Breakfast- egg and baguette… Again. Bitter white coffee with invisible milk.
We went straight to tam coc, the touristy place, on our little moped thing, the road of our hostel is off the beaten track and I was convinced we were going to come off into the rice paddies surrounding. The satnav, aka me, took us down a highway which was pretty scary business with hgv’s flying past. David was laughing because we looked like dumb and dumber on the bike
As we approached there were tonnes of shops selling north face coats ‘the real thing’ for a tenner each we got one each…. Finally not freezing.
The boat tour was decent, meandering through the cliffs by paddle boat. The people here sit back and row boats using their feet… Really crazy stuff but makes a lot of sense. The lady kept just shouting bon bon baby at us after she clocked we were married!
At the turning point of the boat there were paddle boats selling drinks and food, they were right up in your face trying to get you to tip them in food and drink.
There were wild boar inland trying to steal food from the moored up boats, and also a lady sat on a boat singing karaoke with a microphone and her phone for lyrics…. Just randomly on her own. (The middle lady in the photo)
On the way back we saw mountain goats, how they get where they go and don’t die I’m not sure, but if they pick a more sensible terrain they will just get out on a BBQ on the side of the road.
At the end of the boat the lady was just persistent in getting 100,000d tip, even before we were near dry land she started and once off she followed us up the road grabbing our arms….. So frustrating!!!
There wasn’t much more to do here, but we found a pizza restaurant cooking fresh pizza in a clay oven Infront of you…. Sold!!!
Next we headed to the Mua cave viewpoint, we can’t say this was totally enjoyable, hundreds of steps again up to the top of the mountain. My disco knee’s came back out on the way up and David’s on the way back down. There were 3couples having wedding photos up there, how the got up here in those dresses, or how they can stand on the rock face is beyond me!!
There are no ATM’s in tam coc, the closest was 10km away in the city centre, our next stop….. Terrifying. The traffic lights count you down and we decided to set off with 5 seconds to go until green just so you don’t get left behind.
David loved the city centre drive, I was clinging on for dear life. Once we were out of town and on very quiet roads we pulled over for me to have a shot in the drivers seat!!! Straight on no problem … Stopping at lights, fine….. Turning a bend, no chance,I started zigzagging in towards the reservation, I couldn’t figure it out in a panic, it definitely wasn’t like stealing a bicycle. That was my turn over and back to satnav role where I belonged.
That night we didn’t feel like eating after a pizza lunch, we just had beer and a packet of crisps whilst playing pool. The owner of the hostel next us was also doing karaoke full blast on her own sat in a hammock,must be quite normal out here, no wonder she had no business!!!
Tomorrow we head to cat ba island by bus, our final vietnam stop.
South East Asia 2019 