Ninh Binh and Tam Coc

This morning we woke up to a deluge of rain, which had us both worried because we had planned an all-day tour that included hiking and biking in the rural Ninh Binh province. As our tour arrived at the Temple of Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang they handed out plastic raincoats but I was glad we’d brought our own umbrellas because it was really coming down!

Luckily we found a somewhat sheltered spot in the temple courtyard. It was a very special Vietnamese holiday, called Hung Kings day, which celebrates the past King/Emperors who used to rule in Vietnam. There have been many dynasties in Vietnam's long history. This particular temple celebrates Dinh Tien Hoang who ruled in the late 10th century. This area, Hoa Lu, was the capital of Vietnam at that time. To commemorate the holiday there was a special procession re-enacting the King Dinh Tien ascending the throne in 968 AD. The man wearing the gold colored robe is re-enacting the part of the king, while the men in red and blue robes are the mandarins and other officials. 

In a side chapel at the temple was an elaborate ancestor altar where offerings and incense were placed for the parents of the first Dinh emperor. Most Vietnamese homes have much smaller ancestor altars with photos of the deceased relatives they are honoring. They offer gifts, like a favorite food or drinks, for their loved ones who have passed away. Burning incense then carries the gift to their ancestors in the afterlife. 

These adorable girls were performing a song for the holiday celebration at the temple. We caught them rehearsing. The instruments they are playing are two small porcelain teacups in each hand that they clack together in rhythm to the song. 

As we left the temple, it was still raining but we were starting to see some bright spots in the clouds in the distance. 

The rain stopped just as Our tour van dropped us off at the Hang Mua dragon cave. 

This cave was very similar to other caves we've been to recently, so I won't bore you with more cave interior shots. However, we were thrilled that the weather was clearing because this was the stop where the main attraction was to hike up 500 stone steps and get a view of the valley. It was a dizzying walk but the spectacular views were worth every step. 

The lotus lake below caught a light-infused reflection of the surrounding mountains. 

We were happy because it was just so pleasant to be out in the peaceful countryside after the noisy chaos and insane traffic in Hanoi. This entire scenic area is part of the Trang An UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

Hundreds of feet below, we could see a few boats rowing down a scenic stretch of the Ngo Dong River. 

We got back in the van to head to the village of Tam Coc closer to the river but we were delayed by an unexpected traffic jam due to water buffalo crossing the road. We were definitely not in Hanoi anymore!

At the river we got into a small rowboat that was being rowed by a friendly local lady named Anh. 

The villagers here have always rowed small boats to get to and from the rice paddies that line the riverbanks. What’s remarkable is that most of them don’t row with their arms — instead they use their feet! They still use this mode of transportation to tend the rice, but now they also ferry tourists down and back along a 3.5 kilometer stretch where the river passes under three low caves. The village name Tam Coc translates to "three caves" in Vietnamese.

Here you can see the emerald-colored rice growing beside the river. Thanks to the rain, everything was vibrantly green and lush. 

We got to relax on the boat while Anh did all the hard work of rowing, but afterwards we were able to get a bit more exercise by hopping on some bikes and riding a few miles through the countryside. 

We ended our ride at the Bich Dong pagoda. We learned that the terms "pagoda" and "temple" aren't interchangeable. A temple is a more general place of worship and veneration, and can be dedicated to real people who lived in the past. However a pagoda is very specific to Buddhism and is like the spiritual home of the Buddha. The Bich Dong pagoda complex was built in 1428. Unfortunately we only got to see the entrance gate because it was time for the 2-hour return journey to Hanoi.

I was so glad we decided at the last minute to book this trip instead of spending another day in Hanoi. For me, the gorgeous scenery was just as pretty as the more heavily touristed Ha Long Bay, and it was very tranquil and peaceful in the village of Tam Coc. Definitely worth a visit, and a wonderful place to explore the more rural village life in Vietnam.

Ha Long and Lan Ha Bay Cruise

One of the most well-known natural attractions in northern Vietnam is the UNESCO-listed Ha Long Bay. This unique bay has almost 2000 limestone islands of varying sizes. They jut up out of the water and are covered in green plants, which makes the whole place look otherworldly. The name "Ha Long" means "Descending Dragon" in Vietnamese and there is a legend that the gods sent a dragon down from the heavens to help defend the kingdom from its enemies. After winning the battle against the invaders, the dragon decided to come down and live in this beautiful bay.

Our 2 night cruise on the Peony 2 was just one of hundreds of cruise boats in the bay. There are cruises at all price points to choose from. It's a scenic place, but there are many, many other people out here enjoying the scenery. At night you can hear music booming from the bar decks of all the boats, although it is usually pretty quiet after about ten o'clock.

Which is a good thing because our cruise had a 6:40am breakfast time. (You had to get up even earlier if you wanted to join the 6:10am Tai Chi class).  Actually the itineraries of the cruises all seem to be very similar - on the first day you settle into your cabin and get oriented to the boat. 

