Thursday 10th November 2022
Today we also had motorcycles with drivers booked. We had breakfast at our hotel, it’s included so thought we might as well. I’m not quite sure what it was, but picked it as I like trying new things. It turned out be large flat rolls of rice noodles, topped with shallots, and was served at room temperature. It wasn’t as nice as the beef Pho that Pete had chosen.
We got picked up by our motorcycles at 9am, and drove to Thung Nham bird park, our first stop.
There are several things to do and see within the bird park, including the Buddha cave accessed by boat. The cave wasn’t as big as the ones we’d seen in Trang An, but it was a lot less touristy (we were the only ones doing the boat trip into the cave) which was a definite positive.
Unlike the Trang An caves, which were lit by electric lights suspended from the ceiling, this one was completely dark. The lady rowing the boat gave us a flashlight so we could see. In the middle of the cave is a natural rock formation, which looks like a Buddha statue (hence the name of the cave). There were also a lot of bats in the cave, which I really liked.
After the boat ride, we went to the Mermaid Cave, which is accessed by foot. This was quite a spectacular cave which you can walk the entire way through, exiting at the back of the cave. The ceiling was pretty low in places, so there was quite a lot of ducking involved!
There’s a big lake in the middle of the bird park, which you can walk around. It was a very pleasant place for walking, with some nice scenery and cool bamboo bridges.
There’s a second boat tour in Thung Nham bird park, this time along the lake to the bird garden. It’s a longer trip than the cave one, and you get to see a lot of birds. I had no idea what any of them were, but it was still very enjoyable.
Just outside the bird park is Vai Gioi Cave. It’s set at the top of the mountain, so you have to walk up about 400 steps to get there. It was quite a hot and sweaty climb!
You enter the cave on the “Earth” floor, and can then descend down to the “Hell” floor. It has very impressive stalactite and stalagmite formations, which gives it the feeling of being on another planet.
On the “Earth” floor is a long staircase, leading up to the “Paradise” floor. At the top is a Buddha statue and some amazing views – even though it was a hazy day, it still looked stunning.
We weren’t originally intending on eating lunch, but after all the walking and steps we’d worked up an appetite. We drove back to Tam Coc and got a couple of Banh Mi from Cao Nguyen Restaurant. They were exceptionally good Bahn Mi, especially the chicken one.
After replenishing our energy, we drive to the Hang Mua Viewpoint, for another huge climb up some steps (over 500 this time!). There are actually two peaks, and we went to the top of both. The highest one has a stone carved dragon at the summit, and you clamber across the rocks (using the dragon for support) to reach a small viewing platform. It’s quite spectacular, even though when we were there it was a hazy day the views were still stunning. The slightly smaller peak has a small pagoda at the top. It wasn’t the easiest of climbs (the steps are steep and there are a lot of them), but very definitely worthwhile.
At the bottom of the mountain is a cave, which was nice to visit but nowhere near as good as some of the others we’ve visited in Nimh Binh. There’s also a lotus flower lake, with a suspended wooden footpath you can walk along. It was very pretty.
On the way back into Tam Coc, we saw a whole herd of buffalo enjoying a bath. It was quite cool to see.
For dinner, we went to Nhà Hàng Đức Dẫn. It’s a little walk out of town, but we’d heard they do good goat. And it was indeed good goat! We had fried goat, which came accompanied by rice paper sheets, lettuce and herbs, pineapple, baby figs, and small thinly sliced shallots. You put all the ingredients into the rice wrapper wrappers, roll up into rolls, then dip in the yummy peanut sauce. It was excellent. As were the seafood spring rolls that we’d ordered as a side dish.
After eating, we picked up a couple of cold beers from a shop on the way to our hotel, then went back to watch an episode of Manifest, which we’ve just started watching on Netflix.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 