Luon Cave
Luon Cave is located in the northeast of Bo Hon Island, only 1 km away from Surprise Cave. The cave looks like a natural gate with a lot of beautiful stalactites on the ceiling. It is about 60 meters long and 4 meters wide, height of the ceiling ranges from 2.5 – 4 meters up on tidal level. Therefore, only small rowing boat (sampan) or kayak can go through it and that is why the locals call it Luon Cave (understand roughly as Tunnel Cave).
Passing through Luon Cave, tourists will reach a brackish lake formed by an enclosed group of lime-stone mountains. People believe that the lake once was a deep valley that men used to live in as until these days traces of fossils of fresh-water snails still can be found on the cliffs.
The lake inside is around 1 km2, similar to a stadium, with calm and jade-green surface. On the cliff, pristine setting of ferns, orchids and benjamin fig trees shade the landscape. Once reaching the lake, you will be told to keep the silence, then the boat rower will call out the... golden head monkeys by making strange noise. If you are lucky enough, you will be able to see some of them running to and fro on the trees. Luon Cave is considered as a perfect place to kayaking so if you are a fan of this acitivity, do not miss out this site during your journey in Halong Bay.
How to reach it?
If you are going with an overnight cruise, your boat needs to anchor quite far from the cave. Then the tender boat will take you to a floating station where you can buy sight-seeing ticket. The sampan will take you to the cave or you can hire a kayak to explore by yourself.
Entrance fee?
The entrance fee is 30,000 VND/person (around 1.5 USD) including the sampan transfer. But if you want to hire a kayak, you must pay an extra fee normally around 3 USD. The entrance fee is usually included in the cruise price but not if it is a day boat. Cruises also have their own kayaking equipment for hiring at 10 USD.
