Tam Coc - Ha Long on land

Some of my friends told me that they love Tam Coc more than Ha Long bay. I couldn’t see the connection to compare between the two places until they told me Tam Coc is considered as Halong on land. I told myself I had to check it out.

I went to Tam Coc in July when it was really hot. The cool beauty of Tam Coc cooled down the hot weather.  

Tam coc is around 100km far from Hanoi. I was in a van with a group of people from different walks of life. We became travel mates in the whole day.

• First, we visited the king place

• Second, we took boats to go through the 3 big caves 

Our lunch 

How can you get there from Hanoi?

• Motorbike: It will take around 2 hours 
• Slow van: Go to Giap Bat station,Catch the bus with the destination 'Nho Quan - Me' (normally with pink colour), you will arrive at a bus station which is around 10km far from the beginning of the park. You now can get a taxi or a motorbike to go to the park.  (It takes around 3 hours by this slow van and it is really crowded. They try to arrange 5 people share 4 seats. The van goes in the old road so if it is in winter, it is a good chance to do sightseeing. The price of the van is 70.000 VND)
• Fast van: Go to Giap Bat station,Catch the bus with the destination 'Ninh Binh' then you stop at the three-way crossroads, you then should get the bus to go to Nho Quan - Me. (It takes around 2 hours by this fast van. The price of the van is 70.000 VND)
• Rent your own car: just gather a group of people then rent your own car then you can be more proactive and dont get stuck with all the taxi or motorbike drivers push you. 

Patricia (my British friend) and i went to Ninh Binh by the fast van and came back by the slow van. We arrived Nho Quan around 12.15Pm which mean we only had 2 hours for going to the park then hiking because the last bus to go back Hanoi is 4pm. It was so hot and some guys just kept pushing us to get into the taxi. 

I was surprised when Patricia told me that 'Let's go home'. She told me sometimes the best way to finish something is to stop doing it. We went all the way down to the bus station and got to know the way everything works, we would have to spend a big amount of money to get inside the park if we continued. We were happy to just go back Hanoi and went for ouraerobics class as well as gym class. 

And yes, dont forget to drink sugar cane with a cheap price -10.000VND for 1 litter). 

To be continnued!

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