VietNamNet Bridge – This year the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has launched a program promoting Vietnam as a paradise of sea and island for tourists. Besides traditional tourist destinations, travel agents have taken visitors to primitive places.

Ba Mun island is one of the largest and most beautiful ones of Bai Tu Long National Park.

Bai Tu Long Bay, located next to Ha Long Bay, is a huge sea biosphere reserve accounting hundreds of islands and islets. One of them is the Ba Mun Island, the biggest wild life conservation site in Vietnam’s northeastern region.

From Cai Rong Port in Van Don District, Quang Ninh Province, a high-speed boat will take you to Ba Mun Island of the Bai Tu Long Bay in about 45 minutes. The island is called a wildlife animal paradise. It is covered by primeval forests which, together with high, sheer, dangerous rocks are the natural habitat of various kinds of animals.

Some rare animals on Ba Mun Island (Photo: Bai Tu Long National Park)

The Ba Mun Island is located in the core of Bai Tu Long Bay and is the only schist island having primeval forests. Ba Mun covers an area of about 1,800 ha. On the east side of the island, which is known locally as the “exterior”, strong waves continuously hit the cliffs to create bubbles and foam up to tens of meters high. The western side, or the “interior”, on the other hand features tranquil scenery and calm water that ripples around the boat.

Ba Mun Island has no indigenous residents, only rangers and wildlife rescuers of Bai Tu Long National Park. They told us that the Park shelters about 2,000 species of fauna and flora, including 72 animals and 32 plants listed in Vietnam’s Red Book of endangered species. Many of them are living on Ba Mun Island. The most prominent plants are teakwood, sindora, and ironwood species. The Lan hai orchid (Cypripedioideae), which was mistakenly thought to be extinct a few years ago, still exists here. At the present, this orchid species is found only in Lao Cai Province and Ba Mun Island.

A staff of the rescue team takes care of a rescued monkey

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