The kind of place where you have to change your route home because the road has been blocked by rice crops. The kind of place where the drive home included driving under a spray of a rice harvesting machine, getting sprayed with straw. The kind of place where you have to slow down because there is a herd of ducks waddling towards you in unison on the road as the farmer moves them elsewhere! The kind of place you have to squeeze past a buffalo on the road!

I took a two hour bus from Hanoi, and found myself a nice hotel room. In the afternoon I hired a bike with a lovely Vietnamese driver, sadly whom I could not communicate with! I could have cycled to Tam Coc, but I was put off by having to cycle on the notorious Highway 1 which lonely planet stronlgy advises against doing!! The driver took me down fantastic country lanes with views of teh large limestone karsts emerging from the rice paddies.

I climbed up 500 steps one of said karsts, and had a great view of the landscape. Next, I went to Tam Coc for a calm row boat ride down shallow water in between the large peaks. It was beautiful. The only annoyance was when a lady magically got on my boat (don’t know how she got on so quietly!) to deliver a sales pitch. Thankfully she left just as quietly! On the roads back, there were so many people in the rice paddies working hard, but what a scenic place to work!
I had a wonderful evening – just me and the cable tv! hehe….I think it’s allowed once in a while!

The next day I went further out along the country roads and got driven to Cuc Phuong National Park (36km away). It was a good hour on the bike, so I was glad of the 2 hour walk I did in the park to refamiliarise myself with my bum muscles! Once again though, the views on the way were stunning. The area has a lovely landscape. On my walk it was nice to be surrounded by pure countryside and nature; caterpillars (which had cut perfect circles in the leaves), butterflies, big spindly spiders, stick insects.

I also visited the monkey rescue centre, caring for endangered monkeys, gibbons and langers.

After yet another scenic ride home (thankfully we stopped for photograph taking!) I enjoyed dinner with four fellow travellers staying at the hotel, and we had a funny experience on our walk back from dinner. Vietnam was celebrating the full moon festival, so there were many street parties taking place. The one we passed were keep to involve us! All the ladies were round one table drinking lemon juice, while the men on the next table were getting blind drunk on beer. As we passed by, we were pressured to join them and have a beer, but we couldn’t stay long as the others needed to catch a night bus. So, we stood round, unable to communicate drinking the beer, when one man challenged a downing competition! We realised our only cue to leave would be to finish the beers, so we drank up, and after being handed a banana said our thanks and moved on…all very random!

After a relaxing morning in Ninh Binh, it was time to be reuinted with Ben and take the bus back to Hanoi.
I had a lovely 2 nights in Ninh Binh. The landscape is stunning.

Blogger: JHG

Tam Coc

After arriving back in Vietnam after our short trip into Laos, we learnt that we had a lucky escape from typhoon Ketsana as it hit the centre of Vietnam just after we left there even though no one told us that it was heading in our direction. Apparently Hue and Hoi An which we had visited a few days earlier were under 4 feet of water after the typhoon hit so it was a good job we left when we did! Back in Vietnam we headed north, first stop was the city of Ninh Binh.

Whilst in Ninh Binh, we rented out two motorbike drivers for the day who took us wherever we wanted to go, the roads were fairly quiet there so it was fairly safe to drive around. All around Ninh Binh are loads of little limestone peaks in the rice fields and theres also a lot of caves to explore. We spent a day driving around on the back of the bikes and had a great time. In a place called Tam Coc about 10km from Ninh Binh, we got to go on a 2 hour boat ride between all the rocks and even into some caves which.

Me with my stupid beard sitting at the top of one of the many limestone peaks in Tam Coc

we really enjoyed. Amazingly, the guy in our boat was rowing with his feet! The best bit about Ninh Binh and Tam Coc was the fact that hardly anyone was there, we hardly saw any other tourists all day which was refreshing as most of the other good places in Vietnam seem a bit overcrowded with people.

After Ninh Binh, we headed further north to Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam. Hanoi is a huge city, now one of the biggest in the world and its extremely busy as you’d expect, however, the traffic doesnt seem as bad here as in Ho Chi Minh City, probably because its spread out over a larger area. In the evenings in Hanoi, everyone sits at the side of the road on little plastic chairs and enjoys a few glasses of Bia Hoi which only costs 9p a glass, apparently the cheapest beer in the world. Near to Hanoi is a place called Halong bay which is one of the most popular places to visit in Vietnam. We booked ourselves onto a 2 day boat trip around the bay where we would spend the night on the boat. The boat we stayed on looked like an old pirate ship and it was a really fun two days we spent on the water. Halong bay has similar scenery to Tam Coc which I mentioned earlier, apparently there are about 2000 limestone islands sticking out of the water. Apart from sitting on the boat admiring the scenery, we also went kayaking and swimming in the sea and went to visit a floating village. The people on the floating village are born there and most of them live there all their lives without ever going on land! On the final morning in Halong Bay, we went to visit big cave system in the side of one of the islands and then we headed back to Hanoi.

