục vụ của nhân viên, Indochina Sails trong thời gian qua tự hào là sự lựa chọn số 1 của nhiều đoàn khách đặc biệt trong và ngoài nước tới tham quan va du ngoạn tại di sản thiên nhiên Thế giới_ Vịnh Hạ Long.

Indochina Sails đang áp dụng chương trình siêu khuyến mại cho khách du lịch là người Việt Nam và người nước ngoài sống tại Việt Nam. Với 4 triệu 200 ngàn đồng khách du lich sẽ được tận hưởng các dịch vụ tuyệt vời bao gồm:

•    1 phòng dành cho hai người
•    Xe buýt đưa đón từ Hà Nội
•    Chương trình và lịch trình (2 ngày 1 đêm)
•    1 đồ uống chào mừng
•    Bữa trưa, bữa tối và bữa sang trên tàu
•    Vé vào cửa và phí tham quan thắng cảnh

Chương trình  có thời hạn từ ngày 1/4/2010 đến ngày 30/4/2010

Để biết thêm thông tin chi tiết về lịch trình 2 ngày 1 đêm, hãy truy cập vào trang web: http://www.indochinasails.com/vn/hanh-trinh.html

Dalat from a different perspective

Dalat, the city of flowers, is not strange to tourists with its famous sightseeing spots such as Lang Biang Mountain, Xuan Huong Lake and Than Tho Lake. If this is your first time to this romantic land, you are advised to visit the places just mentioned which have become legends of Dalat. But for those who have been to Dalat many times, you are advised to visit places that will bring you a different Dalat.

Seasoned tourists can augment their itineraries with completely new destinations. Dalat flowers are well-known for their beauty. The local flower farm is one of the ideal destinations for those who prefer a trip towards nature.

A greenhouse growing colorful flowers in Dalat city, Vietnam

Visiting the greenhouse is an opportunity to admire at close range Dalat roses and gerberas. Standing in front of the glass with a furrow of flowers stretching on and on is an amazing feeling. The weather is cool, even under the noon day sun, while the flowers are full of colors that compliment each other.

The Travel Bug by John Soltes: Vietnam

Vietnam, with its verdant countryside and bustling cities, has a lot to offer adventurous travelers and those wanting to put a face on the Vietnam War.

Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, is a metropolis that moves like the rapids in a river. Motorbikes putt-putt-putter down the avenues. Artisans sell their wares from street-side stalls. Teenagers line up to get their nightly dose of pho noodles and dancing at the local discotheque. Devotees walk to their churches, their pagodas and their shrines to light candles and incense for someone who came before.

Vietnam – Photo by John Soltes

It’s a city that seems endless. But there is an end to the throngs of humanity — a semi-quieter place where a few lessons can be learned.

On the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City is a network of underground tunnels that was used by the Viet Cong during the war, particularly during the Tet Offensive.

Four decades ago, the tunnels were a harried place of strategizing for guerilla fighters.

Today, Coca-Cola is available in the gift shop.

A visit to the Cu Chi tunnels is chiseled into most tourists’ itineraries. Located roughly a one-hour drive (depending on traffic) outside of Ho Chi Minh City’s center, the underground ravines should be visited as a means to engage with the history of the tumultuous war. It is sacred ground that cost many a soldier’s life — and it should be visited with a respect for the casualties of conflict.

As tour buses pull up to the complex, the first stop is a meeting hall where cool drinks are served as plentiful as the propaganda. Before entering the tour, visitors sit through a video presentation that pushes the Viet Cong’s righteousness and the strategic mastery of the tunnel system.

You’ll probably get more satisfaction out of the cool drink.

Next is the actual tour of the tunnels, which stretch for miles or kilometers, depending on who’s talking.

In this particular area — in between Saigon and the border of Cambodia — where the tour buses corral like vultures, there are several holes that have been maintained for passersby to take a look and even take a descent.

Most groups visit the tunnels with an official tour guide, which can be booked back in Saigon.

Along the tour, you’ll have the chance to see grisly contraptions of torture, the place where the Viet Cong and their families ate and slept and a few demonstrations of what life was like in the tunnels (from eating fresh tapioca to an artillery range where visitors can pay money to shoot firearms such as an AK-47).

A group of tourists in front of me were clamoring at the chance to shoot a gun. I kept walking, slightly disgusted, to where visitors can crawl through one section of the tunnel (widened, rumor says, to accommodate larger Western tourists). The experience of crawling through the tunnel starts off easy enough — it’s kind of like ducking under a blanket to play in the dark.

But when you realize how far the tunnel goes, that the walls and ceiling are made of unsteady dirt and that the light from which you entered quickly becomes a pinhole, fear does sidle up next to you.

When you emerge, sweaty and panting, you’ll be thankful for the light in the sky.

Anyone who visits a sight like this probably has a curiosity for war stories and what exactly happened in this country in Southeast Asia. Visiting the Cu Chi tunnels may not provide any answers, but it may set you in the right direction.

It’s a preserved testament to days of sorrow. And for that, it can boast an importance beyond the ubiquitous gift shop selling war propaganda.

Source: leadernewspapers.net

Recommendation in Vietnam:
- Travel Guide in Vietnam
- Adventure tour in Vietnam
- Short Excursion in Vietnam

Buffalo tours of pottery town, Vietnam

Among the tourist sites surrounding Hanoi, the Bat Trang pottery village with 500 or more years of history, is an ideal place to visit, attracting a large number of people from the city – and foreign tourists. Slow and steady: Japanese visitors enjoy a buffalo cart tour around the pottery village.

Buffalo tours in Vietnam

Just 14km from central Hanoi, the village is easily reached by motorbike – the most popular transport means in Vietnam.

Conical hats draw many visitors in Vietnam

Visitors to Phu Cam village in the former imperial capital of Hue will be instantly impressed by its traditional way of making conical hats. Poem-hat is a distinctive feature of culture in Hue. Locals say they like to do the job not only to earn money but to preserve their age-old tradition.

Hat-making village Phu Cam (also Phuoc Vinh) lies on the southern bank of the An Cuu River in the centre of the former imperial capital of Hue. It’s a village famous for its traditional way of making conical hats for hundreds of years.

Making conical hats in Vietnam