Lang Co Bay

In May 2009, at a conference in the city of Setubal, Portugal, a special club named its newest member. The club has a French name, Club des Plus Belles Baies du Monde. In English, that means the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays in the World. The 30th member admitted that day was Lăng Cô Bay, in Vietnam.

The same club includes Ha Long Bay. It includes Nha Trang Bay. It includes San Francisco Bay in California, in the United States. Lăng Cô Bay keeps company with some of the most famous bays on the planet.

Lăng Cô Bay belongs to the city of Hue and lies about 65 kilometers south of its center. It is only 25 to 30 kilometers north of Da Nang. Anyone traveling from Hue to Da Nang almost has to pass this way. For anyone passing through, it soon becomes clear why this place was welcomed into the club of the most beautiful bays.

People say Lăng Cô has a rare set of four natural features. To the east is the sea, with a white sand beach about 10 kilometers long. To the west is the Lập An lagoon, a quiet stretch of brackish water where fishermen keep floating oyster rafts. Farther west, behind the lagoon, is the Bạch Mã range, whose peak rises to 1,450 meters. To the south is the Hải Vân Pass, 496 meters high. Four natural features in a single view. Few places in the world have that.

But to understand the beauty of Lăng Cô, the Hải Vân Pass has to come first.

In the old days, people also called the Hải Vân Pass the Cloud Pass. It runs for about 21 kilometers. It is the natural boundary between Hue and Da Nang. The name Hải Vân means sea clouds, because mist from the sea often covers the top of the pass. It is one of the most beautiful mountain roads in Vietnam. Many foreign travelers who ride motorbikes the length of the country say the most beautiful moment of the whole trip comes when they cross the Hải Vân Pass and look down on Lăng Cô Bay.

In 2005, the Hải Vân Tunnel was completed. It is 6,280 meters long. The tunnel cut the crossing from nearly an hour over the pass to about 15 minutes. But the road through the tunnel gives up all of the scenery.

From the top of the Hải Vân Pass, looking north, Lăng Cô Bay lies neatly below like a painting. There is the long white beach and the blue sea. There is the still lagoon on the landward side, and the deep green Bạch Mã mountains in the distance. It is a view no one tires of, however long they stand there.

Now down to the shore. Lăng Cô Beach stretches out with fine white sand and remarkably clear blue water. People say the water is clear because no large river empties into the sea nearby. With little silt, the water stays cleaner and clearer than at many beaches in central Vietnam. It is still easy to find a quiet corner of the beach, because Lăng Cô is far less crowded than Da Nang or Phu Quoc.

To the west, just behind the town, lies the Lập An lagoon. Its brackish water is calm, the complete opposite of the surf on the open beach outside. The surface of the lagoon is as flat as a mirror. Fishermen's raft houses float gently on the water, and oars dip quietly. People raise oysters in the lagoon. Lăng Cô oysters are the best known specialty of the area. They grow large, plump and fresh, thanks to brackish water rich in minerals.

Here the oysters are grilled with scallion oil or steamed with ginger. Eaten right at the landing, they taste far fresher than oysters carried off to the city.

Beyond the beach and the lagoon, there is a special way to reach Lăng Cô that few visitors think of. It is the train. The North-South railway passes through Lăng Cô, and many consider the stretch from Hue down to Da Nang the most scenic part of the railway in Vietnam. The train runs close to the sea and winds along the slopes of the Hải Vân mountains. From a window seat on the sea side, the views are ones that only the railway can show.

There is one more thing to know about Lăng Cô. It is an official member of an international club that cares for the most beautiful bays in the world. The club was founded in 1997. To be invited in, a bay has to be more than pretty. It has to carry a rare natural beauty within it. Lăng Cô was chosen.

Lăng Cô Bay is a rare place. Sea, lagoon, mountains and pass all sit within a single view. In the late afternoon, the mirror-flat surface of the Lập An lagoon throws back the orange gold of the sunset. Out beyond, the waves keep murmuring, while the peak of Bạch Mã and the Hải Vân Pass fade slowly into the mist. For anyone standing in that scene, a whole stretch of earth and sky seems gathered into a single breath.