Day 141 – Tam Coc
Enjoying mountains and caves of Hang Mua
Today I was once again very grateful to my wife as she washed out my eyes, which were still red and itchy from the insect attack yesterday.
After breakfast we rode our rented bicycles from Phi Hung’s Unique Homestay to Hang Mua Cave. We cycled the 4km in around 30 minutes using the path we took yesterday to go to Trang An (Day 140) . We turned off at the signs pointing to the Hang Mua Ecolodge. We had read about people on the side of the road yelling “stop” and blowing whistles telling you to park at their shops, but we kept going as advised. We were rewarded with free parking behind the ticket office. The tickets to the Ecolodge cost 100,000 VND / $6.06 AUD per person.
The Hang Mua Ecolodge, is pretty cool, with lots of shops, statues and small waterfalls. From the main road you can see the iconic Temple and Dragon on top of the mountain. We decided to climb up here first. It took us around 20 minutes to climb to the peak. Lots of reviews had said it should take 40 minutes, so it really depends on the fitness level. The dragon is actually a bit higher than the path, so to get there you have to climb the mountain face which can be scary.
After taking a few pictures and more importantly enjoying the views, we climbed down to the “Lovers Valley”, which had small seats set up, so we had some snacks here. After chilling for a while, we noticed a few people climbing down from the seating area. We decided to follow a few of the paths. They were not maintained as a far as we could tell they didn’t go anywhere, so we turned around after a few minutes.
We climbed up to the small pagoda/shrine on the opposite mountain and the views from here were stunning. Also you have nice views of the dragon. After this we walked down the mountain and towards a small island in the Ecolodge. It was here, we accidental found the Cave. The cave is impressive due to the size of the open area and the amount of stone above. It was used by the King back in the day. It did look like a cool function hall. We spent a total of 2 hours at the complex.
Tiger Cave Hang Mua Cave Hang Mua Cave Pearl Spring
We then cycled back to the homestay to drop off the bikes. We had to wait around, as our room was actually being cleaned by the owner. After we went back to the room and dropped of the bags, we walked to have a super late lunch at Seven Coffee, which was a local shop with tasty cheap Ba Minh!
From Seven Coffee, we walked 15 minutes to Thai Vi Temple. There was a friendly care taker who turned the lights on as we approached. The temple looks similar to the other temples in the area, but is beautifully located with nice landscape around.
After exiting the Thai Vi Temple, we kept following the road, away from the town and came across a cave temple. We went inside and checked it out. It was nice, due to the opening in the cave. Walking further down the road, we noticed that we could once again see the dragon at the Hang Mua Caves.
We had dinner at Khoa Dung Restaurant, which once again had nice and cheap food. The owners have a cute pug, that was trying to bite my better half as we were leaving! It just let me pat it though! I love dogs =D
