Beach
Vietnam’s Beautiful Northern Beaches on Quan Lan Island
*Disclaimer: This is a super belated post from my beach trip to Quan Lan Island in Vietnam 4 months ago in July. For the mean time, I am shivering in London’s gloomy rainy grey winter dreaming of our beautiful tropical beaches.
Vietnam has beautiful beaches, that is not to deny. If even Brazilian people would say so then there is nothing to doubt about! Alright.. I mean my Brazilian friends. But still, with more than 3,000 km of coastline and a tropical weather we do have many gorgeous beaches across the country. (See my previous posts of Southern island Phu Quoc and Central Ha Tinh province’s Thien Cam beach)
Compared with the South and most of the Central part of Vietnam where it is hot all year around, the North of Vietnam has a cold winter and the beaches are only crowded in the summer. Besides the famed Ha Long Bay there are many other beautiful islands in the nearby Bai Tu Long Bay in which Quan Lan is one of the two most popular, together with Co To.
However, for a tourist attraction, Quan Lan is quite under-developed. There are 3 main beaches in the island: the most serviced (i.e touristy) one is Minh Chau, the most populous is Quan Lan (also the main town) and the almost-deserted one is Son Hao. Read the rest of this entry »
Holidays at Thien Cam Beach, Ha Tinh Province
(This is a belated blog post about my holidays with friends to Thien Cam Beach 2 months ago. Actually the beach trip came right after my short weekend motorbike drive to Tam Dao Mountains)
It’s been a long time since I last had a trip to the sea, to be exact, it has been 3 years since Phu Quoc island. I guess it was because my addiction for mountain road trips kept pulling me towards the high lands and never gave a break for me to think about our 3,000 km of coastline. But, finally, after failing to find company for a mountain trek during the long May holidays in Vietnam (6 consecutive days off in the calendar – Yes, we do have some ridiculously long public holidays in Vietnam), I had the chance to see the sea again.
Thien Cam Beach, located 20 km away from Ha Tinh city, is a beautiful local beach (during 3 days here the beach was packed with people but I saw zero foreign tourist). And even for domestic travelers from other parts of the country, it’s difficult and confusing to get there if you travel independently. Read the rest of this entry »
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