If you have travelled to Ha Long, you're surely fascinated by the magnificent beauty of Ha Long Bay. Famous for diverse natural landscapes and beautiful and unique caves, Ha Long now becomes the tourist attraction as an ideal place for trekking tours, sightseeing, recreation and swimming. Each cave in Ha Long Bay has a special name that make visitors's curiousness awaken, they may eager to discover the mysterious beauty at every sight as well as attraction of these caves, and see the spectacular and massive of a world natural wonder.
1. Thien Cung Cave (Paradise Cave)
Situated on the southwest side the bay, Thien Cung Cave is one of the most magical cave in the caves system of Ha Long Bay. The way leading to this cave is covered on both sides by thicket forest. Passing a narrow gate, you will see the grotto's 130-meter-long girth open up. Travellers are astonished by the very stunning scenery outside and inside, especially the very animated and splendid beauty which is made from stalactite. Moreover, on the east wall of the grotto, there is a grandiose and imposing picture with characters of heroic tales. Once visiting Thien Cung Cave, you will have a sensation of just having seen a unique. meticulous, interesting fine-art museum created by nature. The more you get deep inside, the amazed vivid beauty and splendor appeared in your eye, you will fell the endless beauty of the cave.
Thien Cung Cave (Paradise cave)
2. Sung Sot Cave (Surprise Cave)
Among the finest and biggest and the most beautiful caves of Ha Long Bay, Sung Sot Cave which is on Bo Hon Island, welcomes a lot of visitors every year. Although the cave is getting more and more crowed of travelers to enter to be amazed, it’s worth for sightseeing as a symbol of Ha Long Bay. Ascending to the grotto, the way is covered by trees and foliage, offering lush landscape into the mountain. Sung Sot Cave is on the same island with Trinh Nu Cave. The path to Sung Sot is quite steep and is lined with shady trees. The formations in the cave inspire a lot of interesting imagination of human and animals in varying poses. The sightseeing tour into the cave is just like a tour to witness the heaven with huge spaces revealed after narrow lines.
For travellers who have imaginative mind, the inner space of the cave can be seen as a large theater, a theater that was made by Mother Nature. The ceiling is decorated with stalactites like colourful chandeliers and the floor with plenty of rocks in diverse shapes of elephant, horses to trees, leaves, and flowers. The further tourists go into the cave, the more interesting shaped rocks appear. Some traveller says that the cave can also be called Cave of Unfathomable Depth.
Sung Sot Cave (Surprise Cave)
3. Trinh Nu Cave (Virgin Cave)
The Trinh Nu Cave is situated on the island range of Bo Hon Island in the system comprising the Sung Sot Cave, Dong Tien Lake and Luon Cave. It is 15km from the south of Bai Chay Beach, the center beach of Ha Long City. For young couple, it is considered as the symbol of truly love, a romantic places for taking oath of love. Entering Trinh Nu Cave, tourists will find in the middle of the grotto a stone statue of a lying girl with her long hair hanging down, looking the sea in vain hope.
Visiting Trinh Nu Cave, travellers have opportunity to hear a tragic love legend about a beautiful fisherman's daughter whose family was so poor that it was in the service of the rich administrator of the fishing zone. He forced the father to give him the girl as a concubine. However, she refused as she already had a lover who was on the high seas catching fish to prepare for the wedding party. Angered by her refusal, the administrator exiled her to a wild island to make her suffer from hunger and exhaustion. On one frightening night, amidst terrible rain and wind, she turned to stone. It was also the night that her lover knew her danger, he decided to find her on his boat. Unfortunately, the tempest destroyed his boat and he floated to one of the islands. In a lightning flash he saw his mate in the distance, but his calls were driven away by the wind. He used a stone block to hammer down on the mountain cliffs to announce to her he was nearby. He struck until blood flowed from his hands, and in his final exhaustion, turned to stone (today’s Trong Cave).
Trinh Nu Cave (Virgin Cave)
4. Dau Go Cave (Wooden Head Cave)
With approximately 5000m2 of width, Dau Go Cave situated at a height of 27 meter over the sea level, the cave is a complex of concentration ancient architecture exuding the ancient beauty, wild and mysterious of stone columns, and small stalagmites.
Dau Go Cave has three main compartments. The first area has a curved shape which is filled up by natural light. The celling of this area is a giant oil painting describing primitive landscapes with rows of stalagmites and stalactites changing their color upon the intensity and angle of the light. Many tourists love letting their imagination go wild with all the light reflecting on those stalagmites and stalactites.
Passing the first area by going through a narrow entrance, tourists will get to the second part. It is a little bit lack of light, but it has a more intriguing ambiance of fuzzy picture formed by the harmonious combination of light and stalactites that stimulate your curiosity but also be a little bit creepy. The adventure continues with a sudden discovery of the last massive. Here, there is a sacred fairy well that is said to be used by beautiful fairies descending from the heavenly kingdom.
Dau Go Cave is proudly listed in the world famous tourism book Merveille de Monde published in France in 1938, which presents the most beautiful and worth visiting tourist attractions in the world, including Dau Go Cave under the name “Grotte des marveilles” (Cave of Wonders).
Dau Go Cave (Wooden Head Cave)