Ba Be Lake deserves the name people have given to it – a pearl of northeast Vietnam. Just like a great escape to land of opportunity, you can’t imagine what is waiting for you.
Ba Be Lake is just like that, despite how much you try to picture the place; in the end Ba Be will appear totally different. In the north of Bac Kan province, deep in the core of Ba Be National Park lie an immense surface of water being surrounded by endless green mountains and primeval forests.
The 5 million km2 area of the lake defined by a 30m water depth includes 3 small lakes as in the meaning of the name Ba Be (Ba Be means “three lakes”). On height of 450m above sea, covered in length of 8km with cave and underground stream system, Ba Be Lake has important values with distinctive geological landscapes, outstanding geomorphology, and wide range of biological diversity.
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| Photo by Daniel Vaulot |
Some Vietnamese people said the Ba Be Lake is the beauty which comes right out of a fairy tale. It’s because the ancestors of Vietnam had often told each other a myth of how this beautiful lake was created and lasted until nowadays. In the past, in Bac Can area, every year the villagers of Nam Mau held a ceremony to worship the big Buddha, attract people from all over the country to gather and celebrate. One day, an elderly woman came to the village to attend the ceremony. Her clothes were ragged and tattered, her body smells bad, causing people to stay away. Anywhere the old lady came to beg for food, she was scolded and driven away.
However, there was a widow, with her son hadn’t been disgusted, she let the old lady in her house, ate food, and gave her a place to sleep. In the next morning, the old beggar woman told them: “I am not human, I only pretended to be a beggar to test the faithful of men and women who came to the village of Nam Mau Buddha. Everyone was chasing me, except for you two. I would like to foretell you that there will be a great disaster. Whenever you see a source of water starting to pour in here, you two should quickly run to the top of the mountain to avoid it.”
Then, the beggar disappeared. The next day, water started to flow into the Buddha festival and suffocated everyone except for the widow and her son. They had climbed on the mountain and built a house to live there. Over time, the place became crowded and turned into the Nam Mau village. The whole valley was flooded with water and turned into 3 large lakes, so it was called Ba Be Lake. The place has been a famous tourist destination ever since.
Have you been fascinated by this mystery, stunning lake yet? If you do, you will also be charmed by an interesting Ba Be Lake trip too.
