✴️ = best choice!
We are back in Sa Pa: after a hearty – and delicious – breakfast at our homestay, the owner drove us here to catch a limousine bus to Hanoi. For convenience, we will spend a night there before moving a little further south to the province of Ninh Binh.
Limousine buses are cool, at least the one we took. A French couple we met during our homestay wasn’t so lucky, facing a non-stop, high-speed night journey. These are luxury buses designed for tourists who have to travel for many hours and can therefore lie down comfortably. The journey takes about 6-7 hours and along the way the driver stops several times at areas dedicated to this type of transport. We booked it before leaving on the 12Go website, just like the train for the outward journey. The cost? Less than €15 per person.
The day passes like this, watching the changing landscape from the window: from the mountains we slowly return to the plains, until we reach the usual chaos and traffic of Hanoi. For dinner, we return to our favorite restaurant and take a leisurely stroll through the city center: today, being Sunday, it is closed to scooters and surprisingly much more “livable”!
Last night, when we returned to the hotel, we asked at reception if it was possible to book a taxi for today to Tam Coc. It’s about a 2-hour journey, total cost: €18.
Tam Coc is located in Ninh Binh province, south of Hanoi. Here, the honking horns and chaos of the capital are just a distant memory. Although it is a tourist destination, it is a very peaceful area surrounded by nature. The main attractions are the rivers, which you can cross aboard sampans, the typical boats driven by the locals; the caves (it is no coincidence that “Tam Coc” literally means “three caves”); and the limestone rocks, reminiscent of those in Ha Long Bay, but in a freshwater version.
In the center of the village there is a small lake, around which the main restaurants are located. We stopped at a small kiosk selling sandwiches and noodles: we paid less than we would have for an ice cream in Italy and everything was really delicious! ✴️
In the afternoon, we move on to Trang An. To visit it, you can book a sampan river excursion, which lasts about two and a half hours. The place is very touristy: there are boats everywhere and life jackets must be worn. It is far from the tranquility we expected. However, there are some truly evocative places to visit, including temples—such as Den Trinh, in the middle of the water—and numerous caves.
We end the day with a dinner in the city center featuring typical dishes: bun cha and nem nuong cuon. The meat is wrapped in a rice paper sheet with lettuce, herbs, and rice noodles, forming a roll.
At Tam Coc Serenity Hotel & Bungalow, in a very large room with a beautiful bathtub and oriental-style furnishings. Highly recommended! ✴️
Today we have another boat trip, this time in the Van Long Nature Reserve ✴️. We get there with a Grab and, even though it’s another sampan trip like yesterday, the experience is completely different. To begin with, it’s just us and our guide on the boat: a friendly and attentive local lady.
His well-trained eye immediately spots Delacour’s Langurs on the rock in front of us, an endemic species of monkey that lives exclusively in Vietnam, and in particular in this reserve. There are only 200 left, making them one of the most endangered species. They are easily recognizable by their long tails and what look like actual “white pants”. In the morning and evening, they jump among the bushes, and that is when they are easiest to spot.
The guide tells us that the locals call them “elephants” because before they were spotted, all you could hear was their call, which vaguely resembles a trumpet. I can hardly contain my excitement, and as we continue to observe them, she slowly rows in their direction, allowing us to see them up close. In addition to them, numerous water lilies also grow in this area, making the landscape even more picturesque.
We return to Tam Coc for lunch and stop again at yesterday’s kiosk: another sandwich, plus a crêpe. In the meantime, we also buy some Arc’teryx sports jackets for €18: obviously fake, but to the inexperienced eye, they look just like the originals.
Before nightfall, we stop at Mua Cave, which we saw a few years ago while watching Pechino Express on television. The real attraction is not the cave itself, but the mountain above it, whose summit can be reached by climbing a large staircase of about 500 steps. Once at the top, there is a wonderful view of the valley below.
Tomorrow we have another long journey ahead of us, this time to Ha Long Bay. After seeing it for so long in books and on screens, I will finally see it with my own eyes!
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