Hoa Lu and Tam Coc

Yesterday July 31st we went on a day tour to Ninh Binh province to see the ancient capital of Vietnam and the Tam Coc national park.

Hoa Lu is the ancient capital of Vietnam and was an important place in the 10th century! Apparently at one point this was an amazing place with many palaces and temples. As Wikipedia points out "due to the ravages of time" .... War.... There isn't much left to see here except some temples of the ancient king and his sons. Somewhere in this story the queen was married to two different Kings but I didn't catch the details of that little escapade. I'm sure google has more details for those of you who may be interested. this was home to three dynasties the dinh early Le and Ly. We went to two temples, and saw the five elements flag that is popular in Vietnam ( it lacks the black that is on the Chinese flag). As we were leaving the temple the sky opened up and unleashed typhoon style rains on us! I ran back to the bus in a plastic green polka dot rain poncho laughing the whole way! Silver lining, the rain is warm...thank the universe for a hot rainstorm in an interesting place! Here are some pictures of the temple...



-






















After the temple visit we continue to Tam Coc and took a little boat ride down the Ngo Dong river. This was a peaceful little float as the boat was rowed by two local women. They were very friendly for three quarters of the journey. Towards the end, they kept shoving us in the back and asking for "tip tip tip" and trying to get us to buy embroidery work from them. As if I really wanted to shop while floating down a river! At any rate this place was so beautiful no picture will ever to it justice! Once again in the middle of the float the rains came and we got absolutely drenched! It was good times though.






















Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam