there are many day trips one can arrange from hanoi, and we went on one of those.
this seems to be quite a popoular one because a few travellers that i met in our hotel, also said they were going or had gone. and judging from the number of tourists when we were there, the place was really popular.
6 of us went in a toyota avanza after our friend who had missed the flight the day earlier arrived. our journey only started at 10a.m. instead of joining a big group for the tour, we went on our very own private tour....just 6 of us. of course we paid a little extra for this.....but it was all right.
the journey to tam coc was about 3 hours.....gosh....yeah....another long journey.
we arrived at this small quay and boarded our row boat. 2 in one....plus a rower.
some other tourists in this big lake. the journey brought us to see limestone hills and went passing through 3 of them. it was a sunny day so a hat was necessary.
one of the local photographers on her boat....see how she used her legs to row the boat? us$1 for one picture! they shouted.
there were some vendors selling snacks as well. i was extremely hungry so i bought some bananas from them.
we only had lunch at about 3 that day in a restaurant near the quay. after lunch, we headed to hoa lu which was the ancient capital of vietnam. it is about 20km away from tam coc.
this is the main entrance to the palace grounds.
we rented a bike for us$2 each and cycled around the settlement here. imagine living in a place where the king used to live.
courtyard of the ancient palace.
the temple.
dunno what this is haha....
this is outside.....but i am sure it is not ancient haha.
another ancient gate.
lotus pond.
i love cycling around this place......in the picture above here were graves. the vietnamese believed that a dead person should go back to the earth and what better place than his very own land.
we cycled till the sun set but of course, the sun here set much earlier than in malaysia, which was about 5p.m.
by the time we reached hanoi, it was past 7p.m. phew.....what a day.
the picture below is of our lunch.
so many dishes!!! had rice paper rolls, goat meat, vege, rice crackers, fish cake, grill pork on skewer, vege soup, etc. what a full meal. everything wasn't bad.
so is this tour recommended?? up to you....can you take the 5-hour journey to and fro?
oh, if you don't want to travel that far to tam coc for the boat ride, there is also one in hao lu. that is like about 30-minute shorter ride and you will see similar sights as well...limestone hills. it is less crowded too. when we were in hoa lu, we did not see even one tourist. maybe because most of them went earlier in the day?
it was an ok tour for me.
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