Tam Coc boat landing
I woke up in the morning with the idea of posting the text about Halong Bay that I wrote last night but the internet was still not working, so I decided in the last moment to leave for the trip to Tam Coc in spite of the fact that the sunny weather predicted on weather.com did not happen. The group was very small, with two girls from Geneva and a very artsy couple from Saigon, the guy trying to talk on a slick cellphone the entire trip. The trip, that took about 2-3 hours, no matter that they say that it takes mostly 2 hours, was to Hoa Lu, the first capital of the unified independent Vietnam, unification obtained by a king in the 10th century, after he was able to get rid of the Chinese who came in the 2nd century AD and forget to leave for 1000 years. So it can be worse than with the Russians!
The unified part was just the north of the country after which they started to move south in areas occupied by Champa Empire and in the 17th century were able to absorb the entire Champa kingdom of Danang. Hoa Lu was the first capital, a citadel in those time with temples and palaces. The first king had three sons, and his beloved one, the third son, was killed by the first one out of jealousy and fear that he may lose the throne. So, at the death of the king the queen did a swift move and married the commander of the army who became in this way the king instead of the fratricide son. This second king is credited also with major victories against the Chinese and is also commemorated in Hoa Lu. The only things that remains from the old citadel are two temples dedicated to these two major kings. The temples are interesting from the historical perspective more than anything else and they are restaurated in the 17th century. But people come here even today with offers and prayers. After the visit of the two temples we boarded the bus and went to Tam Coc for a mediocre lunch and right after that we got on boats to visit this site. Tam Coc is named also “Halong Bay on land” or on the rice paddies. It has the same limestone rock formations like the ones we saw in Halong Bay and is looking closer with Yangshou, being placed on a river. The river is smaller and to visit it you board a boat that is rowed by two women, that takes you through a stupendously beautiful scenery of peaks and green rice paddies tilled by peasants.
The river crosses through some caves and the boat ride goes inside these 3 caves where you have to duck your head not to hit the ceiling. After about 1 hour you get to the end of the trip and you start touring back. The boat trip is popular both with Vietnamese and foreigners and the river is full of boats, the rowing women trying like in the entire Vietnam to sell you something else while you are a captive audience on board. We arrived at the harbor and after a short wait for the two artsy Vietnamese, we left to Hanoi, where before we reached the center of the city we slowed down to look into the dog meat market, a specialty that only in Vietnam is consumed. However, even here it looks like is eaten only by poor people and is looked down on. The market was depressing, or this was our perception not being familiar with this type of food, but probably the same would look any other meat market for a vegetarian!
Finally, we arrived in the city and right away I started to pound the streets to cover some ground before the tomorrow’s departure. I shot some video in the center and I arrived in the glitzy part of the town, where the Opera built by the French is located surrounded by the best hotels: the old Metropole now owned and managed by Sofitel and the new/old Hilton. The area around them is full of chic bars and restaurants, and there are also all the label-stores. I entered Esprit that was full of employees and no customer and one T-shirt was selling for half million dongs, same price like in the US! From there I went directly to see the Hanoi “Hilton”, the way the POWs were calling the jail of Hanoi. The person who was named the first ambassador in Vietnam in 1994 lived there for a while. The jail is still there but only a fraction of it, transformed in museum, because most of it was demolished to make space for a highrise with conference centers and luxury apartments. Times change and the place was primary real estate! I finished my tour with a visit to the St. Joseph cathedral where I stayed a little at the mass in Vietnamese and after that I went to find Cafe des Arts, a glitzy French restaurant were I wanted to eat in the last two nights in Hanoi but because I was too hungry I settled each night for a closer place to my hotel. The food was great, and the dishes were very interesting but I went for beefsteak tartar, something that rarely I eat but they boast that theirs is the best and it was!. All watered with a bottle of Halida local beer! After dinner I tried to call home but nobody answered so I gave up and now is late, and I am retyping this posting because I lost the first one, and I will go to sleep. Before going to the hotel I passed by a French pastry place and I got two great cakes and I stopped to ODC travel to pick up my plane ticket for tomorrow. It is very difficult in Vietnam to get exactly what you want because the command of the English language is very poor for the majority of the educated people. They are able to communicate but in simple lines, if you get them in subtleties they are lost and they don’t understand you at all. It turned out at the agency that the ticket is not on Vietnam Airlines but on Lao Airlines. First time they told me that is the same plane and they code-shared and latter they told me that they do have separate flights. Either I did not understand or they have no clue, and both are possible. In any case you cannot get the difference between: the same plane and the same flight! And they are completely lost in this! And this is ODC travel a pretty established agency but the employees are similar with many other agencies. The difference is made by the fact that some of them are more polite and look more professional in their neat offices. Finally I got to the hotel and I was able to post the last night post and write and rewrite this one. When I was in the middle of the first draft, Emin, the Irish guy from the Halong Bay boat, just showed up from his third day on Halong Bay (we did not know that we stayed and stay in the same hotel) and told me that the weather today was even worse then the other days, the boats were stopping and had to honk in order to keep in contact with each other because of the heavy mist.
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