Another really good day today with some parallels to yesterday. After a couple of hours in a van we got to Hoa Lu, ancient capital of Vietnam (we will be visiting another capital later in the trip). The pictures above are from there. In truth there isn't a lot to see there as the city fell into ruin and what wasn't ruined was subsequently destroyed by invaders. Our guide tells us the government has embarked on a plan to rebuild the city as it once was but that seems a long way away.
The surrounding area is very beautiful. Unfortunately too beautiful. for its own good. We took a bike ride around the area. The first part of the ride was along a good new road, the first good bit of road we've come across in Vietnam so far. Given it's in the middle of nowhere, 2 hours from Hanoi, and with a couple of diggers busy at work it looks like they are getting ready to build hotels and spoil the very thing people would come to see. That's developers for you. We rode for about an hour and it is a really beautiful spot. I have posted some of the photos above.
Our bike ride took us to a place called Tam Coc, where we had a nice lunch. After lunch we took a boat up the river. This is similar to yesterday but had its differences. Most of the people rowing here had the oars on their feet (as per the photo) rather than their hands, though some people used the more orthodox method.
The river was every bit as serene, tranquil, and beautiful as the river yesterday. Along the way we went through 3 caves, which are literally cut through the bottom of those massive mountains. We rowed into the cave and under the mountain and then came out the other side. Brilliant. For thye record we had a guy do the rowing today though most of the rowers were women.
Finally, a recurring theme. The traffic here has to be seen (and heard) to be believed.Today we saw at least 3 examples of people carrying 20 foot poles or planks of wood on push bikes and motor bikes. The traffic is totally chaotic and could probably be used to study fluid mechanics. We saw some repairs being carried out on the freeways - these people have never heard of workplace safety. One small metal sign and a dozen cones is all the warning you get that there are people a few metres ahead and the lane you are in is closed. The number of near misses in traffic is huge but amazingly (thankfully) we haven't seen a bingle yet.
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