tam coc boat ride

near the start of the boat ride
(notice the guy rowing the boat with his legs on the right)

one of the few small over-head bridges we have to squeeze under...
better keep your head low!!!

nice scene there!!!

the padi fields that surround us

the couple with the cute adopted asian baby which were together with us for the tour

those ducks that keep u accompanied too along the way

view of the cave from outside...

inside one of the caves...

boat hawkers with their boats loaded with goods...

at the turn-about point...heh, i got a pretty korean lady wanting to feed me =P

hmm...the locals actually use umbrella???
i thought they aren't scared of heat...haha...

after a good lunch at one of the restaurant nearby (i luv the mango juice!!! it is just so fresh!!!), we took a 3 hrs boat ride down and back the little ngo dong river to visit tam coc, which means "three caves"...they are namely hang ca, hang guia, and gang cuoi...their length varies from 40-127m...strangely enough, me and the 2 gals were separated...2 of them took one boat while i shared mine with a vietnamese gal (named "te" or something but she is living in hawaii now) and a korean gal("nam keong"...same keong as me lol)...tam coc is famously known as the "halong bay on land" as the river is surrounded by similar limestone towers...u can also see wet rice padi fields by the side of the river as we paddle down...the feeling of being in nature is just so fantastic...but maybe not the strong sun...haha...along the way, u also see farmers carrying their rice harvests on their boat...usually, the boat paddlers will give u a small paddle too to let u have a go at the tough job of rowing the boat haha...but u probably will not get to master how they can actually paddle the boat using their feets!!! o.0""...after visiting the 3 caves, we took a break at the last cave where it is swarmed by boat hawkers...it seemed to be a practice for the tourists to treat their boat riders...so we bought some drinks and bananas...and heh, i met dawn and myyher there too...haha...the trip back was much enjoyable as it was nearing evening and the wind was finally blowing...probably around this time, the boat riders will start to bug u to buy some of the hand-made items they had...luckily for me, i had a vietnamese tourist on board, so she ended up the pityful one having to endure all the "noise pollution"...haha...while me and the korean gal happily "pretend" to be busy paddling...lol...i reached back much earlier than the gals and met up with the rest of the tourists first...i was treated to the lotus seeds fruit by one of them, but yucks, dun really like it...and when i saw dawn and myyher coming back...they seemed to look very tired, but probably due to the non-stop bugging of their boat riders more haha...i heard they had quite a time catching ducks too...so i probably leave their part of the story to them...=)