My article for The Independent on the first cruise of Vietnam’s Red River Delta with Pandaw Cruises http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/cruise/vietnam-cruise-from-the-highlands-to-hanoi-and-halong-bay-a6813911.html
Browsing Tags Halong Bay
Help clean up Halong Bay in Vietnam next month
Handspan Travel Indochina will organize a tour-event in Halong Bay in Vietnam. This is a cruising and kayaking tour throughout one of the natural wonders of the world. The purpose is to clean it up and send a strong environmental message about the danger faced by the local maritime biosphere.
Travel for the good, Halong Clean Up tour 2013.
Where?
Vinh Ha Long, in Vietnamese, refers to Halong archipelago. A maritime region on the Northern part of Vietnamese coast made of 5 main bays (Quan Lan, Van Don, Bai Tu Long, Halong and Lan Ha from North to South) and spotted with thousands of limestone rocks and islets that made the spot’s world fame.
Who?
This is where Handspan Travel Indochina will run in June, for the seventh consecutive year, the original Halong Clean Up Tour. Handspan Travel Indochina was created in 1997 and has since developed to become a pioneer in Vietnam in responsible travel, mini-groups soft adventure tours and tailor-made innovative travel solutions.
What?
The concept of this tour-event is simple and the message delivered is clear. A group of about 30 people travel to Halong on a weekend. They gently kayak to the remotest part of the bay and collect on their way all floating and grounded garbage. The Clean Up tour is also an opportunity to show that we can visit Halong bay without participating in the polluting mass tourism that rules there. We go human-powered, visit lagoons and desert sandy beaches that very few tourists ever had a chance to see. The purpose is to have fun, to discover pristine parts of the area and to spread locally a message toward communities of floating villages and authorities. The tour is offered at cost price and proposed in a limited number of places.
Why?
Since 2006, this tour-event aimed at raising environmental consciousness among tourists, Vietnam residents, Halong’s communities and local authorities. The increasing volume of tourism in Halong and the recent access of “floating communities” to polluting products such as plastic, styrofoam and soap set the environment at greater risk. The maritime biosphere suffers from a lack of environmental consciousness and a poor nature conservation management. Important and irreversible damages have already been caused, it is time to act and change things.
When?
This year, this tour organized by Handspan Travel Indochina will be hosted on Treasure Junk and supported by several companies and organizations. The tour will be hold on the 22nd and 23rd of June, with a barbecue party dinner and overnight on boat.
Handspan Travel Indochina
Video of the Clean Up Tour 2012
