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Published: September 17th 2008
Tam Coc from above
isnt it just deadly?!This could be a long blog!
Well, Ninh Binh has to be my favourite place so far. The town itself is really, really quiet. No "where you going? You want Cyclo/motorbike/pineapple/hat/lighter/wallet/shoes?" when you walk down the street. All you get is the little kiddes waving and saying "hello, hello!", and getting all excited when you respond. You never get bored of that. Don't worry, Im not getting all maternal - Vietnamese kids are WAY cuter than Irish ones. There is bugger all to do in the evenings here, but on the first night there was a Buddist festival. We were having a drink on our hotels roof-top terrace (we were the only people there) and we saw these glowing, floating lights drifting across the sky. Across the city, they were lighting these lanterns, and the heat from the flame would cause the lantern to take off, and float right up and drift on the breeze until the flame began to die and it floating back down to earth again. They were like little phosphorescent jellyfish floating in the dark. That was the highlight of the nightlife. It was pretty cool. That said, the nightlife is definately not why you come
here. Its all about the scenery. Amazing!
We hired motorbikes for two days and drove around the countryside. I love motorbikes, you get to see so much but your arse doesnt half kill you by the end of the day. We ended up getting guides again, which was actually just as well as we wouldnt have seen half the places if we'd been left to our own devices. This place is what you think of when you think of Vietnam - emerald green paddyfields and these huge limestone karsts rising up dramatically from the earth in rows, one after the other, the ones further away disappearing into the haze. Its known as the Inland Halong Bay and its just amazing. We climbed up to a pagoda on the top of one of the karsts near Tam Coc, it was one hell of a climb (we did alot of climbing steps and it doesnt bode well for Machu Pichu!) and the views were just incredible. There were even moutain goats scampering along the cliff edges on our way up.
Onwards to Tam Coc, where you hire little boats and get rowed along a river that meanders in between the
karsts and trough grottos. Every time you emerge froma grotto an amazing vista awaits. Its such a beautiful trip, but to do it you need to do the Tam Coc Tango, as the Lonely Planet calls it. A little old couple row the boat, and as you are on the outward leg the flattery begins. You get chatting, swap a little info on one another, and they tell you, in French, that you are beautiful (ha!). Once you get to the end of the road the predators are waiting, boats brimming with snacks, drinks, flowers etc. Its like something out of Nat Geo - the forewarned, yet still defenceless prey has no chance. The boats circle, and one peals off and goes in for the kill. The lady emplores you to buy poor, old knackered Madame et Monsieur a drink, who now dramatically appear exceedingly wrecked from rowing you all the way out. They looked fine a mintue ago, you think. And even though you know Madame et Monsieur will sell those same drinks back to the vendor later on for half the price, you just cant say no! Its like a giant cosmic guilt-trip. On the return leg, Madame
et Monsieur swap places and Madame shows you pictures of her family, hard at work embroidering tablecloths and other stuff. She shows you some lovely samples (Jolie! Jolie!) she happens to have stashed in a box on the boat, and when you say "no, not really my thing" she says "Bebe, nyum-nyum! Bebe, nyum-nyum!". I got away with only buying a doiley. Mam, that's your present. Its lovely. I tried to leave it in our hotel on check out, but they came running after me.
Afterwards we had lunch and tried the Ninh Binh speciality of goat, not bad. On the way to the loo afterwards, I saw what looked like scientific specimins sitting on a shelf in those big jars you used to get boiled sweets in. Yes, little baby goat. Maybe I should have had the snake instead.
We drove through country lanes and villages to our next destination, Hoa Lu, the site of the 10th century capital of Vietnam, with two temples and the tomb of one of the kings on top of a karst. The countryside is so spectacular, you could sit on the back of the bike for hours and just take it
Tam Coc
View from our rowing boat all in. Ducks and geese everywhere (dinner), buffalo and cattle (dinner) and even a bolshy swan (dont think he was dinner, but you never know!). The older villages are not very different looking to old rural Irish villages - little windy lanes and old ramshackle cottages. People working the fields by hand, and using buffalo to plough and harvest the rice. At Hoa Lu, we decided to climb up the 207 steps to see the tomb of the king. We were nearly not going to. We should have got back on the bikes!
Again, I was rollixed climbing up the steps in the heat - pink of cheek and sweating bullets. Half way up we encounter another little old lady. She starts fanning me, to cool me down. I try to tell her no Im fine (clearly Im not), but she continues - the whole way to the top. I couldnt loose her, she was a spritely old thing - I was totally knackered and she was scampering up the steps! When we got to the top she "guided" me to the tomb and to the photo opp. sites - which clearly I could never have found on my
own! At the top Simon fell prey to a cute little girl of about 6 who grabbed his hand and led him straight to his granny who was selling incense at the tomb. Game over. My old lady fanned me back down to her post half way down the mountain again, where she ran on ahead and grabbed an ice-cold bottle of water and a Coke out of cooler. I managed to bargain her down to 50% of the asking price, but we still paid way over the odds. But after all that fanning, I felt it would be heartless to not buy the drink. Plus I was parched. If you ever find yourself in Hoa Lu, dont climb up to see the tomb. You've been warned!
On the second day we went to Cuc Phuong National Park and the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre about 65km from Ninh Binh. Again the scenery was amazing, slightly different to the dramatic karsts of the day before, but no less stunning. There were miles of dark green rolling hills covered with pineapple, cassava, passionfruit plantations and other exotic stuff. And everywhere there were these great big dollops of sugarloaf-type moutains, covered with
jungly-forest. We went for a hike in the park through the jungle for a few hours, which was pretty tough going, as it was up and down several of those jungly hills in the humidity - my legs are in a jock today...seriously worried about Machu Pichu now! We climbed up to a prehistoric man cave - evidence of man dating back 7500 years. It went back for ages - unguided - but I cacked myself and didnt go in too far after Simon had said it reminded him of that movie The Descent!
We visited the Primate Rescue Centre as well, which was a brilliant place. There are several species of loris (there were asleeps so we didnt see them), lemur and gibbon there that have been rescued from various situations. There are less than 100 of each species left in the wild. They are either captured for bushmeat (the locals living in the forests are very, very poor), sold for their "medicinal" properties or as pets. They cannot survive in captivity if not given the right food, and the lemur in particular can only eat a certain type of fresh leaf or else it dies. Many have
actually come to the centre from tourists who bought the animals only so they could save them. The centre has a very successful breeding programme and it releases the animals back into a semi-wild area. The long term goal is to bring release them into the wild proper, but at the moment poaching remains too big a problem. I dont know that can be stopped while povery remains such a big problem. Anyway, it was a great place to visit and support.
On our way back to town, we check out some more caves, but these ones were huge cavernous ones with huges stalagtites and stalagmites. You are left free to wander around with nothing more than a weak torch. Can you imagine them letting you wander the Aillwee Caves on your tod!
Anyway, Im all blogged out, although I dont feel Ive done the place justice. Hopefully the photos will do a better job than my writing!
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adrian stewart
non-member comment
Jayus Aoibh, get some food into you lass, your fading away :)