It did stop raining eventually

On Monday I decided to get out of the city for the day and set off on a one-day trip with Et-Pumpkin to Hoa Lu and Tam Coc.

I arrived at the office to meet the bus a bit before 8 am and was becoming slightly concerned when they had still not arrived by 8.15. Eventually a man came running in through the rain and said that the bus was around the corner. I walked around with him and got on the minibus and then was confused as to why we weren't leaving. There weren't any other people in the office who were coming on this tour and there weren't any hotels nearby that we could be picking people up from. The tour guide eventually got back into the minibus and explained about the wait. The bus driver had pulled in in a place where he shouldn't have, directly behind a traffic police car full of cops, who had then booked him. It seems that it is illegal for cars and buses to pull in to the side of the street in most of the old quarter but also nowhere else for them to stop to drop off or pick up passengers. So they just take their chances and hope that they don't have to pay the VND 200,000 fine too often. So once he had come up with the money we continued on through the streets collecting more and more passengers as well went. After that it was time to face the traffic and try to get out of Hanoi and onto the highway. Incredibly we seemed to have a driver that didn't use his horn constantly. I didn't think that they existed here.

We drove out into the countryside for a couple of hours, making a brief stop at a gift store in the middle of nowhere. It exists solely as a toilet stop for the buses going to Tam Coc, it seems. Eventually the mist cleared and we could see the limestone karsts that we had come to see. They appear out of the paddy fields and it really does look like the pictures of Halong Bay minus the water. Our first stop was Hoa Lu which is the old capital of Vietnam. It was originally built in the tenth century but most of the current buildings are from the seventeenth century. Like all historic sites in Vietnam, you arrive to a carpark full of stalls selling souvenirs and bottles of cold water, with multiple women calling out 'Hey madam, hey mister'. At least it's better than the 'Hey you' that you get further south. You then walk for a little while to get to the remaining buildings of the old city. It's the perfect spot to have built a capital. It is surrounded by lots of karsts and they provide a natural wall that would have been difficult to penetrate. There are two temples left that were dedicated to two of the kings that ruled the city. Both are very Chinese in style and beautifully preserved. There are some artifacts from the original temples but most of what is currently there is from the 17th century. They are laid out in a simple but very beautiful way that makes the most of the views of the surrounding gardens and hills. And inside are the statues of the kings and their families. The statues are wooden and then lacquered. It's very dark inside so you pretty much have to take photos to see the incredible detail that they have. The entire inside of the temples is painted in the most rich reds and golds. Truly impressive.

After Hoa Lu we continued onto Tam Coc. It is pretty much a place that runs on tourism now. Most of the people in the village are involved with tourism in some way and just farm and fish to feed themselves rather than as a source of income. We had lunch here and it was quite passable. I've had better meals but I've also had worse. We had goat kebabs which were really really good. It's a very sweet meat like a stronger, sweeter turkey. I'd definitely eat it again.

After lunch we set out on little boats to go and see the three caves along the river. There are so many boats when you go down the the edge of the canal which is this hideous monstrousity built to make the river more appealing to tourists. The sign over the wharf declares 'Tam Coc - Particularly interminable interesting'. I'm not quite sure what they meant to say. Eventually you get into a boat and head off into the dirty water. I was not feeling positive at this point because the whole thing at this point was pretty ugly. But then we got around the corner and it became really lovely. It's a long flat river that runs between the karsts and has rice and lotus flowers growing around the edges. The boats pretty much just follow each other up and down the river but it actually looks quite nice and it's great to watch the people rowing. When they get tired they row the boats with their feet which is really an impressive trick. As you go up the river you go through three limestone caves which are small but still attractive. Unfortunately people feel the need to run their hands along the roof of the cave as they go through, so large sections of it are discoloured. We saw local men fishing in the river with large nets. I suspect the boats nicely stir the fish up making it easier to catch them. The river is very shallow as the men were easily standing up in it. We did see some local wildlife. There were some goats up on the sides of the slopes (quite possibly the relatives of the ones we had at lunch)as well as a small swimming animal that Jim, the other tourist in my boat, was very taken by until I pointed out it was a rat. At the end of the cruise, there is a little turning circle that was full of boats with women selling drinks and snacks, which of course everyone bought for the rowers. And then after a brief break for our oarsman to have a ciggie, we turned around and headed back down the river. On the way back the women flog hand embroidered tablecloths and silk pictures to you. There's nothing like a captive audience.

The rowers need to make extra money his way though because they only get to row a few times a month and can only make 2 or 3 trips on each day. It is nearly 2 hours return and they only get about $2 per trip. Each family in the village has one boat and the younger people in the family take turns in rowing. The rest of the family works in the restaurants and cafes or produces souvenirs to make extra money. Not an easy way to make a living. I suspect that they don't have any trouble with teenage boys misbehaving in this village. A lot of them had to row the boats back again and I feel that they probably go to bed at 7 pm.

After the boat trip we turned around and made the trip back into Hanoi which took a couple of hours. On the way back we passed a bus full of people broken down on the side of the road that I'm sure that we had passed 7 hours earlier. They must be very patient people here.

Today I had to face the trauma of organising visas again. I'm thinking now that I won't ever go somewhere that requires a visa that you can't get at the border again. I set off to the Van Phuc Diplomatic Quarter to go to the Mongolian embassy. It's quite a way out of town, with a large number of embassies and various businesses to serve them all in a couple of blocks. Now I think that the Vietnamese have deliberately made it difficult going to the embassies so that their people don't emigrate. They have made the pavement around the buildings with possibly the slipperiest tiles in the world. There are no signs and the numbers of the buildings are not sequential. I would have thought that Villa 5 would be after Villa 4, but no it's between 3 and 8 down a little side street. After walking around the entire large block on the slippery tiles in the rain, I finally found the embassy and thankfully it was actually open. I think that I may have had a moment if they hadn't been open. The Mongolian embassy only opens on Tuesday and Thursday. I'm not sure what else the two people in the embassy do on the other days but they must find something to do with their time. I had to pay extra to get the visa in one day so that I could have my passport back to apply for my other visas. But at least I now have it.

I decided that while I waited for the visa to be done, I'd go to the Chinese embassy and see when they were open for visas. I had a bit of trouble finding it too because they have moved but not bothered to update the address on their own website. I finally found the consular section and they are only open until 11 am. Clearly they don't want people visiting and you can't even get the form for a visa without presenting your passport. So I left them to it and headed off for some lunch.

I went to Koto for lunch today and had a really nice meal. This is a cafe staffed by former street kids and it would not be out of place in Melbourne or Sydney. The food was great and they had chickpeas. I've been having withdrawal because I eat them at least 3 times a week at home and they don't really eat any legumes here except soybeans. They even did almond and orange syrup cake which was very very good. Definitely worth a stop if any of you are coming to Hanoi. I then went and sat in a park for a couple of hours reading my book, while I waited to get my visa. By this stage the sun had come out and it was getting really quite hot. After a short trip back to the embassy, I came back into the city to rent a new book (Love Planet bookshop rents books for 5000 dong a day) and have a lie down. I've really got into the Vietnamese habit of having a sleep after lunch and find that if I don't I'm flagging at 3 pm.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Perfume Pagoda on another tour so I'll write again in the next couple of days.