Vietnam was the first Asian country I visited: I aarived in Hanoi on August 05, 1996. It was my first tour as tour guide for FRAM, a major French tour operator. I was 27 and I immediatly falled in love with South East Asia. For the next 10 years I will regularly travel to Asia, study, work and live there...

As a result Vietnam is very unique to me: Its landscapes and history are very unique and there people are more than in other place incrusted in their land. A place impossible to forget for a young Frenchman who never visited Asia before: Hanoi, Haiphong, Saigon are cities in which Vietnamese and French culture and architecture meets with beauty: It was for me so different but also a little bit familiar: Terribly attractive... If I have appreciated the pleasant south and mountanous center, I had from the first day a special attraction for the "Tonkin": This north Vietnam where many countryside areas looks like gardens when the rice is green. There mountains, water, rice fields, villages and people form an artistic harmony...
And Vietnam as I will learn later is also wonderfully gem rich:

Rubies, sapphires, tourmaline, spinel, jade, topaz, aquamarine, opal, conch pearls, sea and freshwater pearls among others are find in this incredible land.

During summer 1997, while I was back packing in North Vietnam, I heard that Vietnam was producing excellent rubies. I decided then to buy there my very first gemstones. Passing near Yen Bai on the way to Sapa and I was presented by a Vietnamese farmer some attractive rough gems. The guy told me that he found them while digging in his rice fields. They were attractive saturated red peebles. Nice color, clean... He told me that he was willing to sell them as he was needing some money rapidly to pay some medical expenses for his mother. After some negociations I bought them for few hundred dollars thinking that I was probably doing a good action and may be also some good business: Few months later I found out that they were all synthetics! That was my first gemmological lesson...

"Greed" and "Ignorance" are the 2 devils waiting for the gem hobbyist willing to play gem dealer games... the fact is that as I experienced it: Buying gems in Vietnam is an hazardous game for people without experience.

This adventure convinced me that I had to learn more about gemology if I wanted to buy gems while traveling. Later I decided to join a gemological school in order to avoid costly mistakes. I studied gemology in Burma in 2000 and in Thailand in 2001.

Finally in February 2005 I decided to come back in Vietnam for a gemological field trip: A 2 weeks field trip was scheduled from April 22 to May 06, 2005 with the help of the AIGS gemological laboratory I was directing at that time in Bangkok but also with the support of the Gubelin Gem Lab in Lucerne, Switzerland and the ICA, the International Colored Stone Association.

The focus was on ruby. My former student at AIGS Bangkok: Jean Baptiste Senoble was my assistant for this trip. We planned to visit Luc Yen and Quy Chau ruby mining areas, to visit in Hanoi several knowledgeable people in the geologic and gemologic field and as besides rubies I wanted also to dig a little bit on conch pearls, I decided to add also the beautiful ha long bay to our schedule. This excursion was decided because one of this wonderful gems came to the lab I was directing few weeks before and the pearl was told to me to be from Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. One of the former director of the AIGS laboratory: Ken Scarratt had already in the 90's a fieldtrip there on the subject. As one of my old friends in Vietnam was the owner of the very best boat operating in the famous bay, I decided that it was a good occasion to try to learn more about them and have there a nice cruise. Great idea which motivated my wife and some friends to come to join us for a week end and take advantage of this cruise!

I strongly believe that gemology and travelling pleasure can make a wonderful mix and this trip was again to me a brilliant demonstration of this evidence as travelling for gems to Luc Yen, Hanoi and Halong bay was culturally and gemologically a pure wonder!

But enough words, now its time for you to discover some hidden Vietnam wonders in the following photo galleries:

Luc Yen area: Tan Huong Mining area, April 2005.
Luc Yen area: Gem Cruise on Thac Ba lake, April 2005.
Luc Yen area: Truc Lau Mining area, April 2005.
Luc Yen area: Gem market in Luc Yen, April 2005.
Luc Yen area: Expedition An Phu mining area, April 2005.
Ruby Heat treatment in Luc Yen, April 2005
Luc Yen area beautiful landscapes, April 2005.
Hanoi, where Asian and French architecture meets.
Vietnamese conch pearls and Halong bay cruise.
Quy Chau area: Rubies from the past and present mining.

I would like to thanks all the nice Vietnamese people who took the time to share with us their knowledge: Prof Phan Truong Thi from the Gems and Jewelry Institute of Vietnam, Ngo The Hoc from Vietnam Mineral Dome, M Do Duc Quang from Hanoi Geological Museum and Christy from "Indochina Gems Trading". I want also to thank the AIGS Laboratory in Bangkok, Thailand, the Gubelin Gem Laboratory in Luzern, Switzerland and my friend Jean Baptiste Senoble to have financed this expedition.
I want to also to thank my old friends from Viet-Y travel agency in Hanoi, Vietnam: Amadeo, Thuyet, Noc, Hoa and of course Tam which was my local guide for my first visit in Vietnam in 1996 and my friend since this trip.

( On the way back from Truc Lau ruby mines, Luc Yen Area... April 2005 )