Vietnam Day 11: Boats and Buggies

Since Day 10 ended a bit later than anticipated, we slept in. It should be noted that due to jet lag, sleeping in on this trip has been to about 830 or 9 o'clock. But undeterred from doing the tourist things one should do here, we walked out to the main area of the town where there is a dock and gate and admission booth. Today, we would be paddled (by foot no less) down the Ngo Dong River.

Tam Coc quads of steel routine

For just $17, we would go on an excursion that hit 6 sites over three hours - 3 caves by boat, hang ca, hang hai, and hang ba (which I think literally translates to fish cave, two cave and three cave!) and 3 sites via an electric buggy - the bich-dong pagoda, the water cave and the fairy cave.

Pure joy

Cass and I being rowed through flooded rice fields was magical. The fields are hemmed in by these jutting cliffs full of jungle and vegetation and birds.

Net was the name of row boat captain and she was cheerful and tried to help with our questions as much as possible given the language divide. She had a certain script for the ride obviously that was learned ahead of time - like the length of each cave we rowed through, but when we asked other questions we had to try and understand one another the best we could.

Net was a good sport

A few thins I learned from Net: The water and the mountains both have snakes, but not to worry about the water snakes, but if you get bitten by the mountain snakes then you go to sleep and don't wake up. The clusters of pink we saw on the cave walls and bamboo were snail eggs. According to her, snails were bad because they ate the rice, but good because snails are good to eat! We were currently traveling in the in-between season for rice farming, so soon the water levels would drop and the fields would be revealed.

Entering the first cave

By June, they would be blooming and all the much on either side of us would be a seas of yellow rice flowers (which makes more sense given the art of this place often had this same boat ride as going between two yellow fields). When the water rose in the wet season, it got high enough that they couldn't row through the last cave, which made sense as the ceiling of that cave was much closer to us than the others.

By the time she was set to let us off at the place where we would catch our buggy, she had also sold us each a piece of art. As per usual, I tried to learn a few Vietnamese words, but won't attempt to reproduce them here. It was a very fun experience.

Stop # 1

We next waited in line for an electric buggy to take us to a series of caves and pagodas. I don't have a lot of info on them because honestly we were not there long enough to even read all that much, just basically walk through them, marvel (and they were marvelous) and then hop back on the buggy. During this section, we met a couple - Josh and Jess from England who were maybe around 30. They were on the tail end of a 2 month trip to celebrate Jess becoming a therapist (like me!) in England. They were really kind and we chatted with them about traveling in Vietnam, and also Thailand (this was a common combo destination for many of the travelers we encountered). We visited each site together, and they even gave us the contact info for a scooter rental company which would drop the scooter off at our hotel. Like all brief encounters such as this, when it came time to go our separate ways Cass added them to instagram (because I don't have it) and we said our goodbyes.

Having felt like we accomplished what we wanted to on the tourist front, we just chilled the rest of the day. We got laundry done (a service here which only costed me 2.50 for most of my clothes) and enjoyed the air conditioned hotel room.

The bear knows laundry

Cass had said he got a really good massage at a nearby place the previous night, so I treated myself tonight to a 60 min massage. The only reason this is of note is because I took the owner's advice and got the "Vietnamese" massage. Honestly, she brutalized me. I do hope the pain is going to yield some long term gain, because boy was it an experience. I think I will opt for the more spa-like massage in the coming weeks.

The most relaxing part of the massage....though they did serve me mangos and tea at the end, too

As per usual, we ended the day with some beers, people watching and some grub.

Grub

Tomorrow will we continue South to Hue.

Vietnam Day 10: Hanoi to Tam Coc

In an effort to get one more touristy thing in before we left Hanoi, I got up early and waited outside for my Grab Bike. If you don't know, Grab is the Uber of Vietnam, and not only can you get a car, you can also hire a scooter/motorcycle for transport. Though not being in control is not second nature to me, I thought this might be my chance to try it out.

Real life image of a very cool guy on the bike of a grab bike

I entered my info in the app, and a couple minutes later, a guy on a scooter pulled up, handed me the skullcap that most people seem to wear, and I was doubling on the back of the bike. It was strangely enjoyable. My rider bobbed and weaved in and out of traffic, and though we only went a couple kilometers, I thought it was a neat way to see parts of the city. Unfortunately for me, I broke the buckle on my helmet immediately, but fortunately for me we didn't get into an accident...

The whole thing took about 10 min, and cost me about $1.50 and I was standing in front of the Hỏa Lò Prison Relic.

I won't try and summary a century of info here, but instead will point you to the Wikipedia page on the prison if you want a deeper dive. In short, this prison was first used by the French colonists for political prisoners and then later by the north Vietnamese for American prisoners of war. A good part of the prison no longer stands, and when I was there the exhibit was undergoing some renovation so I could only access part of the grounds.

The couple of things that stood out to me while I listened to the audio guide were the terrible conditions that Vietnamese prisons endured during their time in this prison and also the wild ways in which many attempted and succeeded at escapes over the years. Additionally, the steadfast determination to read, write and transmit information and political ideology to one another during their years of imprisonment. These kinds of historical sites don't do a lot for me, but I found the diary entries of former prisoners to be a fascinating insight into a particular time and place. I like those kinds of first hand accounts most.