Back in Hanoi, we’ve just returned from eating lunch where we went to visit an area about 7km outside of Hanoi called Le Mat which is known as ‘snake village’. In Le Mat, there are loads of snake farms which raise snakes for eating. We chose one of the restaurants and the guy who worked there brought to us our lunch alive, a big cobra! After letting us hold the snake, he then killed it and started to prepare it which was amazing to watch as he did it so skillfully and quickly. Whilst the snake was cooked we got to drink some of snake blood mixed with vodka and I had the privilege (or not), of eating the snake heart raw, yum yum. The cooked snake was actually really tasty, there were several different dishes such as some of the meat inside spring rolls and then some of the skin which had been fried. Also, we had a soup made from the snake meat and a few other little dishes. Eating the heart was pretty horrible but the rest of the cooked meat was delicious and definitely worth trying.

I’ve just read on the news that theres also a typhoon which just hit Tokyo where we were a few weeks ago so I hope we keep managing to avoid them! Bye for now.

Bloger: David Skaife

General information:

Tam Coc-Bich Dong is also called “Ha Long Bay on land”, or the “Vietnam’s second nicest grotto” for its poetic and inspirational natural scenery. Located in the Ngu Nhac Son Mountains, Hoa Lu District, Ninh Binh Province, it is a grandiose complex of Bich Dong pagoda and Tam Coc grotto which is one among the 21 crucial tourism destinations of Vietnam.

Its pristine natural beauty together with a simple but nice countryside landscape, and a sacred spiritual life have converged into a fascinating and attractive Tam Coc – Bich Dong to numerous tourists. No one could deny that Tam Coc – Bich Dong has become a legend of rivers and mountains, a green, pure, and safe destination for every traveler.

Weather:

The zone is featured with a tropical climate, with 2 seasons. The cold and rainy season lasts from May to October, and the dry and hot season from November to April. Its annual average temperature is 23.5⁰C. As it is situated at the base side of the Red River Delta Triangle, it is a half-mountain half-plain area, with a coastline of 18 kilometers

Historical name

Bich Dong is a beautiful pagoda on the nearby Ngu Nhac Mountain dated to 1428 under the Le Dynasty. In 1773, Mr. Nguyen Nghiem (the father of the great writer Nguyen Du) visited this cave. He was much impressed by the whole magnificent scenery of mountains, waterways, fields, and sky covered in green mist. Thus he gave it a very beautiful and romantic name, Bich Dong, which literally means “Green Pearl Grotto”. This picturesque landscape is added by Tam Coc portion. It derives its name from the fact that it consists of 3 caves (Hang Ca, Hang Hai, and Hang Ba); “Tam” means 3, “Coc” means cave. Tam Coc or “Three Caves” portion is of great enchanting charm and mystery, inviting tourists to come and explore!

To begin the journey, tourists have to queue at Tam Coc Wharf to take a boat to travel along rivers. The pier is crowded with tourists from morning till afternoon. People coming here share the same pleasant feeling about such a nice picture with the classical communal house, ancient banyan tree, mossgrown well, marble rock, and friendly locals.

Tam Coc is just 2km from Bich Dong pagoda. Tam Coc is 3 kilometers from Van Lam Wharf. From Van Lam Wharf, take a boat to reach the Tam Coc Grotto, which consists of the Hang Ca, Hang Hai and Hang Ba caves. It takes 3 hours on small boat along the Ngo Dong river, beginning at the village of Van Lam and proceeding through a scenic landscape dominated by rice fields and karst towers to visit 3 caves. Among them, Hang Ca is considered the most picturesque one since it is the longest and contains most fascinating natural arts deep inside. It is around 127m long, with a cave mouth of 20m wide. Hang Hai is nearly 1 kilometer far from Hang Ca. This cave is about 60m long. The last but not least cave is Hang Ba, just nearby, is about 50m long, with lower ceiling than the above two, looking like a plutonic cupola. If moving further 4 kilometers, there comes “Fairy Stream”, a pure mirror-like stream where you can even see through to the stream-bed to contemplate flocks of fish swimming and looming in the moss layers. It is said in a fairy tale that fairies used to land on here to swim, thus it was named “Fairy Stream”.

Bich Dong Grotto

Bich Dong pagoda which means “Green Grotto” or “Pearl Grotto” is situated at the grandiose Ngu Nhac Mountain. The Pagoda is divided into three levels: Ha Pagoda (lower pagoda), Trung Pagoda (middle pagoda), and Thuong Pagoda (upper pagoda). On the mountain peak stands the statue of a scholar Mandarin looking at the horizon with the hope of viewing the spectacular landscapes of Hoa Lu.

From the upper pagoda, one has the most magnificent view of Bich Dong, which is romantically charming in terms of architecture and history. The location for this pagoda was chosen in 1428 after two monks were charmed by the view of the river and the mountains. Later, King Le Canh Hung wrote a poem in honor of the beautiful pagoda and landscape.

”Sun Valley” – attractive ecological tourism

After visiting Tam Con – Bich Dong, tourists can visit Sun Valley” (Thung Nang), an ideal ecological tourism spot for lovers of nature by a wooden boat. Inside the valley, there is an ancient limestone temple with rock-style architecture shown in delicate carvings.