Our first full day in Tam Coc we headed out early, hoping to beat the crowds, taking a Grab taxi ($9) to the Trang An boat pier for a 3 hour bamboo boat trip. We chose option 3 (4 different routes available) as it had the longest cave at 1000 metres! What a trip - paddling thru limestone mountains, seeing water lilies, stopping at sacred places & marvelling at the 3 caves (& having to duck our heads a lot)!
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| Robin being helpful |
Wandered around Tam Coc, loads of tourists from “everywhere”, drank more 7000 dong ($0.40) & ate some good food.
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| An amazing aquarium in a hotel! |
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| Love all the lanterns |
Our Homestay rented bicycles for $2.80/day so we took advantage & spent 2 days riding out of town to several lovely spots. Unfortunately we have no experience riding scooters (&our medical coverage excludes any claim involving motorized 2wheelers) so not for us - but cheap at $5.70 a day. So instead we got lots of exercise & many sore muscles!
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| Local map |
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| Some roadside goats |
We rode to Bich Dong Pagoda, built in 1428, built inside a cave up many steps.
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| Ladies selling trinkets |
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| The view |
Stopped by some flooded fields to watch Asian openbilled storks & egrets feeding.
Came upon an open air market in town, complete with handfuls of live ducks!
We booked a day tour to Cuc Phuong National Park & Van Long Wetlands, $86 each with lunch. After a 2 hour journey we arrived at the first stop in the park - Endangered Primate Rescue Centre. There were several varieties of langurs, loris & gibbons in cages, all active & “performing” for us.
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| Red shanked douc langurs |
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| Delaour’s langurs |
Also in the park is “The Cave of Prehistoric Man”, one of the oldest in Vietnam with graves & tools dating back 7500 years. We went fairly deep into the cave where we turned off all lights - now that was dark!
After a delicious lunch we were dropped off on the side of the road & led into the jungle/forest down a narrow trail for a “short trek” to an ancient 1000 year old tree. It took an hour, over huge downed trees, under downed trees, through vines & roots - not an easy walk, but we made it!
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| A big tree but not the ancient one |
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| 1000 year old tree |
We left the park for the Van Long Wetlands to another boat ride, not much for birds but we saw wild Delacour’s langurs (monkeys) in the trees! Only found in Vietnam with just 300 in the wild.
Back to Tam Coc, luckily in one piece as we had the worst driver ever - he acted as if he owned the roads, driving down the middle, honking the incessantly, passing dangerously - it turned us off day tours for a bit!
As an incentive to book tours at our Homestay she included a 1 hour massage with each tour so I had a wonderful 2 hour massage, actually a bit too long!
The next day we dropped off our laundry with our host (love this service, about $2/kg), and headed off on bicycles again. Our destination was Thung Nham Bird Park, 6 km away, an enjoyable ride. Entrance fee of 150,000 dong each ($8.50) was well worth it! A beautiful sunny day, a massive manicured park with lakes, flowers, gardens, orchards, bridges, bonsai trees & 2 boat trips. It was New Year’s Day, lots of people all dressed up, calling out “Hello” as we cycled past, one bunch of kids surrounded Robin & peppered him with questions in English, great fun!
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| Stunning scenery |
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| Nesting storks |
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| Special cans for Tet |
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| Lotus flowers, season just ended |
First boat trip into a cave, second one into “Bird Valley” where we were able to get quite close to hundreds of Asian open billed storks nesting! Wow! It was magical! The valley is home to 46 species of migratory & resident birds.
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| Storks |
We really enjoyed our 5 night stay in Tam Coc, a relaxed vibe, spectacular scenery, often called “Halong Bay on land”, & great fun biking. But time to move on - a 12 hour train ride to Hue, tickets $31 each, day train but rear facing seats (not an issue). Nothing fancy, but reclining seats, A/C, opening windows between cars for better photos, food & snack carts through every half hour & many stops (all loudly announced in Vietnamese & English) & we arrived to Hue, here for a week.
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| Lunch on the train |
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| Orchid Riverside Villa, Hue, $18/nite, includes breakfast |
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| Views from our balcony |
Still Living the Dream!
Don't know if I could do the caves, might be too close for me. Love the flowers and all the birds. Keep the dream alive.
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