Tam Coc

 7 April 2026

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

Grab a coffee, this one's a long one, covering an action packed day in the beautiful Trang An area. It's so terrific it has been recognised as UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2014. It includes three protected areas linked by evergreen forests, lakes, and rivers weaving between limestone mountains. 

Staying in Tam Coc as our base, we got to check out three spots and with the weather forecast warning of extreme temps, we set out at 8am.

First stop was the “Vietnamese Great Wall” Mua Caves lookout. This meant climbing over 500 stone steps to the mountain’s top.The steps started out fine but the higher you got the higher the steps and a bit sketchy at the top. 

The views from the top are magnificent - rice paddies, serene rivers and sheer drops down the mountain side.

Standing on top is an enormous statue of Avalokitesvara, Buddhist Goddess, ensuring all on the mountain are under her divine protection. By this stage I was so hot and bothered I forgot to get a shot of Goddess. 

I did get one of the temple on the top.

At the top is also a dragon and if you touch the dragon's head you get 1000 years good luck. The last bit up to the dragons head was sketchy so I left it to G to touch for both of us🙂.

Going down took longer for me as the steps were rugged. At the bottom were the most beautiful lotus ponds. These will be in full bloom in eight weeks, they'll look spectacular. When we got to the bottom we were drenched in sweat and  we had drunk about 4 litres of water. It was soooo  hot 🔥 

Next stop Trang An water park. This is part of the river system and is often described as Hau Long on the river as it has limestone Karst mountains and a huge cave network. 

After our hike up the Mua Caves lookout we needed some cooling down so we took the river tour with the longest cave..1000m , a chance to cool down🥵. 

The rowers were 80% ladies. They had umbrella's up and wore big jackets that looked to have a fan in the back of the jacket. They took four people per boat. Luckily they had extra oars so G and I took one each to help our lady rower out. By now it was about 35°🥵

The caves were very low in places and the lady kept saying "head down". It was pretty spectacular. We were rowing for about three hours around the park going through three caves and we stopped at three temples. 

I loved the big horse statues in the temples. Apparently the symbolise strength, loyalty and they guard the spirits. 

We looked as red as beetroots while many locals were dressed up in silk dresses and tippy shoes posing for photos ...how do they look so perfect? 

Kong, the movie  was filmed here and the stage sets are still standing .

The different temples were all beautiful. 

Each cave became a respite from the heat and humidity.

I loved the big bells in the temples.

What a fantastic experience. I asked our driver how many times the ladies row each day. He said once during the week and twice on the weekends. Yikes, amazingly strong ladies.

Next stop  was Hoa Lu the Ancient Capital,  known as ‘the first capital of Vietnam’. It was a huge complex of historic buildings but by this time we were running out of steam and feeling a bit 'templed out'.

Entry was through a traditional three arched pagoda and the setting on the river was so peaceful.

There was a series of beautiful gateways that opened into shady gardens and what would have been bathing pools.

Beautiful historic  statuary and shrines throughout.

We probably didn't do this glorious place justice as we really had run out of steam. 

Traditional life continues alongside. Rubbish builds up on the roadside and is often burnt which further adds to the smog problems. 

We were very happy to see the hotel offered a laundry service as everything we were wearing needed a good seeing to after our hiking and rowing. 

Wonderful day in a very special part of Vietnam with beautiful people in the cafe's and restaurants. There's a lot to love here 💓

Hau Long & Lan Ha Bay

 4 April 2026

(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)

We set off from Hanoi in a coach to Tuan Chau Port. We had a 3hr drive with the obligatory WC & refreshment stop at a gallery/art shop/mini market... exit through the gift shop😁. There were so many coaches with tourists we each got a colored lanyard with the bus number/provider in case someone got left behind. Mild chaos😀

At the port there were more tourists and more boats than you could shake a stick at. Tourists trying to find the correct pier, porters loading luggage, announcements you had no idea of what they were saying, boats chuffing out diesel fumes 🫢🫢....glorious chaos. 

We did a three day, two night cruise on the Aqua of the Seas. We had a fantastic cabin with a balcony and a big bathtub.... perfect to have a soak and watch the scenery change. First things first though, we had a welcome from the Captain, Entertainment Manager and the Head Chef. 

Lovely big ship with plenty of viewing decks, bars, pool, gym etc. 

We had literally just opened our cabin curtains and you heard the chug, chug, chug of a local boat alongside. They were selling fruit,  beer, juice etc. They had a long pole with a net at the end to deliver your goods and you put the money in the net. That's hard core sales work. They were really signalling up to us to buy something. The pole didn't reach the top deck we were on so we wrapped some money around a mandarin, secured it with a hair tie and aimed....it got there on the deck and they were happy.  Hard yakka sales.

We had an afternoon row to a small cave amongst the limestone karst islands. 

It's certainly beautiful but we were sorry the sky was so full of smog....no blue sky and a watery sunset.

All the boats seems to anchor up in the same location  overnight so it's a very pretty sight.

There are goats on the islands. We saw them fleet of foot skipping across the rocks. I asked a local and apparently Cat Ba island goat meat is a delicacy.

The pollution is heartbreaking to see in this paradise. In the north of Vietnam there are over 3.6 million cars and 58 million motorbikes.Many are old and produce high emissions. Add to that the thousands of old diesel boat and tankers and  you can see why the smog levels are so high.

It's a tough call for the government to try and rectify. They need the emerging industries and the growing tourist numbers. In July this year they are going to phase in 'no motorbike hours' in Hanoi centre as a first step to addressing the terrible emissions.

We stopped at a working pearl farm. Fun fact the oysters can be in the baskets for three years before they get opened. They can open 300 oysters and only get on average three good quality pearls. Now ya know why pearls are pricey 🫣.

Some of the workers live out in the platforms for months on end. We saw a pussycat on one farm platform....oysters for dinner kitty cat 👍

The contrast between the local lives and some of the tourist boats was striking.

On day 2 we went to Cat Ba island. We had to go on a smaller boat which was pumping out black diesel fumes and gassing us in the process. Cat Ba is a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve and has  a small village and lots of natural jungle. We had the option to try rice wine snake tonic....3 years of the snake soaking infuses the wine with health benefits allegedly. We've got a lot of travelling ahead so took a pass on the rice wine options. You could also get your feet nibbled by fish here, we took a pass on that too as the water didn't look to be refreshed between sittings 😱.

The local village had some historic buildings which were really  interesting. 

The limestone karsts are certainly beautiful .

There are beaches for swimming and kayaking but the water pollution was terrible. We thought of our beautiful clean water in New Zealand and decided to sit that one out. So much rubbish floating in the water - bottles, plastic bags, old bits of polystyrene, diesel slick....tragic 😥

The chef worked his magic and the food was wonderful. He was a good singer too - he belted out a version of 'Oh Vietnam' on the karaoke.

A wonderful 3 days, 2 nights in this beautiful part of Vietnam.

These two loveable rogues were clearly up to no good as they went  walkabout on Cat Ba island.