Lap An Lagoon

Lap An lies behind the Lang Co sand bar, a shallow brackish lagoon of a few hundred hectares with the Bach Ma range rising directly out of it, and at low tide the water drops to ankle depth over most of it and goes mirror-flat, with the mountains reflected and the oyster stakes standing out of the surface - which is the image that put the lagoon onto Vietnamese photography lists. Oysters are farmed on those stakes and on tyres set in the shallows, and the shellfish restaurants along the road are the local business. The circuit road round the lagoon takes twenty minutes to drive.

What you actually see

• A mirror at low tide - shallow enough to reflect the mountains.
• Oyster stakes in the water - the farming that works the lagoon.
• The Bach Ma range behind - rising straight out of it.
• A circuit road - twenty minutes round the shore.

When to go

February to August; time it to low tide for the reflection. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The mirror effect needs low tide and still air - at other times it is an ordinary lagoon. It smells at low tide in hot weather. The road is shared with lorries at the national road end. There is no shade.

Nearby

Lang Co beach is on the seaward side; the Hai Van pass is south.