Sculpted Archipelago – Hạ Long Bay

This place of an unusual beauty, and of great importance to us for the understanding of our planet, is under the protection of UNESCO as World Heritage Site. It is a result of unique geological evolution that lasts for millions of years.

Great Gulf of Tonkin, in North Vietnam, is known for the tragic wars that French and later Americans led in mid-20th century. But this corner of the South China Sea is a magical and mysterious place, firmly connected to the Vietnamese history and culture. It is also geological museum in the open.

In Ha long Bay, which borders with the Gulf of Tonkin, over 1600 islands of limestone rocks are scattered.  For millions of years, the rain and the wind have sculpted them into extraordinary shapes, thus, creating an archipelago of natural sculptures.

Due to weather conditions, the erosion is constant at this place for about 60 million years. It is continually shaping the surface of soft limestone rocks, and over the last 5000 years, the erosive power of the sea has also interfered. This erosive power has carved wonderful caves on the islands, which, for geologists and biologists, give the opportunity to travel in the past of our planet.

The origin of island-sculptures is ancient and unique: a layer of limestone rocks was created several hundreds of millions years ago, when the ocean covered the area that is now the ending part of continental Asia.

Island-sculptures of limestone sediments are, therefore, rich in remains of organisms which, at that time, lived in a vast ocean. These organisms are now the main source of discovering and interpreting geological and biological development of this region.

In addition, some of the most important archaeological sites of the whole Asian continent are located in this bay - there are found traces of ancient civilization that existed more than 4000 years ago when this area became a crossroad of first trade routes in Asia.

Ha Long Bay Islands are what is left of a giant "warehouse" of limestone sedimentary rocks, about a thousand meters thick, after washout and gouging by the rain and wind. This rocky layer, mainly made of calcium carbonate, is sedimented about 240 to 340 million years ago, when the bay was laying, for 100 million years, under the ocean.

Then, 60 million years ago, the movement of tectonic plates lifted the land above water, and about 10,000 years ago, the sea returned to its old passage inside the bay. Along with rain and wind, the sea definitely made its "contribution" to the carving of Ha Long limestone islands.

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Don't break my illusions – Noel Coward

British playwright Noel Coward (1899-1973) loved to travel around the world. But he was not interested in cultural sights, he wanted to meet interesting people.

When Coward visited India, he didn’t go to see the famous Taj Mahal. He remained in some restaurant and chatted with locals who he just met.

"Why don’t you come along with us and visit the Taj Mahal?" his friend asked him.

“I do not want to even think about that!” Coward replied "I saw Taj Mahal on a box of cookies and after I've often thought about its beauty. So just go there without me and do not try anymore to break my illusions."

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I became the spendthrift of my own genius – Oscar Wilde

In 1882, when he traveled to the United States due to a lecture that he was supposed to hold, U.S. customs officials stopped writer Oscar Wilde (1854-1900).

- Sir, you have something to report? – he was asked.

- I have nothing – Wilde said - except my genius!

Years later, poor and abandoned, finding himself in prison, Oscar Wilde was thinking about his dissolute life and behavior.

“I became the spendthrift of my own genius”, he wrote. “I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character...”

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You Never Know What You'll Need – Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov

During World War II,  the United States, that is, the White House was visited by the former Soviet Foreign Minister (Foreign Commissar) Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (1890-1986).

His visit was a top secret, and only a small number of people at the presidential palace know who is actually hiding behind the name of "Mr. Brown".  

However, the content of Molotov’s suitcase raised suspicion among servants in the White House.

When they were tasked to unpack "Mr. Brown’s” suitcase, the servants were astonished with what an unknown man had brought with him to the White House.

Instead of underwear, shirts and formal suits, Molotov packed a gun, a long sausage and a loaf of brown bread.

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