"This planet doesn't belong to us. Ancient species owned this earth long before mankind."
– Bill Randa (Kong: Skull Island)

I will introduce y’all to a place that’s never been touched by modern civilization. A place filled with natural resources, it would make us think “How did humans live through this creation?” “How many ancestors of ours witnessed this kind of beauty?” “Since when did this place become so ethereal and significant?”

Welcome to Paradise!

Trang An ecotourism area in Ninh Binh

This place is located in Vietnam, a 250 million year old limestone karstic region with its deep caves, and rivers. The mountain ranges are a lot to count, but it’s not impossible to do so if you want. For my case, I enjoyed every bit of the nature and the high frequency the place oozes. First off, my family rode a boat for 3 hours to explore the region! It was a wonderful moment, yet the thought of the possibility of putting yourself in the lake is scary. Joke! I’m not scaring anyone here, it’s totally safe for everyone, we wore life vests and the navigators and sailors were friendly. It was totally safe for everyone.

The thing that surprised me as a tourist was the lotus! Lotus flowers are my fave flowers, I just drew them in my sketchbook, but seeing them personally made me feel as if I was on cloud 9! The lake with the lotus, plus the subtle wind and fishes. A scenery I wouldn’t exchange for anything else.

Next up, the mountain ranges. Look up! Yes, this heritage place is also iconic because the movie Kong: Skull Island was shot here. KingKong was here! It was stunning, especially when I looked up and realized that the size of these mountains could be the same size as KingKong. When you look closely, the mountains looked like a stack of stones piled together to create the mountains. What if the humans created mountains for these to become their shelter during different seasons, you know, it could be possible since houses didn’t exist before and they live around jungles and purely relied on nature. Take a time to appreciate these caves, look at the crystals formed, it says their age. We had to dock sometimes because of the small space the cave has, but fear nothing ‘cause it won’t be for long.

Another one to top off the spectacular Trang An, their temples! Each stop during the boat trip, we would stop by a temple and explore their cherished sanctuary. The architecture is sleek, wooden, classic, and divine. It’s very intricate that you would hear the silence around the place.

The journey continued as we rode off our boats and we decided to help the sailor sail, because it’s fun also to row the boat. At first, I thought that 3 hours would be too long, however, when we finished, the long hours gave justice to the paradise I got to appreciate. That was the most present moment I’ve had. I inhaled all the air possible, used my eyes and blinked only when I wanted to imagine the life these mountains had.

The whole boat ride was like Harry Potter’s adventure through all the series, magical. There’s nothing more I’d want to say, now indulge with these images and experience the million year old heritage the nature provided for us humans.

See you around, rainebows! I hope you had a good time reading my blog.