After the prison, I headed back to meet up with Cass and begin our exit from Hanoi.

I liked the city - it was congested and insane and polluted, but it also felt full of life and industry and culture. I would definitely go back.

The plan today was to start heading south, which meant we were going to the Ninh Binh region. To get there, we would be taking a "limosine" for 11 dollars each and the ride would be a few hours long.

Cass wanted to walk to the pickup point, but on a whim I decided we should go out in style and these two brothers hopped into cart and had a gentleman pedal us to the Hanoi opera house where we would get picked up. It was romantic as hell.

Veeeeeery romantic

After mulling around a while, a dilapidated soccer mom van pulled up with the matching license plate for our VIP LUXURY limousine ride, and my heart dropped. I did not want to be riding in this god-forsaken thing for the next several hours. Once we were loaded up however, a nice Malaysian man seated next to me explained that we were simply being driven to the other bigger nicer bus. Whew.

He had initially had the same worries as I did. Though that ride ended up being 20 mins, he was very convincing on why I should put malaysia on my list for a place to visit next time I was in this part of the world.

We hopped out of one van and into our limosine, which here is what they call these high-topped mini-buses with nicer mostly individual seating. It was ok, though Cass and I got separated, and he sat in the front with a shitty seat and I in the back with a good seat, but sharing shoulder space with another random dude. Luckily, the ride was only a couple hours and we were in Ninh Binh. Another short Grab ride and we found ourselves in Tam Coc (or as I later learned three caves).

The plan was to do the touristy things the following day, so we checked in, and did some night-wandering. While out on a lap around the hotels and villas lining the river, we ran into....JZ! From our first night in Hanoi! He was waiting for a bus to head south, and we caught up over a couple of beers Small world on the traveling circuit it seems.

At some point Cass went for a massage and I found a bar, and then eventually Cass met up with me. We spent the rest of the night at this restaurant bar where I proceeded to politely discuss the merits of AI, therapy, and eventually conspiracy theory with Lawrence, a 25 year old American, who by his accounts, made money by selling self help books that AI writes for him and he resells on the internet. It was...fun...but not something anyone should be doing every night - who knew you could do the exact same thing in a bar 6000km away from home?

Tam coc at night

We walked home through the now transformed streets of Tam Coc, in that apparently after dark all the waffle and crepe vendors come out. And were serenaded by a bunch of French dudes singing Karaoke on top of a bus-bar. Another successful day in Vietnam.

Late night waffles Nutella and banana

Vietnam Day 9: Chilling in Hanoi and Train Street

We were mostly tired today, and so just kind of walked around Hanoi a lot. Though our room was much better, the AC left much to be desired and when the nights are no colder than 20 degrees, two boys that don't handle heat well need that AC.

I think the things of note that happened today were our lunch meal, a ginger rice dumpling soup, a random encounter with a Relic, and then a walk to Train Street in the evening.

Glutinous Rice Dumpling Soup (as per my translator) was a random meal we tried out on a side street in the late morning. We sat in the tiny stools that line the streets and were served bowls of sweet ginger broth with (maybe?) a splash of cream and big chunks of ginger. 3 dumplings sat in the middle of the broth and after biting into the first, I thought they would be all filled with sesame - but I was wrong! I think the second was mashed potatoes and the third was like a corn based mixture? It was good, but I am not sure either of us will seek it out specifically again. Nice to try something new though. As a side note, I think it was this meal where we really started to appreciate Huan ordering food for us since all of our meals on the motorcycle trip were really good. But we were on our own now and would have to do the whole trial and error thing.

The Relic (which is how the ancient sites around Vietnam are referenced) was just across the street from Sword lake and is called the Dinh Nam Hu'o'ng (the Nam Huong communal house). In an aorund it, art, sculpture and statue pay tribute to "...King Lê Thái Tổ, the revered 15th-century General-turned-Emperor. He liberated Vietnam from Chinese rule and founded the Later Lê Dynasty, the country's longest ruling imperial line. Built in 1894, the Lê King Temple is a quiet portal into Vietnam’s post-colonial rebirth, layered with political significance and tales of divine destiny, rebellion and the enduring power of myth."

In the evening, after a lot of just chilling out, we decided we should get out and experience more of Hanoi before moving on, which led us to the famed "train street."

I don't know what to tell you, it is a tight corridor where restaurants and cafes sit really close to an active train track. it looks like a train comes through about a dozen times a day. During our coffee and meal, we say three come through. About 10 min before the train comes, all the shop oweners start moving people back, removing the small temporary tables and telling you to tuck your knees in. I thought it was overkill until the first train cruised by and it was very close (see the movie below). It was fun, but once is enough I think. As we left, a Russian turned to us, and simply said "Most stupid fucking thing" and walked off.

Train!

That evening, both Cass and I got massages (which can be had for about $15 for an hour) and tucked in early.