The driver I found via trip advisor arrived promptly at 9 to transport us to Nihn Bihn, South East of Hanoi. We scored an SUV for the two hour drive. The plan was for him to take us to Trang An in Nihn Bihn for a three hour boat ride, wait for us, then drop us at the hotel. We didn’t know his name, but clearly trusted him with all our stuff! The driver, we’ll call him Toe, didn’t udder a word the whole time. Not until Dayne and I were questioning a gathering of people (of course out on the sidewalk.) Dayne said, “Must be a wedding.” To which Toe suddenly chimed in “Funeral.” An hour in the car with him and that’s the only thing he said to us. “Funeral.” But Toe was a good driver and that is important. We got to the boat launch and purchased our tickets for the three hour tour down the river through glorious scenery and caves. Strangely, the rowers were primarily women. We were placed in the tippy boat with a sweet young couple from France, who were spending a month touring Vietnam. Side note: When we informed them of how many PTO days we got in America, they were shocked at how few and didn’t understand the mixing with sick days. Me too.
So, off we went on our way. We passed through breathtaking postcard imagery, with the occasional stop – planned primarily, I’m convinced, to allow us the opportunity to make fools of ourselves trying to get out of the boat. The seats were really low, the boat kinda tippy and the pull of gravity for the “bottom heavy” strong. Graceful we were not.
Back in the boat, we went through the first cave and immediately our thoughtful and caring rower, let’s call her Pham, yelled “WATCH HEAD!!” Lest we be decapitated by the hardened lava-like rocks suspended from the ceiling. “Watch Head.” I got you Pham, you don’t have to tell me twice. All four of us in the boat dived forward attempting to put our heads in our laps! All but Pham who, while sitting upright, was still small enough to clear the jagged guillotines.
The ride through the mountains was the same type of scenery we saw in Halong Bay, but this time it felt far more up-close and personal. It was jaw dropping. Dayne and I had almost skipped this tour, as three hours in a row boat sounded rough. I have three herniated discs in my neck. Long spells on hard seats are murder. But I decided I really didn’t want to skip this. And I’m so happy we didn’t! Fortunately, the low seats were not at all hard on my neck. Sadly, the same cannot be said for my knees. But I’d already learned that Vietnam hates knees, so I was getting used to squatting.
We made our way back to the launch point some three hours later, but not before racing the other tour boats to the finish! We all grabbed some small paddles on board, and helped Pham eek out second place. We had actually helped her off and on the entire trip, because she weighed all of 110 lbs and was hauling four of us like a viking. Like I said in my last post, these people work hard! And it’s freaking hot! So here’s to Pham, may she always remember to “watch head.”
Drink and Go Places 