A fairly common shot if you have seen pictures of Ha Long Bay. Our cruise on a Ha Long Bay junk ship led us to a small cove, where a popular cave is situated. Hiking up to the cave revealed the shot shown.
Ha Long means descending dragon. The bay consists of around two-thousand islands of various sizes. Folklore states that the gods sent dragons to assist the Vietnamese against the invading Chinese. These dragons would spit out jade and create a barrier. The jade would eventually become the little islands that now dot Ha Long Bay. The dragons liked earth so much, they decided to make it their home. Ha Long gets its name from when the mother dragon descended into the bay and making it her home.
A little trivia bit is that Hanoi went by many names in the past, one of which is Thang Long. Thang Long translated in English is ascending dragon.
