I had a couple of days to explore around Hanoi and the two best possibilities that interested me were the Tràng An scenic area Near Hoa Lu or the Ha Long Bay area. Not going to lie, it was a toss up. But, I chose to come this direction since I knew I would be on a boat in Laos, so here we are.
Now a UNESCO World Heritage site, the area is a scenic landscape that includes special protected areas of the scenic spots. The World Heritage site protects more than 12,000 ha containing 2 main types of ecosystems. Mountain and Aquatic.
The natural vegetation at Hoa Lu is limestone forests and evergreen forests in valleys between limestone areas. Trang An terrestrial ecosystem has more than 600 species of plants, 200 species of animals, many of which are in Vietnam’s red list.
The aquatic ecosystem has about 30 species of zooplanktons and 40 species of benthos.
Yeah, that’s what the UNESCO site says. Have no idea what those are, but it sounded smart.
Some of the rare and precious plants that can be found in Trang An include cycas, Indian mahogany, orchids, juniper, Chinese yam and honeysuckle. There are also several species on the endangered list found here including leopards, and the phoenix pheasant.
But I did not see any of those things today. Probably because I was concerned about gravel.
One of the major things to do when visiting the area is to take a boat ride where local boat people guide you along the river and through the caves for a relaxing experience.
It is also the river equivalent of Hanoi traffic. So many people you see more life vests than fish and the term tourist trap keeps jumping out of the back of my mind.
But it was relaxing. The boat keeper did all the work, and Teresa, who did make it into and out of the boat, relaxed and conversed.
Watching the other boats pass us we could see quite clearly they were rowing with their feet. I can barely stand on my feet some days, so the fact they were reclined, studying their phones and rowing along the river using only their feet peaked my curiosity.
It appeared mostly the women were rowing with their feet, but that was not entirely true. It appeared perhaps some rowed upstream with their arms and downstream with their feet. Again, not entirely true.
Some wore shoes, which puzzled me because with bare feet or socks at least they could ‘grip’ the oars. I have no idea how they were able to make it work while wearing crocs.
I believe in the end, they were all showing off for the tourists. It worked.
The river flows past striking scenery, a grave yard and temples, and through caves before we turned around and returned to the shore. All the while, not a care in the world and relaxing. It was a high point of the day, and proved to be the relaxation needed between the pogo pedals and the mountain climb.
When we were on the river, it was pointed out that on top of a mountain there was a dragon statue, and a pagoda. Mind you, I wanted to do this. Climb the mountain and see the pagoda. It was on my list and tossed in that bucket everyone is so obsessed with.
But sitting in a boat on the river below, I was not sure I would make it to the top before March. Certainly not by the end of the day. Probably not by March. I might still be up there when my planes leaves for home in April.
I guess we wait and see.
