Fried egg sandwich
We started the day off at 8am accompanied by a free fried egg sandwich for breakfast. A lot nicer than I was expecting to be honest. We were going on a boat tour in Trang An, a river and cave complex snaking between mountains. After breakfast, we ordered a taxi and made our way to Trang An, it wasn’t too long to get there. It always gets me excited when the city disappears and the mountains begin surrounding me.
We arrived in Trang An mid-morning, collected our tickets, and went to the boat. The small boats are rowed by local Vietnamese citizens; their upper body strength must be supreme by now. You get a little map of the different routes, and show your captain which route you’d like to go on. Depending on your route, you get to see a varying amount of temples and caves. For more info on the Trang An boat tour, click here. The price was 200’000 VND, but I don’t believe you could go solo. I think you have to have at least 3 people on your boat, and up to 4 people.
I'm on a boat
So our captain began rowing the boat whilst the sun was beating down on us, and we were internally competing with other boats. The boat meandered through the mountains, and it reminded me of Yangshuo in China. For my experience on the bamboo raft river tour in Yangshuo, click here. Except for the other boats, it was exceptionally quiet and peaceful. It’s not very often when you can get absolute silence.
We enjoyed sailing through the caves too, they gave us a nice reprieve from the baking hot sun. I did have to duck a few times to avoid losing my head, so be on the lookout for rocky outcrops! We had several stops at temples, but I’ve given up with them. They look nice and all, but they just don’t mean much to me, after all the temples I’ve seen so far. The scenery truly was flawless, gorgeous, and serene. I wish it lasted a bit longer than the 2 hours it took to go full circle to get back to Trang An once more.
Grab failed us
After we had finished the river tour of Trang An, we went back to the car park and shop area. I whipped my phone out and got Grab up. As we were out in the sticks a bit, there weren’t many taxis about at all. In fact, even the ones on Grab kept cancelling on us. After about 30 minutes of getting played, we decided to walk to the nearest settlement. We wanted to go to Mua Caves, contrary to the name, there’s a small mountain to climb. Our walk was a very hot one, down country roads, not a taxi to be seen anywhere.
I must admit, the scenery we were walking through more than made up for the walk. After perhaps 45 minutes to an hour, we made it to an isolated restaurant. All 3 of us were gagging for some food, so we ordered, waited, and chowed down. Qian was debating whether to go home, I think the bed bug incident had shaken her confidence. However, on the way to Mua Caves we managed to talk her into staying and carrying on, reassuring her the bed bug bites will disappear after a few days.
PTSD
After a decent walk, we finally made it to the entrance of the Mua Caves. We bought our tickets for 100’000 VND and proceeded to head to the base of the mountain. There were quite a few stalls and quirky monuments scattered alongside the path. I couldn’t see any caves, but it didn’t matter too much as we’d come for the view atop the mountain. The climb consisted of around 500 zigzagged steps which gave me a small flashback to Hua Shan. In all honesty, it couldn’t compare to Hua Shan in the slightest. We made it to the top in good time.
There was a stone statue of a long dragon which went along the peak of the mountain. Plenty of people were climbing on the sides in an effort to get further and reach the end of the peak. It was a bit dodgy due to the amount of people climbing under and over you. The rocks consisted of extremely spiky limestone, this made it very difficult to walk, stand, or sit on the surface. Mat and I eventually made it to the very end, not many people were here. Fortunately for us, the sun was just setting behind the hill in front of us. The surrounds were jaw dropping, we could see for miles, and it didn’t disappoint at all.
Returning to base
After the sun had set, we headed back down the mountain. We met Qian back at the bottom as she wasn’t too confident to climb where we managed to get to. I don’t blame her; it was a bit of a scramble up there. My first worry was that we were in the sticks and wouldn’t be able to find a taxi. Thankfully, there was a fellow nearby who quelled my uncertainty and picked us up gracefully. The 3 of us then made it back to the hostel, safe and sound.
Mat and I went to the shop because our 3-week data SIM runs out tomorrow, so we have to top it up. We took this opportunity to get some supplies and snacks for the hostel and for the road tomorrow. After we returned to the hostel, we turned in for the night.
