Tapp's Travels

What I forgot to say, was that last evening, the local song and dance routine ended with a bit of audience participation!

Back to this morning (Saturday 10 January).  We had moored alongside an area of riverside which was being actively re-developed.  Effectively,  we were parked adjacent to a ship building yard!

We were bussed to Tam Coc near Nihn Bihn, where we were taken for a ride in little rowing boats powered by foot-rowing drivers.  This lady was our personal “motor”.

As we left the boarding area we passed patches of water-lillies …

… and then, as we headed upstream into the Gorge, we navigated through a series of caves.

To be fair, my (carefully selected) photos do not reflect the number of boats being paddled up and down the creek!  There were hundreds of them!  Passing traffic! …

Well, that was a bit of excitement!  Nobody fell in and nobody bashed their head in the caves!

The Ngo Dong River winds through limestone karst mountains, forming the three natural water caves (Hang Ca, Hang Hai, and Hang Ba).  (And that appears to translate as Main cave, cave two and cave three!)  (Imaginative!)

Later that day, a trip to Phat Diem revealed … Oh no … is that yet another temple?

Oh, NO – it’s not!  It’s a catholic church – a cathedral even!  A cathedral fronted by a very temple-like building.

Built entirely of stone and ironwood, the cathedral took 24 years to complete.  It is known as the “Stone Church” or the “Catholic Capital of Vietnam”.  It is considered one of the most beautiful churches in Vietnam.

Inaugurated in 1891, the cathedral is 74m long, 21m wide, and 15m high – a huge space.  Inside, there are six rows of solid ironwood columns (48 columns in total), with the two central rows reaching 11m in height and 2.35m in diameter, each column weighing approximately 10 tons.  These massive wooden pillars were transported and installed using the rudimentary technology available at the time … and, presumably, a lot of people-power!

On either side of the main church are four smaller churches said to have “harmonious architecture”.

The cathedral was bombed in 1972, when it’s west wall, a convent and two schools located on the site were damaged.  However, restoration has removed all traces of this damage.

Apparently, catholicism is a major religion in this region.  They probably need to pray a lot to make sure they get the correct internet connection!

Driving back to the ship, we passed an Adidas factory just as the workers were streaming onto the road heading for home!  Absolute chaos, but no actual accidents.

We now have a long steam ahead of us.  By far the longest trip between excursions.  The captain made some miles that evening, passing under the illuminated Thiên Truròng Bridge on the Sông Nam Ðinh River.

By morning we found ourselves on the Luôc River.

While we were on this busy and rather industrial section of the delta waterways, we were treated to a comprehensive tour of our ship.  We met the most important person on board!

Head chef, Hung Le … and his crew (Khanh, Thanh and Ku) in their tiny galley.

And the second most important  – Thao, our captain!

The water treatment plant where river water is filtered and chemically treated before being circulated round the ship as “not-for-drinking” water.

Pandaw are going to have to buy fresh water from tomorrow as we have no de-salination plant on board.  (And the water of Halong Bay is salty!)

We also saw the laundry, crew quarters, storage areas and waste water treatment plant as well as the twin propulsion engines (noisy) and the twin electrical generators.  The last of these are run alternately to stop them overheating.  All very “compact”!

During the tour of the boat, we had apparently quietly snuck onto the Sông Kihn Mon River, to be followed by the Thai Binh River.  This part of the waterways of the delta is definitely NOT pretty.  There’s lots of evidence of coal mining and transport.

Lots of construction going on with associated loss of rice paddies.  And lots of garbage everywhere.   Not at all pretty.  No wonder the captain had us confined to the lower decks!

I’m now hopelessly lost in the delta, but we are approaching the north side of Haiphong.  So that’s good news!  If we had stayed on the main waterways we could have been at sea south of Haiphong hours earlier.

However, we are scheduled to visit Than Ha village to watch a performance of water puppets.  This building in a pond is the location.  The band and singers are hidden on the main floor, while the puppeteers and assistants are underneath wearing long waders.

Pandaw pay for the show for their passengers, but all locals are welcome.  Certainly the young children of the village were enjoying the show with enthusiasm.  I guess this is a regular event taking place twice every 22 days.  I’m also guessing that some of the kids come to each show!  The show reflects all aspects of village life.

Puppets can be seen planting rice, driving their water Buffalo and fishing for very lively fish.  The buffalo appeared to get into a fight at one point!  All the action is controlled from below water level by the puppeteers behind the screen.  From time to time water dragons appeared, but as the songs and narration was all in Vietnamese, we were a little unsure of the plot!  But we did get a close up demo of one of the dragons after the show!

The following morning we sailed out of the Cám River …

… passing huge container handling cranes near the rivermouth at Haiphong into Ha Long Bay.

But that’s tomorrow’s story!