Today we hired a cab and went down to Bich Dong, an ancient site of 3 pagodas.
After the second pagoda you walk around the back ascending in the dark cave up to the third one. A really mysterious route, and super slippery too!
Once we’d seen all three we went for a short explore between the hills - signposted to a cave. We did indeed find the cave, but it needed a boat to access it.
We could hear thunder rumbling in the distance so made our way back to a cafe just in time. The heavens opened and it poured pretty much constantly for the next 90 minutes.
We were lucky to be under cover, with a coke and my endless supply of puzzles. But it was still a bit boring and we were glad when the clouds passed.
We walked 3 km up towards Tam Coc and bought ourselves another boat trip.
The scenery on this was similarly spectacular to Trang An, although the vistas were larger as the river valley was broader. We got very lucky with the weather as it was sporadically throwing down a heavy shower: but for our stint on the water we only had light drizzle then patches of blue sky appeared.
Our rower actually used her feet to paddle, as did most of the oarspeople on this river. I suspect it’s a more comfortable position to row in. In fact, some were rowing with a cycling motion which looked efficient.
We went through 3 caves on this trip. None were lit but most were short.
We came past the dragon on the hill which was the back of Hang Mua which we’d visited yesterday (look carefully, you can just see it on top of the hill).
Our last evening in Vietnam was spent back at our lovely lodge as usual. Going to miss this view from the bedroom.
Tuesday 12 July 2022
We made the most of our last morning in Vietnam and popped down to Chùa Bái Đính (Bai Ding), the latest Buddhist built temple in Vietnam. Being constructed in 2014 it didn’t hold much historic value to us, but it was still fun to visit. It's a large site and although it's advertised as free to visit, they forget to mention that, to access the site, you have to take an electric car which you have to pay for. There is no way you can walk in. Not quite so free after all!
This huge complex contains numerous Buddhas of all sizes.
There were hundreds of arhats ('perfect persons' in Buddhism) - the odd numbers ones in one corridor and the evens in another corridor 100 m away. People would stop and rub the knees/feet of a specific arhat then do similar to themselves.
Dodging the heavy rain showers, we strolled around the complex enjoying the sites.
We visited the bell tower, I think even this was a replica (pretty convincing but still new).
Then we paid to climb the highest tower and admire the views.
Then the start of the long journey home: taxi back to our lodge then a taxi to the airport. This wasn't cheap, but the alternative was a crazy minibus journey into the centre of Hanoi, then a similar one back out of Hanoi to the airport. Our taxi drove us around the worst of the city centre traffic, but we still got stuck for over 30 minutes on the ring road and were grateful we'd left plenty of time to check in.
The rest of the journey home, short flight to Bangkok and then a change onto the long haul to London, worked smoothly. Then the rail-air bus to Reading and train back to Basingstoke to collect the car.
We had planned to meet Riona in Basingstoke as she aligned her visit to Dad to match us driving back to Exeter (free lift). Then Caitlin decided to visit which was lovely and my aunt, Maureen, also swung by after seeing my Mum. My brother and his boys also rocked up later so it was a pretty busy time and in between this JC and I were having naps to try and shake off some of the tiredness!
Nice to get a family photo shot though.
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