Dai Lai Lake

Close to Hanoi, and yet far from its noise. That may be the shortest way to describe Đại Lải Lake.

It is a wide sheet of water, covering more than five square kilometers, ringed by hills and pine forest, with a small island in the middle and space for an eco-friendly retreat. Before it became a place for weekend photographs, though, it had a very different job.

In 1959, the country was rebuilding its economy after years of war, and people began to dig this lake. It was not made for tourism. It was made to water the fields. An environmental report from the province's natural resources department records that work began in 1959 and was largely finished in 1963. The lake supplies water to more than 2,000 hectares of farmland in four areas. Bình Xuyên and Phúc Yên are two of them. Mê Linh and Sóc Sơn are the other two. Its total capacity is 34.5 million cubic meters of water. It also holds back floodwater and releases it when needed.

So the clear water you see today was dug out by human labor, to bring water to millions of rice plants. That is the first reason the lake exists. Tourism came later.

In the middle of the lake sits a small island. The local tourism portal calls it Đảo Ngọc, and also Bird Island, because many kinds of birds fly there. The environmental report gives its size as three hectares. From the shore it looks like a thin green streak floating on the water, with the lake flat and calm all around it. To reach the island, you need a boat, and the water is quiet enough for the sound of oars to carry far.

Tourism portals describe the lake as an eco-tourism destination. The province's online portal adds a few more things around it. It mentions Sán Dìu villages and Soọng cô singing. It also mentions a cave called Hang Dơi and walks through the pine forest.

The Sán Dìu are an ethnic group. They have lived for a very long time around Tam Đảo and in what was once Vĩnh Phúc. Soọng cô is their traditional courtship singing. It is sung in pairs, one side answering the other, and the words are as soft as wind through pines.

The land around the lake covers about 30 square kilometers, mostly hills and woods. The pine forest gives the whole area its deep green. In the early morning, while the mist has not yet cleared, the lake and the pine crowns make a fairly quiet world.

Đại Lải is close to Hanoi. Its scenery is not grand, but it fits together well. It is the kind of place people often look for after a tiring week of work, with no need for a packed schedule. A flat lake, dark green pines and fresh air are enough to take a first full breath again.

Early in the morning, with mist still lying on the water and bird calls drifting over from Bird Island, Đại Lải has the stillness of a place the city's noise has not yet reached. And it lies less than an hour's drive from the center of Hanoi.