Trang An Boat Tour

Apparently, one cannot leave Ninh Bin without taking a boat tour, and as it’s only a 2 km bike ride from where we are staying, that’s what we did. At first, the sight of dozens of orange-jacketed tourists floating down the river, four to a boat, was slightly off-putting … but we joined the queue and were assigned a boat and very nice lady who would be rowing us (2 slender oars rowed forwards). We’d chosen a route with several caves. Once away from the starting point the number of boats diminished and it was very peaceful floating past overhanging vegetation and islands. As in many cultures Vietnamese are very respectful of older people and we often get referred to as grandma and grandpa … although they are slightly puzzled as to why we would want to hike and bike and carry backpacks.

The first cave was long and winding with outcrops and many places to duck right down (no health and safety here – you needed to pay attention). Our lady rower navigated with nary a bump. A 10 minute stop to visit a temple then on to the next cave. We’d noticed there were paddles tucked down the sides of the boat and that a few people were occasionally helping to paddle … so we asked our rower if she’d like us to help. She gratefully accepted. So off we set. Our boat companions were a young couple – she spoke Vietnamese but I think they lived in England. More interested in taking photos and selfies than paddling, but we didn’t care – the workout felt good. From time-to-time we noticed chatter between our rower and other rowers as we passed by … and one could hear the word Canada being mentioned (she knew where we were from).

Each cave was named … particularly liked the wine storage one – still with stone jars rather like the soy sauce ones (probably the wine was long gone). Further on a temple tucked under a rocky overhang and 350 steps to reach it. It was a fabulous 3 hour tour and we paddled throughout. These women (and a few men) rowers have amazing stamina — they’re doing two or more tours in a day, so if we could help a bit – great. As I was preparing to step back into the boat after the final stop, I hear “NO”. I look up, thinking it’s our rower … but no, it’s her friend in the next boat who laughingly wants us to go in HER boat. Perhaps she liked our paddling. <grin>

Far more boats on the river now, almost to the point of congestion. Glad we went when we did. Retrieved our bikes and rode back for a rest and a cup of tea. There’s duck for dinner, remember.

On time and hungry we sat down. The owner rushed over with a grin and typed on her phone, “Guess what we can offer our guests tonight… DUCK!” Looking over, sure enough her husband was busily chopping them up. We ordered two portions of duck with fried noodles and vegetables … but what arrived at the table were two whole ducks and a side order of noodles and veg. My goodness, there was enough to feed a family of four. It was very good, and we manfully (personfully) ate our way through one duck, but certainly couldn’t manage a second. We’ll definitely need a doggie bag (thank goodness there’s a fridge at our place.) The owner kindly suggested we bring it back and she’d reheat it with more vegetables, but cold duck for breakfast sounds good to us.