Having a few extra days to spare and wanting to break up our journey between Hanoi and Halong Bay, the girls and I decided that a stop for a couple of days in Ninh Binh - and the surrounding Tam Coc region - was the way to go, having read good things about the authentic feel of Ninh Binh town and the breathtaking landscapes and karst formations of Tam Coc.
Arriving on the bus from Hanoi, we spent our first afternoon looking around the town itself and treating ourselves to the air conditioning and satellite TV in our room (this backpacking lark isn't all hard going, you know). The following morning we finally did manage to get our energy on and roused ourselves from the creature comforts of our temporary home to explore Tam Coc. Issy was unfortunately unwell and stayed back in the aircon (lucky girl), so Jen and I hired bicycles to make the 6km journey. Two things became apparent on the bike trip out - firstly that, as opposed to my cycling experiences in Myanmar, having a decent-sized bicycle works wonders and I was much better balanced now on a machine that wasn't built for a hobbit; and secondly that our journey ended up being a lot more than 6km due to the map we were given being neither a) anywhere near to scale, nor b) remotely accurate. It did however give us an interesting tour of some local villages.
Arriving at Tam Coc is an experience in itself. You can see the huge, looming limestone karsts from miles away but when you actually get up close it's like they envelop you. We'd already read that the best way to see the area is to take a boat trip and be rowed along the river through the rock formations and the caves, so that's exactly what we did.
We had a rather misty and overcast day which, while meaning the long-distance views weren't as clear as they could have been, did give the peaks a really prehistoric, "lost-world" kind of feel to them while the caves, cliffs and jagged limestone formations somehow seemed even more imposing than they would have in bright sunlight. The only things missing were the dinosaurs.
It was a beautiful two hour journey all up, and it gave Jen and I a tantalising glimpse of our next objective for the day - to climb the peak over Mua Cave (topped by a temple and a very long serpent-dragon-type-thing) overlooking Tam Coc.
Naturally, I was dead eager to begin the climb and had to persuade Jen to put in the effort the climb it with me. Or at least, that's how I remember it. Whatever way the actual discussion went, it was actually a faster climb than I expected it to be due to the fact that it was so sodding steep - you cover a lot of vertical ground when you're going almost straight uphill...
And the views from the top were fantastic, even with the cloud cover.
We also got to have a look at the couple of small caves at the bottom of the mountain. One even had a tiger, which thankfully didn't attack either of us.
And so that was that. Our bike journey back was a little quicker than the one we'd had out in the morning due to the fact that this time we took no notice whatsoever of the map, and we were soon back with an Issy who was both feeling a little better and happy to join us for dinner and drinks in the evening.
Tam Coc is known as "Halong Bay on the rice paddies" - well we're off to Halong Bay next, so we'll let you know how that description holds up.
Things Jennie will remember:
1) Not to order goat, ever. It's tough as old boots.
2) That it's always worth making Sean do the bit of exercise that he doesn't want to do as it gets great results (i.e. top of Mua Cave)
Here are the pics:
Awesome pictures!! What a view.
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