Cave & Grotto in Halong bay

There are so many caves and grottos in Ha Long bay. Depending on your Halong bay tour with which cruise and how many days your tour in the bay is. Normally, Halong cruise tours include one or two caves. We highly recommend you to see it on your Halong bay excursions.

Thien Cung cave

Thien means "heavenly" in Vietnamese and Cung means "palace". Thien Cung cave means the "Heaven palace" for the mother Dragon to stay after protecting Vietnamese people again the invaders.

It is one of the most famous caves for 1 day trip to Halong bay. After 30 minutes sailing from the crowed pier, you will get to the UNESCO Site starting to name its protected area.

Get off your junk to the dock and walkways leading to steep stairs up to the mouth of the cave. Just coming inside, you will have a feeling to stay in a really marvelous palace with beautiful decoration of sparking stalactites, stalagmites and big rock formation. Our tour guide will show the charming Dragon, buddhas, nice girl, a married couple on their animal world.

There are 50 steps up and another 50 steps down, but there is a steel chain to hold on the side. Make sure you have no problem with walking up steps because after you get off your boat to see this cave, the boat will go to the exit gate to pick up you on the other side on the island. If you can not go, stay on the junk and wait 45 minutes for your friends coming back.

Do Go grotto

On the same island with Thien Cung cave, after getting out of Thien Cung cave, you will go down about 40 stairs. There is a big side to name this grotto - Dau Go. Following 15 stairs to the entrance, you will see the big cave. Dau Go grotto is devided in 3 chambers. You just follow the wooden stairs to go inside. Unlike Thien Cung cave with almost kept-going stalactites and stalagmites, Dau Go grotto's ones in the 1st chamber are dead. Dau Go grotto is related to the Victory of Dai Viet( nowadays is Vietnam) against Mongolian invaders in 13th century. The grotto was used to keep wooden stakes cut from Cat Ba national park. Tran Hung Dang and his troops embeded Bach Dang river to prevent Mongolian invaders from withdrawing from Hanoi. Some parts of the wooden stakes were found here. This made Vietnamese people to call this grotto - Dau Go or Giau Go. Dau means "piece" or Giau means "keep something secret" and Go means "Wooden Stakes".

Ba Hang caves

Of the far-flung sights, Ba Hang is one of the most advemturous Halong bay day trips from Hanoi. Informally called the "Indochine Cave" ever since the film starring Catherine Deneuve was shot here. The tide must be exactly right to allow a corael access to 2 km long tunnel caves. Ba means "three" and Hang means "cave". Ba Hang means 3 hollowed island lagoons. After 30 minute sailing from Bai Chay pier, the junk arrives at Ba Hang floating village. You will sit in a bamboo boat rowed by a local fisherman to explore the 3 charming lagoons. If you are keen on adventure trips, Kayaking to explore the lagoons is the best choice.

Among the three caves, we advise you to explore either Thien Cung and Ba Hang or Dau Go and Ba Hang. This is because Ba Hang hollowed lagoons are very different in comparision with the other two. However, most Ha Long bay tour 1 day includes just one cave. This 3 caves can be explored on the day trip to Catba island, as well.

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