Nha Phu Lagoon in Khanh Hoa
19:49 04/03/2009

  Visitors take Long Phu’s boat to Nha Phu Lagoon   Nha Phu Lagoon, located 12 kilometers north of Nha Trang along the central coast in Khanh Hoa Province, has peaceful waters and breathtaking scenery and boasts a chain of islands, beautiful beaches and several resorts.

The biggest of these islands is Hon Lao, also called “Monkey Island” because of the thousand or so monkeys who inhabit the island.

Previously some of Hon Lao’s monkeys would end up as test subjects in vaccine laboratories, but since the island was given over to resort developers, the animals spend much of their time amusing the tourists.

There are three types of monkeys on Hon Lao, red-buttock with short tails, red-faced with yellow coats and long-tailed with gray coats.

They usually comb the forest for food during the day, although many feel trusting enough to enter Hon Lao Tourism Park to try to get fed by the visitors.

For other entertainment on the island, the resort has an animal circus with elephants, bears, monkeys and dogs, as well as a bird park and a garden full of statues and sculptures.

There’s also a place called Thien Long (heaven dragon) that contains a giant landscaped thien tue (a type of plant) arranged to resemble a dragon, statues of Phuc, Loc and Tho (the gods of happiness, wealthy and longevity), and a dozen statues symbolizing the zodiac.

And if you want to do more than just walk around and observe the sites, you can go horseback riding, fishing, swimming or boat racing.

BOOKING TOURS

If you're planning a stay in Nha Trang or the surrounding area, Long Phu Tourist Company has a one-day tour that takes in the sites of Nha Phu Lagoon and includes Hon Thi, Hon Lao and Suoi Hoa Lan.

Long Phu Tourist Company
84 Hung Vuong Street, Nha Trang
Tel: (058) 527022
Until Dec. 31, 2007: VND140,000 (adults)
From Jan. 1, 2008: VND170,000 (adults)
Children will pay half

Nearby is the island of Hon Thi, which contains beautiful forests housing an abundance of native plants and animals.

A walk through the trees is strongly recommended if you like nature.

There is an ostrich farm on Hon Thi.

The ostriches are friendly and tourists are welcome to pet and feed them.

Spotted deer are also bred on this farm and tourists can feed the deer dry peanuts or corn.

Hon Thi has many beautiful beaches with fresh and shallow water.

There are also many orchards on the island with such varieties as mango, guava, custard-apple, orange, dragon fruit and coconut trees.

Visitors to the island can pass these orchards as they trek to an area with large rock formations.

Under these rocks is a deep cave.

It is not recommended to explore too far into the cave, but with a flash light tourists can safely walk a short way in.

Also worth a look while exploring the Nha Phu Lagoon is Suoi Hoa Lan(orchid brook) in the Ninh Phu Commune of the Ninh Hoa District.

The brook was formed by many small streams flowing down from the rocky slopes of Hon Heo Mountain.

The brook gives its name to the new Hoa Lan Stream Tourist Site, which contains a beautiful collection of orchids gathered from across the northern and central regions as well as plants native to the central coast.

In fact there are more than 3,000 specimens of 39 orchid species within the park's grotto-like “Cave of Orchid Flowers”.

Reported by Thu Thuy

Source : thanhniennews.com