After about 380 km in our brown beast, our tireless nerve, yes, at 50 km / h … we arrived at Tam Coc !!!!

As the road was long, and we knew we would arrive late, we booked through Booking, a room at Hung Anh Homestay for 250,000 Dongs ($ 11) with breakfast. Upon arrival we were welcomed by a larger couple, in their 60s, very kind, attentive and smiling.

The woman asked us if we wanted to have dinner with her family that same night, our soul was touched, with the accumulated fatigue, that they invited us to share dinner with their family was a very nice gesture … until, in fractions of a second, we remember We were in Vietnam, in a tourist area, and we asked: how much will it cost? and she answered: 100,000 Dongs ($ 4.4) each, with a wide and friendly smile … hahahaha … We told him it was very expensive, we could pay 50,000 Dongs each, and he accepted …

Welcome to Tam Coc, the city where all the merchants smile at you as if it were Mother Teresa of Calcutta, or as if they had raised you like their own son … until they see that you are not going to buy anything … and the devil returns person to despise you … it is a half-hearted exaggeration … and the truth is that we did not like our stay in this city just because of this attitude so unhealthy and not very human.

The dinner with the family was quite good, simple but good, rice, chicken, rolls and vegetables and in a lot of quantity, so it was a good option for the price we paid.

The room was correct, the problem is that the woman was behind us all the time. That same night we went for a walk after dinner and when we returned we met a very nice Belgian couple who were in our same homestay. We had a beer together until the lady came to look for us to return to the homestay !!!!! It was late !!!! 11pm !!!! He sat at our table with a long face telling us that we had to come back … Excuse me !!!?

The next morning the same story, you were in the bathroom “shitting” and it poked at the door to give you more toilet paper … but there was already !!!! It was torture!

We went for a walk and started to ask for prices, we found for 180,000 Dongs ($ 8) in Lang Khanh Guest house and suddenly we said … Let’s get out of this homestay !!! how heavy they are !!! and at 13: 30h we went there saying that we were going to Hanoi, because if we told the truth we could charge extra … In the new site all right, more or less clean, A / C, breakfast … nothing heavy and cheaper! !! Great!!!!

The greatest attraction of Tam Coc are its landscapes. It is a plain with karstic rock formations, protuberances that suddenly stand out, they call it the Halog Bay of earth, or the land of Son Goku of Bola de Drac … (this is more petit committee). We visited the Bich Dong Pagoda.

We went walking, between rice fields and farmers up and down. It is a beautiful pagoda, you climb stairs and cross a cave, Mua Cave, revealing incredible views. Leaving the pagoda on the left there is a path that takes you to a very unique valley, the place is beautiful.

One of the biggest attractions is the rowing boat ride, carried by the locals, with the particularity that they paddle with their feet. The boat is usually contracted on the lake that is in the center of Tam Coc.

The ride is a bit expensive about 270,000 Dongs ($ 12) per person, so in our eagerness to save we had ruled out doing it … Until going to the pagoda, we saw another pier. There a lady stopped us, she told us that if we waited until 5pm the ticket office would close and we would get a discount.

We were caught a little by surprise, but we made an offer, 150,000 Dongs ($ 6.6) both, the woman accepted … Ok, we did not believe much … How we still had time we went to visit the pagoda and came back, the lady did not He separated from us in no time …

It was already 5:00 pm and she told us to hide in the entrance of a house, that she would let us know … all very furtive … We did not think it was immoral or that we were taking money to pay less, the other way around, if the women’s t-shirts are revealed this way because the money of the ticket goes to the pockets of the usual ones and not to theirs, and at the original price we had already decided not to, so we thought it was a fair deal for both parties …

After a while the lady came to look for us, we got into the boat and another woman told us to pay at that time, and we did. The trip began, in a small metal boat, piercing very shallow, the walk was between paddies, mangroves, aquatic jungle, full of lotus flowers, growing on the water, beautiful! As it was late there was no one, we were alone, between the kartic protuberances, in a natural silence, among birds, some fisherman, and our silence … beautiful moment …

At one point we came to a hole in the rock, the woman boarded towards her, we were getting into a cave, she told us to lower our heads, to lie down, as we got deeper and deeper into the cave, ends were just 5 cm from my face, while the roof and its protuberances were lower and lower, almost at the height of our chest … suddenly the lady told us something we did not quite understand:

phoun, phoun … Aaaah !!!! to light with the phone! phone !!!

We take the fronts and light. She kept advancing, until there was no space for the boat, and with nervous movements that made us doubt for a few moments, the recoil began … the rains had raised the level and we could not cross the cave … Awkwardly, because of the limited space available , he got the boat out of the hole … and we could breathe … uff … the adrenaline was at high levels … but we had enjoyed it as an adventure.

The boat trip continued with the same relaxation that had begun … a moment of conscious meditation … as a gift to our life … in a beautiful setting … Once at the jetty we said goodbye to the lovely lady, and back to Tam Coc.

That night we discovered the Minh Toan Restaurant Father Cooking, a restaurant that looks expensive but is good, nice and cheap !!!! better than the rest of the offer of the place. And then we met some Catalans, Raquel and Cesar, and we sat in some chairs in front of the supermarket with sign: Hanoi Foot Massage, to have a beer for 15,000 Dongs ($ 0.66) Bia Hanoi bottle … Perfect to finish the day!!!!

The next day we went for a walk among rice fields, where the farmers worked, among the mountains, crossing villages … with the nonsense we traveled 16 km in total, but it was worth it, the landscape is very beautiful. There are more places to visit in Tam Coc, but we did not have time for more.

Our next stop was Halog Bay or failing that, the cheap version, the island of Cat Ba. There we go Cat Ba !!!!