Karst Pillars

Ha Long Bay

Viet Nam 2005

Ha Long Bay is one of the most beautiful places on earth, so why don’t I have many images? Because I was on a boat. It’s hard to shoot from a boat. The shore is too far if your subject is ashore. The angle is wrong if you are on board. And if you are scanning slides, your colors go wonky.

But through the magic of Photoshop and other software, I was able to save this shot of these two colossal karst pillars. Karst is another word for limestone rock. Ha Long Bay is filled with tiny islands of karst.

We left our large hotel-boat to paddle into some caves on one of the islands and I thought of the Blue Grotto in Italy where I’ve never been.  But now that I’m thinking about it, I might go one day. Then again, the Blue Grotto might be rather claustrophobic from what I’ve read. I wouldn’t like that. Maybe I’ll just be satisfied with Ha Long Bay.