Row, row, row your tourists...

Today we took a day trip outside Hanoi to Tam Coc and Hoa Lu, which is the old capital of Vietnam. After a 3 hour van ride (which stopped at yet ANOTHER "fleecing station..."), we arrived at Hoa Lu. Our guide Daniel warned us before we got out of the van that we should not buy ANYTHING from any of the people selling fruit, nor let anybody take photos of us. They said that a lot of those are people waiting to rob tourists as soon as they get their money out to pay. Nice place.

The only ancient structures that remain standing are the two temples, the temple to Dien Tien Hoang, an emperor, and the temple of Le Dai Hanh, who succeeded Dien Tien Hoang. We walked to see both of them, but were not allowed to take pictures inside, as they are still used for active worship. They looked similar to the Temple of Literature from last week, complete with offerings of wrapped candies in artful arrangements, bottles of water and other foodstuffs. I asked our guide what happens to the food offerings, and he said they are left for a day or so, then given to local children.

Driving to Tam Coc through the rice paddies.

Outside the temple.

 

Entrance to the temple, reflected in the water.

 

The throne of the emperor.

 

Pond inside the temple.

 

Gardens inside the temple.

 

Offerings of fresh fruit outside the temple.

The festival grounds in the temple.

 

Festival grounds.

 

Michele paid a guy to sit on his cow for a photo. :)

Endless rice paddies!

After visiting the temples, we had lunch at an unimpressive restaurant, then boarded our rowboats to go down the Ngo Dong River through rice paddies and three caves. Gavin and I had our own boat driven by a mostly toothless Vietnamese man. There were hundreds of boats, and the rowers all used only their feet to row and steer the boat. The total boat trip took about 2 hours, with the rowers having row the entire time; there was no current that I could tell. I wonder how many trips they take each day, carting tourists to and from the caves.

Rowboats wait for their next passengers.

 

Rowboats on the river.

 

Woman rowing.

 

Our rower.

 

Jeff, Michele and Golien on their boat.

Here we go!

 

A couple were doing wedding photos on one boat.

 

Low bridge!

A shrine on the riverbank.

After about 20 minutes, we were surrounded by limestone mountain/cliffs and vibrant green rice paddies. The variation of absolutely flat rice paddies with the huge cliffs shooting out of the ground was really amazing to see.

A worker in the rice paddies.

 

 

River, rice paddies, cliffs and boats.

Entrance to the first cave.

Exiting the cave.

Exiting the cave.

Floating down the river.

 

A waypoint on the river.

 

On the other side of the last cave, a glut of ladies in boats full of food tried to see it to the tourists. When we said we weren't hungry, they tried to get us to buy food for the boat rower. We gave him a good tip at the end of the ride instead so he can buy his own food. :)

 

Our rower is adept with his feet!

 

Silhouette.

 

Cows along the river.

 

This guys and our rower chatted and laughed the whole way back. I joked that they maybe had half a set of teeth between them... :)

 

Mountains and ride paddies.

The rowers make it look easy. :)

After the boat ride, we picked up some bikes for a little bike ride through the rice paddies. The bikes had definitely seen better days; mine the breaks squealed so badly I almost wanted ear plugs, and the seats were the WORST bike seats I have ever been on! :) But the scenery was great!

 

 

Worker in the rice.

 

Moo :)

 

Biking in Tam Coc.

 

Biking with our guide Daniel.

 

Boats in the river.

 

Attempted dirt biking with road bike tires was a little scary. :)

 

Woman rowing.

 

Workers in the rice paddies.

Gavin and I in the rice paddies.

Biking in the rice paddies.

Wall between rice paddies.

Biking in the ride paddies.

After what felt like a very quick bike ride, we hopped in the van back to Hanoi. We arrived at the Intercontinental Westlake just in time for the tail end of our hoity-toity cocktail hour, so we took advantage of it. The head butler (as I'll call him :) ) took us to a seat and, "I sincerely apologize for last night, it was so crowded with people, I hope you can forgive us for this inconvenience..." This made us giggle after he left because WE were the ones who made it crowded by sneaking 3 people in! Ha! This head butler guy was really over the top. After our first trip to the tapas table, he cleared our plates and I told him, "Thank you."

His reply, as he picked up our dirty dishes :) "It is I who should be thanking you." Seriously. :)

After snooty cocktails and appetizers, we took at taxi into the French Quarter looking for the restaurant El Gaucho, an Argentine steakhouse, since we are a little Vietnamse fooded-out. :) We had forgotten to download a map of the area before going, so we wandered around the French Quarter looking for it for a while, then broke down and used some cellular data to look up the address. We caught a taxi, and after showing him the address he appeared to be taking us back to the hotel, whereas we had seen El Gaucho in the French Quarter. The driver didn't speak any english for us to explain the issue, but he dropped us at a SECOND El Gaucho within a few blocks of our hotel. :)

French Quarter shopping.

Bridge on the Hoan Kiem Lake.

At this El Gaucho location, we appeared to be almost the only people in this three-story restaurant. We were not expecting much from an Argentine steakhouse in Vietnam, but the steak, grilled veggies and sauteed mushrooms we had were surprisingly good! And we FINALLY found a place that did REAL desserts! I finally got to have some chocolate cake!!!

After dinner the Eastern European host brought up a bottle and poured us shots of carmel vodka. We reluctantly took them, and they were surprisingly good, probably because they had maybe a milliliter of vodka in them. :) Despite our protests, he poured us another round. If those had been real shots, I would have been on the floor within a few minutes. :)

We took a taxi back to our hotel to pack and sleep. Tomorrow we leave drizzly, foggy Hanoi for the sunny south of Vietnam.

 

Posted with Blogsy