The weather this morning was chilly and damp – the clothes that we washed last night were not dry yet – not a good start.
We are heading in the direction of Tom Coc – about 80km south of Hanoi and home of some Limestone peaks/rivers/lakes/caves though will only make it about half way today.
Given that our Hostel had nothing to offer for breakfast, we left directly and starting to look for something to eat along the way. And, not too far away we found breakfast – noodle soup (again).
The roads we were on were not very busy, and we certainly had the feeling that there are NOT a lot of tourists that make it along this path… But we had a good opportunity to see real Vietnam rural life in action – planting season for rice was everywhere to be seen….
The scenery was at time very impressive – the karst pinnacles jutting out of the otherwise flat topology way very iconic to what we expected to see in Vietnam – and we had lots of it today.
But the surprise of the day was Chùa Ngọc Châu – a temple/shrine built into one of these karst pinnacles. We just sorta cycled past it, and stopped for a bit of a break and were surprised by what we found – multiple intricate caves meandering into the formation each with a little altar/shrine built into it….a wonderful experience.
We also passed a citadel – perfect square of 1km on a side with protective wall around it – nothing left except for the walls and gates and lots of rice fields within the walls. But impressive nonetheless – standing in the middle and seeing the perfectly straight walls going all the way around….
When we got to our destination for the evening, the original place we were planning on sleeping turned out to be not a hotel at all, but some building in construction (don’t ask me what)…after a bit of confusion and discussion with the construction team there, the workers at the site helped us find a hotel – one guy driving ahead of us on his scooter to a surprisingly REALLY nice place just in parallel to the main road….beautiful woodwork in the hotel (doors stair, windows…). Never would have found this place on our own….
Finding dinner was a challenge though – it took us about 1/2 hour to find a spot that would offer us food – some “grill-at-your-table” establishment where we were given a small pot of coals and a grill and two plates of pork and beef to throw on the grill and do ourselves….was tasty, but not nearly enough….
Experience of the day – getting money from a bank machine with 3 other people in the booth with you at the same time watching your every move…..
(75km / 210m)
Have a very nice time