In the afternoon you do a kayak or swim excursion from the back of the boat, and then in the early evening you learn how to make Vietnamese spring rolls. 

On the last morning of most one-night cruises, passengers go ashore at Cat Ba island to hike through Trung Trang Cave. 

During the Vietnam War the cave was used by the North Vietnamese Navy as a telecommunication base. There were a couple of really cavernous halls inside the cave that were definitely large enough to house many soldiers. There were also a couple of small shrines with offerings inside the cave. 

Cat Ba island is also home to the Cat Ba Golden Langur, a very rare primate that only lives on this island. We didn’t spot a live one since it is critically endangered and there are only about 70 wild individuals living on the island. But we did see a beautiful mural showing what they look like. The langurs have been hunted to the brink of extinction because of their value as a "traditional medicine". But the animals are protected by law now, and efforts to stop the poaching have brought population numbers up slowly. Hopefully with the focus on eco-tourism, the locals will be able to help preserve the habitat and prevent illegal poaching to preserve this species for future generations.

We opted for an extra night on the cruise so that we could take an additional day-long excursion down to the less-visited Lan Ha (Orchid) Bay. 

There were definitely fewer cruise boats down here, since it is much further from the main cruise port. Because the base of each island is slowly eroding over time, the karst formations appear to hover over the water, like this tall thin one that looks like it could fall over any day now. 

When  the tide is low there are spots where it is possible to see all the way under an island to the other side. Small boats can fit right through this opening.

Down in Lan Ha Bay we went ashore and rode bicycles to Viet Hai, a remote fishing village. 

The village population is only about 300 or so people. The sense of community is strong here, and villagers used to live a very simple life in small homes made of clay or bamboo, or even on floating homes that are anchored in the bay. Tourism has begun to bring in more jobs and higher incomes. The town has a newly built road, school, and a medical center. But fishing and traditional agriculture are still very much a part of village life here. Water buffalo were peacefully grazing in the pasture (you can maybe just barely see them in this photo, to the left of Kevin in the background). 

The tour kept us pretty busy with a packed itinerary but whenever we weren't out on day excursions, we did have a bit of time to just relax back on the boat. Our cabin was extremely comfortable; we had a private balcony with amazing views. 

 

The food onboard was also delicious. But in case we got hungry for a soda or a snack we could always buy from one of the many floating “7-11 boats” being rowed around the anchorage by some incredibly strong ladies. They all had a long pole with a net at the end that could reach as far up as the 2nd deck. You put the money in the net and then they deliver the food back to you in the net -- a pretty clever system, actually.

We were so fortunate that we had good cool weather for our cruise and excursions. It was a little overcast and hazy, but at least it wasn’t raining or foggy. We spent a lot of time outside on deck chairs just admiring the incredible views. But after three days on a boat we were looking forward to getting back on land and seeing more of Vietnam. So long, Ha Long Bay!

Vietnam - Hanoi

We arrived in Hanoi on a Sunday evening, which meant we had a chance to visit the weekend night market in Old Town Hanoi. 

For the market the normally hectic streets were closed to car and motorbike traffic so it was easy to walk around. The vendors selling the elaborate 3D paper pop-up cards were my favorite. 

Our hotel is right near St. Joseph’s Cathedral. Since it was a Sunday night they held several masses, which were so well-attended that some of the congregation had to sit outside in the square. 

In between services, we were able to take a look inside. Saint Joseph is the patron saint of Vietnam. The cathedral was completed in 1886, about a decade after the French occupation began. To build it, the French cleared away the ruins of an ancient 11th century pagoda that collapsed in the 1500s. We can hear the church bells from our hotel room in Hanoi, and have a nice view of the bell towers from the hotel roof. Here is what the inside of the church looks like (we managed to go inside in between masses).

One of the first things we wanted to do in Vietnam was to take a food tour. Kevin found a really good one, led by a local guide named Minh. He took us to seven different shops, each serving a different specialty — including Phở gà (noodles with chicken), Bún Chả (noodles with pork), and Bánh Xèo (a type of crispy rice pancake filled with seafood). Don't ask me how to pronounce any of those, but I can definitely say they were all delicious! There was one other nice couple on the tour, so it was a small group and we were able to squeeze into some tight places. We joked that the stools around the tables got smaller and smaller as the afternoon went on. 

All of the food we tasted was excellent. I really like the mix of herbs and sauces that are usually included with each dish — it lets you flavor the food to your liking and control the spice level. We learned how to roll our own Nem Nướng (summer rolls - rice paper filled with pork, herbs, rice noodles, and crunchy julienned vegetables). 

And of course we sampled some of the local beers. We walked through “Bia Corner” which was deceptively low-key in the early afternoon. As the afternoon wears on, many small bars will open and this place will be much livelier in the evening. 

After the food tour we walked around the Hoàn Kiếm Lake (also known as "lake of the returned sword") and the French quarter. The Đền Ngọc Sơn Temple is on an island in the lake, connected by the beautiful red Cầu Thê Húc Bridge ("light of the dawn" bridge). Here's what the bridge looks like lit up at night.

The temple has an interesting story behind it that is very important to Vietnamese people. Legend has it that when the Vietnamese were at war with China, the Vietnamese emperor was given a magical sword that helped him defeat the enemy. After the Chinese were defeated, the hero was boating on the lake when a giant golden turtle surfaced to reclaim the magic sword. The sword was returned into the lake, and the country prospered. 

The lake was once the home to two giant softshell turtles (the largest freshwater turtles in the world), which were associated with the legend due to their long lifespan. The first one sadly passed away in 1967.  The last remaining turtle in the lake died in 2016. They preserved both turtles and now they are venerated in a small chapel of the temple. Unfortunately this turtle species is critically endangered — there are only 3 left in the wild, and just a handful left in zoos.

Hanoi used to be the capitol of French Indochina. The French had a Catholic Jesuit presence here beginning in the 1700s, and then in the mid-1800s France began a military campaign in the country to take more territory and stop persecution of the Catholic missionaries. Vietnamese resistance to French occupation was strong, there were many rebellions. France held on to the territory until the Japanese took it during WWII, after which bitter fighting began over who would control the country. That conflict grew over decades and culminated in the Vietnam War. There are many examples around Hanoi of French colonial architecture, one of the most visited is the Hanoi Opera House, completed in 1911 and modeled after the Palais Garnier in Paris. 

Opera isn't really our thing but we did have a chance to see a different kind of show while we were here. Hanoi is home to two competing water puppet theaters. We got tickets to see the oldest troupe perform this traditional entertainment. 

This art form evolved a thousand years ago when farmers used the water-filled rice paddies as theaters to celebrate the end of the harvest. From behind a screen, puppeteers stand waist deep in a pool of water and manipulate the wooden puppets in front to tell a story. The action is set to traditional Vietnamese music. The puppeteers are able to move the puppets in creative ways, making them jump, swim, climb trees, and there were even a couple of fire-breathing dragon puppets. The puppets are all hand-carved and hand-painted -- each one is unique.

On our last morning in Hanoi we walked to the Hoa Lo prison, which might be better known by the name American POWs used to describe it — “the Hanoi Hilton”. 

The prison has a history that stretches back much further than the Vietnam War though. It was originally built by the French and was used to house Vietnamese dissidents opposed to French colonial rule. Prisoners were treated quite harshly, put in leg irons and existing in unspeakably inhumane conditions. 

In the exhibition about the Vietnam War POWs, the museum explained that the American prisoners were treated much better by the Vietnamese than the Vietnamese prisoners were treated by the French. It isn’t clear to me how much truth there is in those claims; I have added some books by former POWs to my reading list to learn more. But what is clear is that that the war in Vietnam left many lives forever changed. 

On another day, we were able to walk to the spot next to hồ Trúc Bạch lake where John McCain parachuted and was dragged out of the water in 1967 after his plane was shot down in the Vietnam War. There is a small monument noting the event from the Vietnamese perspective. According to Wikipedia the inscription translates to "On 26 October 1967 near Truc Bach Lake in the capital, Hanoi, the citizens and military caught Pilot John Sidney McCain. The US Navy Air Force Aviator was flying aircraft A4, which crashed near Yen Phu power station. This was one of ten aircraft shot down that same day."

One of the most interesting places we visited in Hanoi was the 11th century Temple of Literature. Pathways lead the visitor through a series of five courtyards and ponds. The courtyards have names that translate to phrases like "Courtyard of Great Success".  

The temple was built as an imperial academy where students would study history, literature, and poetry and take various exams to become magistrates and bureaucrats. The temple is dedicated to Confucius, and there are also statues of three kings who championed education and prioritized the university/academy.

The temple is extremely important for Vietnamese historians because of the stone steles dedicated to the successful doctoral candidates.  Each of these 15th-century steles has an inscription with the names of the doctors who matriculated that year and many details including dates, who ruled the kingdom, which mandarins administered the exams, etc. So each stone turtle carries a relic of Vietnamese history on its back. 

Since we were delving into ancient history we also visited the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long. This palace was mostly destroyed during the French occupation. Now there are active archaeological excavations happening behind the reconstructed fortress. 

One of the unique structures that had been preserved is the “descending dragon” staircase in front of what used to be the palace in the forbidden city. The carvings of the two dragons date back to the late 1400s.

We finished our day by trying a Vietnamese egg coffee and some coconut ice cream at a fancy coffee shop near our hotel. Egg coffee is made by whipping egg yolks with milk and sugar, boiling the mixture, then pouring coffee over it until it foams. It's a little bit sweet but not too sweet. Kevin had that while I had a regular Vietnamese coffee sweetened with condensed milk, which was incredibly sweet. Both kinds of coffee were delicious, as was the coconut ice cream served in a hollowed-out coconut. Sugar overload! 

We only had a brief couple of days to explore Hanoi, but hopefully we saw the highlights. I think you could spend several weeks here and never see it all. We are looking forward to getting outside the chaos of the city to see a little bit of northern Vietnam's natural beauty later this week.