Inside the real Vietnam

From Halong Bay to Hanoi, Ho Chi to Cu Chi and the spectacular Mekong Delta, Pól Ó Conghaile charts a course for any would-be tourist of a jewel in French Indochina

LORD KNOWS where James Cameron got the idea for the Hallelujah Mountains, the floating rocks rendered so amazingly in his multi-squillion-dollar movie Avatar. If you had to come up with a template on Planet Earth, Halong Bay wouldn’t be far off.

‘Halong’ translates to something like ‘descending dragon’ in Vietnamese. Legend says the bay’s rocky outcrops were formed when dragons spat their teeth into the water to create barriers against invaders. Most visitors tour the great, greenery-covered shards by junk boat, but it’s so other-worldly, you wouldn’t be surprised to see the Na’vi flying overhead on their banshee-like birds.