Vietnam 2013 Day 6 – Van Lung and Phat Diem and return to Hanoi

Another early day starting out at 7am breakfast with Pho at the hotel.

0740 was on the motorcycle toward Van Lung (75,000 VND) . Again, karst landscape, but seems less commercialised thanTam Coc or Trang An. But not the rower, who demanded a tip. I really dislike it when a tip is demanded for or assumed. I gave her 10,000 but then she asked for US$1 so I gave her another 10,000.

Van Lung has only one cave that you can row through, but there seem to be more birds, I saw them sitting up on the edge of the mounds and later, as we were leaving, they started to take off into the sky. It was a lot more quiet, not the stream of boats at Trang An or Tam Coc. It’s probably less popular as it is further out from the city.

The locals there are growing some sort of freshwater clams in the water.

I noticed these pink things growing on rocks and plants. They were there in Trang An too. The rower claims they grow up to be clams, but I doubt it.

Going even further out and in the opposite direction of Van Lung, we went past Ninh Binh city again and rode on the motorcycle for one and a half hours to get to Phat Diem, a cathedral with both Vietnamese and European style achitecture. It’s built with stone and wood.

As we approached the area, I noticed an increased number of churches in the area.

I tried a local snack called Bahn Gai unique to Phat Diem. Think of it as an un-oily ang ku kueh. The filling is bean, the outside is a rice flour mixed with a leaf that makes it green. It’s okay tasting, just unrefined.

The motor-taxi driver took me to the bus station for a pho (40,000 VND) lunch. I probably paid for his bowl as well. So this is my conclusion. The pho of Ninh Binh is a lot more oily than that of Hanoi, where pho originated. The beef is cut less thin and more thoroughly cooked. The breakfast version had a lot of onions. The afternoon version, ginger. Both of these are not immediately apparent in the Hanoi version. I would also say that the Hanoi version is more subtl

I took the Ninh Binh – Hanoi bus for 60,000 VND and arrived in one of the many bus stations in Hanoi. Not knowing where I was, I took a taxi back to Joseph’s Hotel, my base in Hanoi. The taxi cost me 100,000 VND. From my GPS track, I see the bus station was really on the outskirts of the city.

For dinner, I had nem by the roadside for 25,000 VND. It was a lot of refried stuff containing, minced pork and mushrooms. Some had vermicelli in it. Some didn’t. Again, it came with a basket of leaves and the salty-sweet dipping sauce with papaya.

The round one was covered in a chewy dough. Didn’t like that too much.

The Hanoians were eating it with such relish, I thought I’d give it a try. But frankly, it was quite disappointing. I returned to the hotel and was told that what I ate was called nem, and that everyone has their own version.

I was still hungry, so I found another roadside stall selling pho – yes, my third for the day – at 35,000 VND. This one I had to try, because you are eating the cooked meat in front of the raw meat.

And here are some snapshots along the way when I was on the motor-taxi.

I saw quite  a number of these tents out. Seems like a good time to get married.

Vietnamese houses tend to be built like this: Narrow and tall.