Day 024 : Halong Bay

This morning I hopped on a bus headed to Halong Bay. I had been axiously awaiting this portion of my stay in Vietnam - I was ready to see the floating villages. Along the way I passed some pretty beautiful water-filled rice fields that seemed to be laced together with towering electric lines.

As we approached Halong City the lumpy rock formations became more visable.

I hopped on a boat as soon as I reached Halong City. I had seen plenty of photographs of Halong Bay so I thought I knew what to expect...But upon arrival I realized that no photograph could ever describe how absolutely amazing this landscape is.

As I began to weave in and out of some of these thousands of islands I stumbled upon several floating homes. Typically each is a humble little home perched on a system of floating docks. The docks may be joined with others to create in a sense a floating neighborhood. The people that live here must genuinely love living on the water. My initial instinct was that the inhabitants of Halong Bay make a living via fishing, but that is not the case. Because Halong Bay is a World Heritage Site any time of commercial fishing is strictly prohibited.

As the sun began to set the monumentality of each rock island became more and more impressive.

Click here for Halong Bay photos!