Halong Bay

One of our highlights in Vietnam was a daytrip to Halong Bay - http://www.halongbay-vietnam.com/ OR http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halong_Bay - which has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. The ride from Hanoi took around four hours in a microbus, with a very international group of passengers - Russia, Cameroon, Israel, Australia, Korea, Japan, and the U.S. (only me).

One of the many boats taking tourists to Halong Bay.

Once we arrived at the docks we hopped onto a boat to eat lunch ...

Some of the salads and main dishes from lunch.

... en route to our goal - a large cave and a set of limestone islands rising precipitously from the ocean.

Our boat approaches the islands.

Beautiful, incredible, breathtaking landscape. If it had not been 100 degrees, it would have been nearly perfect. Many tourists stay one or more nights on these boats, eating multi-course meals, relaxing on deck chairs between swims in the bay, kayaking through limestone caves, sipping beer while watching the sun set over the water.

However, Halong Bay is not perfect. There are an incredible number of tourists and a large amount of garbage floating in the water. Many people argue that UNESCO World Heritage status had led to the kind of unregulated tourism that will eventually destroy the very object of tourism. This is certainly not the first time tourism has threatened a tourist landscape, nor will it be the last. In the meantime, we were glad to have seen Halong Bay and kayaked its waters.

Emerald water and vegetation-topped islands make a stunning landscape.