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Why Ha Long City in Vietnam is worth a stay: Brew coffee, buy pearls and dine in a limestone cave
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A view of Soi Sim Island and the ecological museum exhibition while cruising on Ha Long Bay in October.
ST PHOTO: AKSHITA NANDA
Follow topic:
- Ha Long aims to get tourists to look beyond the UNESCO-listed bay.
- Highlights are the coastal views and cultural experiences.
- New attractions include dining at a pearl farm and dinner theatre at Dragon Pearl Cave.
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HA LONG, Vietnam – Legend says dragons seeded Ha Long Bay with pearls. Today, microsurgery at pearl farms injects modernity into myth.
On a floating wooden platform sheltered by millennia-old limestone formations, oysters are wrested from the briny waters of the bay. I watch as a mollusc is teased open with forceps and implanted with a seed – a small irritant. The oyster should now secrete chemicals around the seed in layers, eventually forming a pearl.
