Beautiful Places On Earth

Great Ocean Road is perhaps Australia’s, if not the world’s most scenic coastline drive. The Great Ocean Road is a 290-kilometer section of road on Australia’s southeastern coast in the state of Victoria. It stretches from Torquay which is only 100 kilometers south of Melbourne and ends in Warrnambool. I myself had lived in Melbourne for a year before; somehow I had never visited the Great Ocean Road. It thus becomes one of my biggest let down in life to date!

The Great Ocean Road was built by 3,000 returning soldiers as a war memorial for those killed in the First World War. The construction took place between 1919 and 1932. What is so beautiful about the Great Ocean Road? Because much of the road was built around steep coastal mountains, the Great Ocean Road offers spectacular view of the ocean. The section near Port Campbell National Park is particularly famous for its natural limestone and sandstone formations. These formations have been created by erosion from rain, waves and wind include the famous Twelve Apostles, London Arch, Loch Ard Gorge and the Grotto.

Great Ocean Road of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Do not ever follow my footsteps of not visiting the Great Ocean Road while you are in Melbourne. Let us plan your Great Ocean Road trip!

The Chocolate Hills is an unusual geological formation of around 1,776 perfectly cone-shaped hills spreading over an area of 50 square kilometers throughout the towns of Carmen, Batuan, Sagbayan, Bilar, Sierra Bullones and Valencia in the middle region of Bohol Island, Philippines. Amazingly, all these cone hills are about the same size. They are all covered in green grass that turns chocolate brown during the dry season, giving them the name “Chocolate Hills”.

Chocolate Hills is now Bohol’s and Philippine’s most famous tourist attraction. There is even a proposed move to include Chocolate Hills in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Chocolate Hills are actually made of grass covered limestone. It is one of a few examples of conical limestone karsts formations on earth. There are a number of hypotheses regarding the formation of these cone-shaped hills. The best acceptable one is to say that these hills were formed million years ago by the uplift of coral reef deposits and the erosion by rain water and wind make them what they are today. This is written on a plaque at the viewing deck in Carmen, Bohol.

Chocolate Hills – The Wonder of Creation

There are only 2 resorts in Chocolate Hills, one at Carmen and another one at Sagbayan. Each resort has viewing station. To plan your Chocolate Hills trip, please contact us.

Halong Bay is perhaps Vietnam’s most popular travel destination. Halong Bay is located in Quang Ninh Province, northeastern Vietnam and is approximately 161 kilometers east of Hanoi. The bay has a 120-kilometer long coastline and covering an area of approximately 1553 square kilometers with more than 2000 islets in it. Halong Bay had been included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. Recently, Halong Bay was also in the nomination list for World’s 7 Natural Wonders by the New Open World Foundation.

Halong Bay is well known for its thousands of limestone karsts and islets in various sizes and shapes. These rocks take distinct shapes such as elephant, fighting cock, dog, frog, monkey, kissing couple and many more. Several islets also house big cave systems. Among the most visited cave systems are Wooden Stakes Cave and Thien Cung Grotto.

Kayaking is by far the best way to experience the beauty of Halong Bay. Not only you can cruise in the bay, you can also enter the caves to see stalactites and stalagmites. The best months to go to Halong Bay are March and November according to some of the travel websites.

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Unlike any other deserts in this world, Pinnacles Desert in Nambung National Park, Western Australia is one of its kinds. Pinnacles Desert is known for its thousands of limestone pinnacles rising few centimeters up to several meters from the desert ground. The region is relatively unknown to the outside world until it was included to the Nambung National Park in the 1960s.

How do these peculiar looking pinnacles come from? It is said that its raw material are seashells. When the seashells died, they were broken down into lime rich sands. The last ice age lowered the ocean levels. The lime rich sands were blown onshore from the dry seabed. Over thousand years, rains dissolved calcium carbonate in the sand. The calcium carbonate then seeped downward and cemented into columns and pillars of various shapes, which are now exposed.

The Pinnacle Desert, Cervantes, Western Australia

Pinnacles Desert is approximately 250 kilometers north of Perth and is close to Australia’s southwestern coast. The best season to see the Pinnacles is from August to October, during the spring. It is best viewed in the early morning or late afternoon as the sunlight can best bring out the colors and extended shadows of the pinnacle formations.

Belize is a relatively unknown country in Central America, bordering Mexico in the north, Guatemala in the west and Caribbean Sea in the east. But the country boasts of having the second largest coral reef system in the world after the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. The Belize Barrier Reef is a 300-kilometer long barrier reef system, straddling the coast of Belize, and includes 200 plus small islands, atolls and cays within its boundary.

The Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1996. It is home to huge species of plants and animals. Among the most popular destinations surrounding the Belize Barrier Reef are Ambergris Caye and the Great Blue Hole. Ambergris Caye is the largest island of Belize. San Pedro is the only town on the island and is the popular diving spot of Belize Barrier Reef. The Great Blue Hole is another popular scuba diving spot. This large underwater sinkhole lies near the center of Lighthouse Reef and is only 100 kilometers from the mainland Belize. It is said that the hole is a typical limestone karsts formation, formed during the last glacial period. One can find stalactites from the submerged caves underneath the water. See more of the Blue Hole in the video clip below.

Discovering the Blue Hole, Belize Barrier Reef