Blogs from Tam Coc, Ninh Binh, Red River Delta, Vietnam, Asia

Tam Coc, located in Ninh Bình provence, is a small town with similar scenery to Halong Bay. We took a river boat through Tam Coc which went through a few caves, revealing picturesque landscapes of the clear lake and magnificent rock formations on the other side. The ladies paddle the boat using their feet; it’s an impressive technique which saves them a lot of energy! We came to a little floating market on boats where the ladies would hassle us to buy fruit and other merchandise. Like I’ve said before, they have inventive ways of selling us crap. The weather has been disappointing so we couldn’t rent mopeds due to slipery road conditions, so we did what we do best and drank beer through the day instead. We witnessed an insane thunderstorm on the night; we ... read more

Arriving from Haiphong into Ninh Binh after a two hour minibus ride I found a nice little hotel for the nicer price of $100,000VND and set out to wander this pleasant little city. It was the official "Liberation Day" here in Vietnam and many families were outside in the parks or on their patios eating and drinking and enjoying their time off. It was nice to see a little bit of daily life going by in front of me as I strolled. I made it to the market where all manner of produce, meats, and fish were on offer as well. Markets are always an interesting place to walk around. It seems that thier is always something someone is willing to buy and eat and I usually have no idea what it is. My reason for ... read more

Je joins les photos et la contribution de Simon ! Bizzz Laurence ------------- Salut tout le monde ! Je me décide enfin à écrire ces quelques lignes et comme Laurence a très bien décrit nos différents points de chutes, je n'ai pas grand chose à rajouter quant à notre parcours. Je vais donc principalement vous faire part des éléments qui ne sont peut-être pas essentiels pour la compréhension de notre itinéraire, mais qui permettront de vous faire partager un peu plus notre expérience. Premièrement, ces quelques lignes ont été difficiles pour moi. Non par manque de choses à raconter, mais parce que j ai entrepris cet exercice dans notre premier sleeping bus vietnamien, dans la campagne de phong nha. Un sleeping bus vietnamien, c'est un bus classique doté de trois rangées de deux étages de couchettes, ... read more

Today was a good day. I had my own personal motorbike driver to take me round the main sights of Nimh Binh. First being Tam Coc. This is the Ngo Dong River that runs through mountains and natural caves. It was cheaper for 2 people to go in a rowing boat and luckily there was a guy from New Zealand waiting at the paying booth. I didn't mind sharing. So we got in our rowing boat where a Vietnamese man rowed us down the river with his feet. It was so impressive. The sun was out and my surroundings were pretty amazing. We got to a point where there were many ladies in boats selling drinks and snacks. I was warned about this. They asked us to buy a drink for our rowing guy so I ... read more

Day 8 Today is another free day as it is Sunday. There were two choices that we came up with; some wanted to swim in a pool at a local hotel, and some didn't. I was with the ' did nots' as I felt, although I could seriously just dive into a lovely clean blue pool, I also think there is more to see, and I would rather do it whilst I have the chance. After breakfast the 'poolers' set off. The other group, which were; Amberlee, Roisin, Britty, Nadia and myself, hired bikes to go to Trang An caves/ grottos. The bike ride there took us through small typical Vietnamese villages. Most of the locals are very friendly and pleased to shout, hello, as we pass by. Some are obviously aware of the paleness of ... read more