We wake up frozen.
When I said it was cold, I wasn’t joking… it’s freezing over here! Eric and I are wearing almost every piece of clothing we have and last night we both squeezed into one single just for the extra warmth.
We check out of our hotel, store our bags, have some breakfast and then rent a couple of bikes to go exploring.
On the agenda today is a visit to Tam Coc, described as the “Halong Bay on the Rice Paddies”.
We peddle around the villages while enjoying the fresh air and eventually we arrive at the Tam Coc pier where we hire a boat to take us for a cruise along the river.
The river is busy.
And when I say busy, I mean CRAZY BUSY.
At one point we have to pass under a bridge except there’s a full-on traffic jam happening… the kind where one side refuses to let the other side through, no one’s willing to budge and there’s one lone cop in the middle of the intersection trying to sort it all out. Except in this case, the “cop” is just a man with a megaphone standing on the bridge waving his arms frantically.
Eventually we make it through but it feels more like a ride on the bumper cars than a peaceful meander in a “canoe”.
Despite all the chaos Eric and I do enjoy our paddle. The scenery is amazing – bright green rice fields and quaint little farms, surrounded by massive limestone cliffs.
During the final stretch home, we really start feeling the cold, so we decide to hurry our boat along by picking up the spare paddles and paddling like true Canadians!
After an extra-long bike ride home – the “shortcut” wasn’t so short – we order a pot of tea and wait for the night bus.
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