We visited the pagodas and shrines.
Monday, December 24, 2018
Chua Bai Dinh
Chua Bai Dinh is a huge Buddhist complex on a huge area near Ninh Binh. Many temples thousands of Buddha statues. Small, medium, large and huge and some mega-huge Buddhas are silently sitting there for hundreds of years mercifully accepting donations. They seem to like round things. Like pomelos, dragon fruits, round rice cakes, bottles of water, round cookies, etc... They even seem to like money, most importantly bank notes with many round zeros.... 500000 dong is the best... :)
We visited the pagodas and shrines.
We visited the pagodas and shrines.
Trang An
Mr okokokokok took us today to Trang An, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Conversation in the car:
- Tomorrow we are going to Mai Chau.
- where?
- to Mai Chau.
- huh?
In this stage I understood it was a mistake to mention Vietnamese names. So in order to give it a chance to be understood I started alternating the pronounciation of the name of the village. I pushed my tongue back than closed my lips, no success. Then I was trying to close my mouth and pushing my tongue up and then suddenly down. Nothing. Then I was trying to play with tones... I tried about 5-7 different variations how to tell him the name of the village which is actually quite close to Nimh Binh. Jeruen was helping me with more ways of alternating the possibly correct pronounciation of Mai Chau.
Then suddenly Mr okokokokok somehow recognized the name and with a smiling face turned to us and happily said:
- Ah! Mai Chauo!
- Yes, that.
For our ears the difference was minor. But apparently for a Vietnamese person it's a whole different word.
Anyway. Trang An was beautiful. We rode a boat with some domestic tourists for almost three hours. Here is a little taste of what we experienced.
Conversation in the car:
- Tomorrow we are going to Mai Chau.
- where?
- to Mai Chau.
- huh?
In this stage I understood it was a mistake to mention Vietnamese names. So in order to give it a chance to be understood I started alternating the pronounciation of the name of the village. I pushed my tongue back than closed my lips, no success. Then I was trying to close my mouth and pushing my tongue up and then suddenly down. Nothing. Then I was trying to play with tones... I tried about 5-7 different variations how to tell him the name of the village which is actually quite close to Nimh Binh. Jeruen was helping me with more ways of alternating the possibly correct pronounciation of Mai Chau.
Then suddenly Mr okokokokok somehow recognized the name and with a smiling face turned to us and happily said:
- Ah! Mai Chauo!
- Yes, that.
For our ears the difference was minor. But apparently for a Vietnamese person it's a whole different word.
Anyway. Trang An was beautiful. We rode a boat with some domestic tourists for almost three hours. Here is a little taste of what we experienced.
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Hoa Lư - The ancient capital of Vietnam
Our driver is a funny guy, very helpful but doesn't quite speak English. So every time he leaves us somewhere we agree that we call him once we're ready. Such a phonecall sounds like this:
- Hello, this is Eitan. We are finished here.
- ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok.
I never really counted how many oks are there but it must be between 13 and 24. Then we wait, he picks us up, watches music videos on YouTube while driving, but he really drives well and carefully. So no complaints whatsoever.
This afternoon okokokokok took us to the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lu. The landscape is spectacular as always in this area: ricefields broken by picturesque limestone mountains. There are shrines and temples, fish ponds and archeological excavation sites.
In the evening okokokokok took us to a nearby goat-restaurant, we are in goat county after all. The restaurant was a little weird, but only with the eyes of the western visitor. Big rooms. Long tables, lots of chairs around them, leaving no gap neither between neighboring tables, not between neighboring guests. Sitting is not quite comfortable, because the chairs are too high compared to the table. But it may work with short people, I don't know. You won't believe how many people can fit in a small place. But since we were the only guests anyways, we took ourselves the freedom to move some chairs around and made ourselves comfortable. The goat was worth the effort to get there. Fantastic lean meat in a slightly weird place. We were filling rice papers with different types of leaves and the lemon goat. The salty goat we dipped in some chilli sauce and ate it with rice. Delicious stuff.
- Hello, this is Eitan. We are finished here.
- ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok ok.
I never really counted how many oks are there but it must be between 13 and 24. Then we wait, he picks us up, watches music videos on YouTube while driving, but he really drives well and carefully. So no complaints whatsoever.
This afternoon okokokokok took us to the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lu. The landscape is spectacular as always in this area: ricefields broken by picturesque limestone mountains. There are shrines and temples, fish ponds and archeological excavation sites.
