Van Long Nature reserve & Kenh Ga floating village
13/8/2013: Visitng Van Long Nature Reserve and Kenh Ga floating village by motorbike
Today was my second day in Ninh Binh and the only thing really interesting around here is the scenery so I took another day discovering the stunning landscapes of the area! Yesterday I went by bike but since I have been cycling a lot lately I decided to shake things up a little bit today and take a motorbike trip instead - Yes Mum it was as dangerous as you might think it was BUT I survived (hence this post)! The hotel has shown excellent service all around but this trip wasn't in itself anything speciel, the motorbike driver didn't speak English, wasn't very helpful and skipped the last part of the tour (which I tried telling him without any luck) but you win some and you loose some and it actually ended up being a very interesting trip anyway. There were two reasons for this, the first was that I after 50 minutes drive arrived at the most beautiful river in the middle of the karsts, but unlike yesterday in Tam Coc, there was not a single person in sight other than the lady who was to sail me down the river!! It was the most peaceful and stunning scenery you can imagine, completely undisturbed!!
The second reason that the tour ended up being something I will remember for a very long time, is that the woman that rowed the little boat didn't speak a single word English yet we had a very long and interesting conversation without using any mutual words other than "dep" which means beautiful (a VERY useful word to know when wanting to take photos of people by the way)! She explained that she was 77 years old and rowed a boat 7 days a week. The weather was ridiculously hot so we took shelter from the sun in a cave for a little while and she showed me how to make necklaces from waterlilies, she made me a hat from the big waterlily leaves and we laughed about photos of her. It is the first time I have really been using what I learned at the photo workshop, namely that if you want to take a photo you make friends with them, ask them nicely and then interact with them about the photo afterwards - it is amazing how much laughter a photo can result in. One of the ways in which Vietnamese people are very different from westernes is that they are ruthlessly honest. If you take a photo of an old lady or man when showing them it say "dep" they might say "Xau XI" which means ugly - they tell it as they see it and they will say it about each other as well, not trying to be hurtful just honest!!
Another great experience I had here was the happiness that what seems like very small gestures to us can bring to local Vietnamese people in less touristy areas. Before going to Tam Coc yesterday I had read that tourists should buy things from the vendours along the river even if they try to convince you to buy something to drink or eat for the woman rowing because most likely the rower will sell the items back to the vendours at half price so they both make money and this had made me think a lot about sincerety and the impact of tourism. Because the Vietnamese people genuietly seem like very sincere and nice people but somewhere along the way tourism has clearly affected their way of seeing opportunities to make a profit of the tourists that they might feel like almost "invade" their villages, rivers and life in general with big cameras and money. Today though, I had an experience of genuiet gratitude from the old woman rowing the boat when I offered her a bottle of water that I had brought in case pushy sellers were trying to guilt trip me into buying something to drink for the rower. She put on the biggest smile I have seen, thanked me so many times during the trip, drank the whole water and when I got off the boat again thanked me (remember no English but "nho" is easy to remember and her pointing at the water bottle made the rest clear). I know it might seem silly but it made me so happy to see after the day before seeing the rowers in a overly touristy area selling back the items the tourists bought for them (yes it did happen several times for tourists in other boats around me).
Anyways, enough about the lovely rowing woman (whos name I unfortunately didn't catch because that was too difficult for her to communicate apparently)! After the nice cruise down the river the motorbike guy took me to Kenh Ga floating village where another boat was waiting for me. Unfortunately there weren't anyone else on the boat so I did another sole cruise but this time through a small floating village. I am sure that if I hadn't seen the life on the Mekong River last year in Lao I would have found this experience intriguing but I wasn't very impressed. However all in all it was a very nice day "back in nature" and I can highly recommend stopping by in Ninh Binh should you ever get the chance!!
Below are a few photos from my day:
View from the boat cruise down the river in the Van Long Nature Reserve, this is one of the biggest protected wetland areas in Vietnam (I think)!
Finding shade in one of the beautiful caves along the river
The lovely woman rowing the boat, a new friend! This was the photo she liked the most so I decided it would be most appropriate to post this one :)
The waterlilies necklace she made me
Boat taking me around Kenh Ga floating village
So ready to go!
Though the background view was very much the same as the Van Long Nature reserve this boat was more comfy - A good Jack Johnson song on my ipod and I was chilling MAX while drifting down the river
The last few photos are shots from the village, it was unfortunately midday which meant most people were relaxing in the shade inside their boats and riverside houses
