Vietnam – January 5th, 2016
Well it’s 3:15 am and I’m wide awake and hungry, a good thing for our stash of goodies since this hotel does not have 24-hour room service, I guess you can say we are staying in a dump……….NOT.
David will peacefully sleep until 4:30 at which time before a good morning will ask what time is breakfast – since we skipped dinner last night I guess we are both a bit hungry.
Today’s we are on a day trip to Ninh Binh province if the city traffic is choreographed mayhem, the traffic coming into the city from the suburbs can qualify as a category 5 river rafting, again motorcycles, car, buses, semis, bicycle, and pedestrians fighting for each inch of flow.
The drive takes us through small towns and farmland.
Located in Ninh Binh province, the Tam Coc caves are known as the inland Ha Long bay. It is 3 hours drive out of Hanoi. At the river docks, you board an open-air sampan which you hire with a rower. The boat ride takes you through a winding waterway that passes through 3 caves (Tam Coc).
The scenery is quite breathtaking, being there early we were only one of the few sampans on the river, the peacefulness after chaotic Hanoi was a welcome reprieve.
You must actually duck a bit as the boat goes through the caves to avoid scraping the roof. Look out also that you do not hit any of those stalactites or stalagmites!
On the last of these caves, a group of traders on sampans sold us drinks and tit-bits. We were asked to buy a drink and snack for our rower I don’t think she drank it she most likely will return it, I think it’s a racket – David being wanting bananas and we purchased some at an exorbitant price but we had to be rowed back to the docks so I paid the bribe. I don’t really like bananas but these were fully flavored I guess they were not shipped on a refrigerator container and gassed.
Our rower also try to sell us some merchandise the same junk you see at every souvenir shop but when I declined she did not persist, some sellers can be extremely pushy you just have to take a NO stand.
An interesting fact the rovers uses their legs to row the sampan as they recline on the back.
Lunch at a local restaurant, where the specialty is Goat- well we had the modified menu, David had some chicken and pork that look very tasty and I had eggs and tofu and fish.
Afterwards lunch we visited a pagoda and one temple.
Bich Dong Pagoda, An interesting 15th-century pagoda with three levels in a steep Mountains side, offering nice views. Ha, Trung, and Thuong Pagodas, in ascending order. Two of the temples are build right into the caves the highest level is accessed through a dark unlit passage where the flashlight of our iPhones came in handy to light the climb up and down, it was quite a workout especially right after lunch.
The Đinh Tien Hoàng temple dedicated to the first Vietnamese emperor following the liberation of the country from the Chinese Southern Han Dynasty, as well as the founder of the short-lived Đinh Dynasty, is a significant figure in the establishment of Vietnamese independence and political unity in the 10th century, the temple seemed to be going through a full restoration.
The drive to the temple was on a single lane unpaved pathway between rice fields, tour buses will not be able to make the trip so I don’t think most tourist get the opportunity, we stopped to take pictures of a lovely family of potbelly pigs, that would have to be the souvenir to take home.
A well-deserved nap on the drive back to the city and joining the ever traffic flow, we even saw our first fender bender – our driver was a master of shortcuts, we got to see the real Hanoi as we drove through neighborhoods back alleys, and sides streets where Vietnamese life seems to be lived.
Back to the hotel exhausted, I guess my birthday dinner will be postponed again.
Tomorrow we conclude our city tour which includes the Hanoi Hilton.
