The buses of Vietnam amaze me. The distance are short, and yet they travel SO SLOW. For our 60 mile ride we thought it might take 3 hours to get to our destination because of windy roads and such. How wrong we were…with picking up and dropping off locals, mail, and packages we arrived at our destination 6 hours later. And this was our most aggressive driver so far. Good thing we loaded up on snacks before.

Our time in Tam Coc was a rollercoaster. It is a beautiful little city right next to the Ngo Dong River, surrounded by picturesque rice fields and staggering karsts that shot up from the ground. When we weren't exploring, we were indoors fighting the cold, rainy weather. Our hotel room on the 6th floor had an awesome view so we had no problem with the latter activity…often accompanied by popcorn after befriending the local vendor.

We visited three unique temples during our time here. The views from each were amazing and hard to describe, so I will leave the pictures here instead of struggling with words.

Between rainy days we snuck in a boat ride down the local river. An amusing part of the ride was the style of rowing by the local guides. The boat was row boat style with one oar on each side…standard. However, once they caught some speed the guide would use feet instead of hands to row. Some would row right then left offset and others would row like a frog. It was entertaining, and impressive to watch.

The ride was leisurely despite locals hassling us for pictures and products. All of a sudden a rowboat would bee-line it over to where we were and insist on taking our picture or selling us coffee. A firm no would send them on their way most of the time. Views of the surrounding valleys and karsts were worth the bit of hassle it caused.

Our final day in Tam Coc lead us to motorbike over to Cuc Phoung national park for exploring. The first thing we saw was a primate rescue center that served as a type of halfway house to release the animals back in their native habitat. The main issue is humans (of course). Habitat destruction and poaching are still concerns around Asia as a whole. We enjoyed learning about the different creatures and watching them swing around the enclosures. The gibbons were especially impressive to observe. We decided to visit a cave after this and it was kind of spooky. We learned that people lived there 7,500 years ago. We followed a rickety staircase up to the top where we…well Grant mostly, had to squeeze through stalactites/mites to see all the rooms.

The next day we were catching a quick bus back to Hanoi, then off to northern Thailand.

Cheers

Grant and Danielle