Friday 11th November 2022
Today I went for the second thing on the breakfast menu that wasn’t beef or chicken noodle soup. It ended up being a soup, but with balls of what I think was processed pork. It wasn’t my favourite as the balls had bits of gristle and bone in them.
It was a very wet morning, so after breakfast we spent the morning planning a bit more of our trip – mainly looking at options for Halong Bay cruises and trying to figure out the plan for when we fly to Thailand next week. There are 100s of cruises in Halong Bay, so it’s easy to spend hours comparing different options.
We also needed to book our transport from Tam Coc to Ninh Binh. We were originally thinking of getting the train, but the earliest is around 4pm, there were only expensive sleeper carriages left, and we’d need to get a taxi into Ninh Binh (there’s no station in Tam Coc). So a minibus was looking like a better option. We were about to book tickets online when Pete noticed the reviews for the bus company were absolutely terrible. So instead we went to one of the travel agents in Tam Coc and booked tickets through them. Fingers crossed it’s a better choice!
After booking the ticket, we couldn’t resist a chicken Bahn Mi to share, with a side of stir-fried morning glory for a bit of greenery. We ate at Cao Nguyen Restaurant, and the Bahn Mi there are some of the best we’ve had in Vietnam.
After lunch we walked to the lakeside to get the Tam Coc boat tour. The pricing is a bit confusing as it’s 120,000 VND per person plus 150,000 VND per boat. So it worked out at 390,000 VND (about £13) total for the two of us.
As we left the town, we spotted a couple of ladies washing their clothes in the lake, whilst a man sat fishing over the top of them.
Similar to the Trang An boat tour, we then travelled through a series of caves. However, unlike Trang An these caves were completely unlit, so the biggest was completely pitch dark at the centre of the cave.
As we were about to enter the final cave, a lady in a boat selling drinks and snacks pulled over next to us. We didn’t want anything, but she was very persistent. She then asked Pete to pass a drink and chocolate bar to the lady rowing our boat, which he did, and then told us we had to pay for them. If she’d have asked for 30,000 VND (£1) or so, we’d probably have given it her, but she wanted 100,000 VND so we refused. Eventually she gave up and we continued on our way, but it was slightly annoying that our boat lady was obviously complicit in it.
Apparently it’s a common scam in Tam Coc, but I’m pleased to say it’s the only time in our 3 weeks here that someone’s tried to scam us.
By the time the boat turned around and started heading back, it was properly raining again. Despite this, the scenery was still stunning so it didn’t take the enjoyment off the trip.
Now that I’ve done both boat trips, I can easily say Trang An was my favourite. The caves were bigger and more dramatic, there’s more to see (such as various pagodas on the little islands), it’s a much longer boat ride, and the boat tour seemed to be more professionally run – no one hassling or trying to scam you, and you even fill out a little feedback form at the end, so clearly they take customer satisfaction seriously.
It was still raining, so we went to shelter in Dao Phuket Bar and ordered a cocktail. They were pretty good cocktails.
By the time we’d finished our drinks, it was already dark and time for dinner. We walked past Gia Bao homestay & restaurant, and the restaurant was packed so we took that as a good sign and went in. We ordered roast duck, chicken in tamarind sauce, and spring rolls. The food was very good, although not quite as the other places we’ve eating in Tam Coc (all the restaurants here seem to be superb!).
After eating, we grabbed a couple of cold beers and went back to the hotel to watch an episode of Manifest on Netflix before bed.
Emma and Pete’s Asian Adventure 