Yukon Jay - 小祥

Halong Bay 下龍灣

LOL, a day after my last post I get an email from my professor with the outline for the whole semester and that we can get started on the readings and assignments if we wanted to. Looks like there's tons of readings and lab work for this biogeography class... seems like tons of biology too.... did I mention I hate biology and suck at it?

So below are pictures from my visit to Halong Bay, just a few hours northeast of Hanoi. To quote the Lonely Planet... Magnificent Halong Bay, with its 3000-plus islands (actually there's only 1969 islands) is one of the natural marvels of Vietnam. In 1994 it was designated Vietnam's second World Heritage site. Visitors have compared the area's magical landscape of limestone islets to Guilin in China and Krabi in Thailand (that's where I almost drowned while snorkling last year because I was stupid, but that's another story. In my opinion Krabi is nothing like Halong Bay).

Ha long translates as 'where the dragon descends into the sea'. Legend has it that the islands of Halong Bay were created by a great dragon that lived in the mountains. As it ran towards the coast, its flailing tail gouged out valleys and crevasses; as it plunged into the sea, the areas dug up by the tail became filled with water, leaving only the high land visible. The dragon may be legend, but sailors in the Halong Bay region have often reported sightings of a mysterious marine creature of gargantuan proportions known as the Tarasque. The more paranoid elements of the military suspect it's an imperialist spy submarine, while eccentric travellers believe they have discovered Vietnam's version of the Loch Ness monster.

好好笑，我上次写的日记有说我想回去读书， 结果第二天我的教授email给我和别的学生我们的第一和第二的功课。 他说我们可以先开始。

阿姨，我这次的照片有写中文解释给你看。

下龍灣隸屬於廣寧省，位於河內東部約100公里的海防市外的大片海灣。共有1969個島嶼，面積廣達1553平方公里。這些島嶼是由於石灰岩地形嚴重被侵蝕而顯的壯麗，也就是所謂的喀斯特侵蝕。 Ha 是 下降 的意思， long 是 龍 ，
傳說在此地受到外敵侵略時，龍王之子降臨，將海上升起很多奇岩怪石，以防禦外敵。1994年12月17日被聯合國教科文組織列為世界自然遺產。

下龍灣最近之所以會特別有名還是拜電影之賜 。 您記的在電影 印度支那 中，下龍灣的島嶼洞穴是男女主角的愛情庇護所嗎。 007電影 明日帝國 中 ，下龍灣的石林是媒體大亨隱形船藏身之地呢！

Here is one of the few floating villages you will find in Halong Bay. Supposedly there's a school here too... What you see is what you get, this is how these people live here.

这是越南人住的房子。 听说这边还有个学校， 都在水上。 我在下龙湾有看到写这种房子，看他们的生活满简单得。

Here's the large numbers of tourists I was talking about. This is outside one of the limestone caves. The government really needs to do something about the number of tourists that come to visit Halong Bay.

这是在洞的外面。 莱下龙湾的人是真得太多， 对环境是很不好的。 我感觉越南政府是要说只能让多少人来看，要不然过几年这地方就会有很大的问题了。 我在船上的时候，就可以看到水上有一些垃圾。

阿姨，您可不可以帮我问舅舅和舅妈好？

Posted by Jay at September 4, 2004 12:28 AM