Ninh Binh (Tam Coc and Trang An), Vietnam

On 5 October we left Cat Ba Island (bus-ferry-bus) to the small town of Tam Coc in the Ninh Binh province.  The bus ride from Hai Phong to Tam Coc was 5 hours of continuous near-miss head on collisions.  I had talked Kassie into taking the bus since it was on flat ground instead of mountainous blind corners.  Turns out it doesn't make any difference.  The suicidal maniacs they call bus drivers have one hand on the steering wheel and the other on the horn and play chicken with every on-coming bus or big truck.  I had a window seat so I didn't really get the same vantage point that Kassie did seeing truck after truck heading straight at us for hours on end.  If you're on a scooter or motorcycle, consider yourself at the bottom of the food chain when there are four buses and trucks abreast trying to avoid a collision on a two-lane highway.

Breakfast view from our hotel.

Thankfully, a road with very little competition.

Trang An boat ride.  There must be over a thousand boats to accommodate thousands of tourists.

These ladies only get to row once every three days there are so many of them.

Believe it or not, that dark spot is a cave we're about to go in and through the mountain and come out the other side.

Inside the cave, you have to duck down really low to avoid hitting your head.  They issued life jackets but no hard hats!

Yes, another cave.

At some point, we starting feeling guilty having the lady do all the rowing.  It was a two hour boat ride.  Maybe it was just that we wanted to go faster and get it over with since it was so hot and muggy.

We went through nine caves total.  The longest was 350 meters with very little clearance.

After the boat ride at Trang An, we rode the scooter a few more miles to a Buddhist temple, Bai Dinh, out in the middle of nowhere.  Of course it was gargantuan. 

Buddhas everywhere.

A giant tower.

Everything has stairs and they always go on forever.

This area has the same karst topography as we experienced several hundred miles north of here.  This is known as Ha Long Bay on land.

Beer thirty.  On the back-alley path into town from our hotel.

Some people actually still ride bicycles instead of scooters.

We seem to be suckers for climbing stairs.  What's another 500 hundred more steps to work up a good sweat and take a picture?

They are steep and big.  So, they have some "baby steps" to help.

It's worth the climb.

A close up of karst rock.  If I understand it correctly, the softer limestone washed away over time leaving this very hard rock behind.  

I never thought we'd find a couple taking their wedding pictures at the top of this mountain.

Another boat tour.  The reviews of it are really good, but one long boat ride through caves was enough for us.

These boat drivers stand up and push the boat, as well as row.

I'm not knocking their attempt at English.  It's certainly better than my Vietnamese.

But....would you order this to eat?

More Vietnamese coffee.  Condensed milk on the bottom.  Let the hot water filter through a few tablespoons of coffee for three minutes. Stir it up. Throw some ice cubes in the glass, and you have a very good iced coffee.

Rice paddies in a picturesque setting.

Not exactly Sons of Anarchy but scooters are awesome when there isn't any traffic.

A cowboy is bringing the cows home after a day of grazing among the rice paddies.

Another cave ahead.

She is actually rowing in the same direction she is facing.  Not very easy for me to do that, but at least she can see where she's going.

These boat drivers row with their feet.  You have to see it to believe it.

During high tourist season, June-August, all of these boats are on the water at one time.  We saw pictures of one continuous line of these boats for miles.

Hold on and stop taking selfies!

These statues go on FOREVER.  Something like 500 different ones in one continuous uphill climb. As far as the eye can see....just when you think you've seen the last one, you turn a corner and  there are hundreds more of these droopy eared statues.

Must be the thing to rub their knees and hands.  And the bellies of the ones with big bellies.