We’re back in Hanoi again after completing our two-day excursion out of the city in the south-west. There are a few bits and pieces we need to tie up in town before heading back to the DeSyloia for dinner and an early night, then we’re off to Halong Bay tomorrow at around 7am so an early night is on the cards.

We left Cuc Phong National Park at around 8am this morning, after a simple breakfast of bread, jam and the strongest, sweetest coffee I’ve tasted since I’ve been here. Looking around the place, you get the impression that a few years ago it was very grand affair. In recent times it seems as though it’s fallen into disrepair, and could do with a lick of paint to restore it to it’s original glory.

Our first port of call today was a small village outside Tam Coc, better known as “Halong Bay in the Rice Fields”.

It was here we left our guide and met a local woman and her son, who piloted us up a small river through some of the most etherial landscapes I have ever seen. The peace and tranquility was interrupted only by the sound of the rowing, and the odd duck swimming away from us.

The entire journey upstream took about an hour, ending in a cave formation opening out to more paddy fields and a tiny pagoda. Our boat pilot took a few moments to stop and pray before we headed back the way we came, stopping only to demand we pay tourist tax along the way*.

After a delicious (and enormous) lunch in the nearby tourist town, we visited a pair of temples in Hoa Lu before heading back to Hanoi for an overnight stay in the DeSloyia.

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* This is where you are offered to buy some local handicraft or other such items by impoverished villagers or townsfolk in a captive or awkward to get out of situation (ie. on a boat in the middle of nowhere), and it’s too difficult to say no. This was first coined by Emma when in Madagascar, when a woman came up to us at dinner and offered us some carved sticks. The term Tourist Tax Sticks was first coined in this instance, which can also be further abbreviated to “touristastic”.