T42. Thien Chung Grotto, Halong Bay

Still within the Halong Bay vicinity, there are a number of caves or grotto. Included in the itinerary is a climb into a grotto called Thien Chung, which is located at Dau Go Island.  There is other cave within the island itself called Dau Go Cave, but we just went into the first.

Thien Chung grotto means heavenly cave, located about 4 km from the tourism wharf.  The cave is 25 meter above sea level and illuminated with colourful light making it so splendid as we step inside.

Dau Go Island, the location for the grotto.

Some info about the entrance fees.

I have made a few one-minute video so please take a look.  It is not more than one minute each so it won't eat into your broadband so much.
In some video I purposely left the audio on to show you how noisy it can be in that cave.  Well it was a weekend no wonder there were so many tourists.

 

The forever famous camera angle.

 One more video won't hurt I guess.  This is really nice.

Dau Go cave just next to the grotto.

T41. Legendary Halong Bay

The iconic kissing chicken.

 The highlight of our visit to Vietnam is obviously the Halong Bay.  

Halong Bay is located about 150km east of Hanoi.  The most convenient transportation method is by renting a car or in our case renting an MPV with the driver and a guide. They are from a tour operator called MTV for Muslim Tour Vietnam.  Mr. Trong is not a muslim, but he is used to transporting and tour-guiding muslim tourists.  He even learn Indonesian language now.  Commandable.
Even though the google maps says the time to travel is 2 hours 39 minutes, it is normally estimated to arrive in 4 hours due to traffic as well as roads condition.

The guide, Mr. Trong.

There is one stop each way during which you can find souvenirs in painting in any size.  No photographing allowed so we can't show the sample, but we love the painting and the drawing only to be turned off by the rather steep price.

The stopover place with plenty of painting.

 About 4 hours after leaving Hanoi, we arrived at the location with the operators for our junk boat waiting to greet us.

 There are two types of junk boats, one for day tripper like us, and the other three-storey boat for staying overnight.

Boat for day tripper.

 Everything set and ready and off we go.  Just enjoy the pictures, no less stunning and breathtaking.

Halong bay which consists of more than 1600 islands, are actually limestone formation and look like film set for avatar.

The junk boat is large enough to accommodate about 50 passengers but we were surprised to know that we have the whole boat for ourselves.  Actually we have paid the rent for the whole boat plus the excursion, the transportation to and fro Hanoi, tour guide and lunch amounting 118USD per head. 

The boat for us.

 If the picture doesn't tell much on how it feels, try checking the video here.  It would help.

 

 

 

masterpiece

 

 

 

 

Halong Bay icon

 

The kissing chickens: obviously those are rock formation that resembles two chickens look like kissing.  Check below if that is true.  Whatever it is, this has been used as the Halong bay icon.

T40. Hanoi Hoan Kiem Lake

If Red River flows through the middle of Hanoi, Hoan Kiem Lake on the other hand exists at the centre of Hanoi.

Hoan Kiem means 'Lake of the Returned Sword', originated from a legend that a golden turtle was at one time surfaced to demand the return of a sword from emperor Le Loi, claiming that the magic sword was loaned to him during the revolts against the Chinese Ming Dynasty.

How true? Why it has to be golden, I wonder.

Spot the turtle tower, not the one with red t-shirt......

Should be this one [source: http://en.wikipedia.org/]

We were searching for the turtle tower, but than the lake is rather big and we were distracted by the many shops around the perimeter of the lake.  The weather was fine, by the way.

There are many matured trees so walking around this lake is always very pleasant.

Giant screen and statue on the other side of the road.

 

There is another small island besides the turtle island called Jade Island.  A temple on the island was erected to honour a military leader during the fight against the Yuan Dynasty. 

A wooden red bridge named The Huc Bridge is connecting the island to the shore.

Masterpiece

Waiting for the bus madam?

I try to find out about GO NAM campaign, but than I forgot to ask the tourist guide.  I mean I had none at that time.

Watch the video around the lake.