In the evening okokokokok took us to a nearby goat-restaurant, we are in goat county after all. The restaurant was a little weird, but only with the eyes of the western visitor. Big rooms. Long tables, lots of chairs around them, leaving no gap neither between neighboring tables, not between neighboring guests. Sitting is not quite comfortable, because the chairs are too high compared to the table. But it may work with short people, I don't know. You won't believe how many people can fit in a small place. But since we were the only guests anyways, we took ourselves the freedom to move some chairs around and made ourselves comfortable. The goat was worth the effort to get there. Fantastic lean meat in a slightly weird place. We were filling rice papers with different types of leaves and the lemon goat. The salty goat we dipped in some chilli sauce and ate it with rice. Delicious stuff.
The Tam Coc Boat Trip and the Bich Dong Pagoda
We are in a homestay in Ninh Binh. Hai, the owner and his wife are very kind and helpful. We have the nicest room so far in Vietnam. Food is great as well.
We got here with a bus from Cat Ba. It took about 5 hours to reach the town.
The bus station we arrived in Ninh Binh knew our homestay, so they called him and they picked us up at the station.
They served us with most authentic Vietnamese home food for dinner.
Getting a car with a driver for 18 euros per day is definately worth it. Hai's cousin drives for us, takes us to places, pick us up, drives us home fo lunch, etc...
We visited Tam Coc this morning. We teamed up with a German tourist to share a boat. We were cruising for almost two hours on very calm waters. Because we arrived early we avoided the highlight tour groups that came from Hanoi. The landscape was spectacular. Lakes and fields all around and huge green mountains and gray rocks. The path went through caves. The local "driver" was controlling the boat with two pedals which he moved with his feet.
Then we drove to the Bich Dong Pagoda. The cave temple complex consists of three pagodas: on the lower, middle and upper level.
We got here with a bus from Cat Ba. It took about 5 hours to reach the town.
The bus station we arrived in Ninh Binh knew our homestay, so they called him and they picked us up at the station.
They served us with most authentic Vietnamese home food for dinner.
Getting a car with a driver for 18 euros per day is definately worth it. Hai's cousin drives for us, takes us to places, pick us up, drives us home fo lunch, etc...
We visited Tam Coc this morning. We teamed up with a German tourist to share a boat. We were cruising for almost two hours on very calm waters. Because we arrived early we avoided the highlight tour groups that came from Hanoi. The landscape was spectacular. Lakes and fields all around and huge green mountains and gray rocks. The path went through caves. The local "driver" was controlling the boat with two pedals which he moved with his feet.
Then we drove to the Bich Dong Pagoda. The cave temple complex consists of three pagodas: on the lower, middle and upper level.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Cat Ba National Park
We hired a guide and a taxi for a couple of hours today and went to explore the Cat Ba National Park. The park is a part of UNESCO world heritage. The island is home for the endangered species of the Cat Ba langur. The primate has only about 70 individuals left. Unfortunately we didn't see any. But we climbed up on one of the peaks, which was hard, but was worth the effort.
On the way back we stopped by the Trung Trang Cave.
Google says we climbed 57 floors today. Not bad.
On the way back we stopped by the Trung Trang Cave.
Thursday, December 20, 2018
Lan Ha, Ha Long Bay and Monkey Island
Today we took a group tour which took us to places we would not be able to otherwise access. We were picked up at our hotel and boarded us on a boat with a bunch of other tourists. We were cruising along Lan Ha Bay and also touched the southern end of Halong Bay. Both provided us with unforgettable scenery.
On the way we stopped and did some kayaking. This was a great time for me. I teamed up with a Korean guy and we went for over an hour kayaking in the calm and mostly very clean waters of the bay. We were passing through caves, kayaking out on the other side of the "tunnel", resting a bit in the shade of one of the cone-shaped islands. Literally there were hundreds of such small islands around us.
We had lunch on board and then went for some swimming in the crystal clear water.
We visited then the Monkey Island which is as the dear reader may guess, full of monkeys.
They are mostly friendly animals, but beware, sometimes they can try stealing your stuff.
On our way back we cruised via a floating village, which is mainly inhabited by fishermen and their families.
On the way we stopped and did some kayaking. This was a great time for me. I teamed up with a Korean guy and we went for over an hour kayaking in the calm and mostly very clean waters of the bay. We were passing through caves, kayaking out on the other side of the "tunnel", resting a bit in the shade of one of the cone-shaped islands. Literally there were hundreds of such small islands around us.
We had lunch on board and then went for some swimming in the crystal clear water.
On our way back we cruised via a floating village, which is mainly inhabited by fishermen and their families.
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