Thung Nham Ecotourism

(Usual waiver applies to grammar, typos, spelling as I'm posting via  a small phone screen on the hoof 🤭, click on the pics to zoom in)

8 April 2026

Another hot day so we had a bit of  a lazy morning. We had travel bits and bobs to organise and laundry to be sorted. It's a tough life 😁.

We did manage a short walk around the Tam Coc lake. 

Tam Coc is still a traditional village in many senses. Getting your washing done on the lake edge seems an every day occurrence.

The locals often exercise together in the park on the lake edge - they looked as cool as cucumbers!

We found a local cafe run by some young guys and had a fantastic lunch - vegan food, poke bowls, egg coffee..... yummy! 

We had booked a driver to take us to Bich Dong pagoda and then on at 4.30 to Thung Nham Bird Park to see the birds coming home to roost. Before we actually landed in Vietnam I had thought we could cycle from A to B in Tam Coc but the humidity is a killer. Lots of hot, sweaty tourist biking about looking frazzled. I know I would have had a meltdown in those temps so was very glad we took the air conditioned car option.

So let's go folks. Bich Dong Pagoda is approx 600 years old. 

The pagoda’s gate is what makes it famous with the traditional Vietnamese style - three doors, and a bridge that connects the gate to a lotus ponds.

There are three pagoda staggered up the hill side and tucked into a limestone cliff.

So you guessed it, it involved climbing in 36°C heat. Everyone looked hot and sweaty. No glamour shots possible in that humidity. The top pagoda was carved into a cave.

A very beautiful and peaceful place to visit with shaded gardens, lotus ponds and statuary.

Next stop was Thung Nham Bird Park.  We wanted to do this when the birds were coming home late afternoon. 

The bird park was set in a beautiful garden park and natural wetland. 

The topiaried trees were a sight to behold. Might try this at home 🙂

Beautiful butterflies were flitting about. Especially beautiful was a gorgeous big black velvet butterfly which I missed getting a pic of, but so beautiful.

Next stop was the bird roosting area. This meant more rowing. 

Being rowed through the bird roosting area was amazing. So many birds flying in and so many on nests. My phone camera photos don't do it justice unfortunately. It was awesome!

White egrets, storks, bitten and heron were quite happily  going about their business. Fantastic.

Fun fact, in Hanoi we thought we saw a NZ wax eye in a cage. Turns out there is a native bird very similar, a Vietnamese green-backed white-eye.

We have had an amazing time in little Tam Coc, Ninh Binh. We stayed in a small family run hotel and tried to support the local village run enterprises. The surrounding environment is blessed with natural wonders and a rich cultural history. It's an area punching above it's weight in natural beauty. Our driver told us post Covid, Tam Coc tourist numbers have gone through the roof and show no sign of stopping. New national big chain hotels are rapidly being built and the locals are worried about how sustainable all the development is...... and what will happen to everyday village life.

Tomorrow we fly from Hanoi to the coast and park ourselves up in Da Nang ...hoping for sea breezes 🙏.