Vietnam

Tam Coc: The Alternative to Halong Bay for Tight Schedules

Tam Coc: The Alternative to Halong Bay for Tight Schedules

Had I more than one day to explore Northern Vietnam after my work engagements in Hanoi, I would’ve joined the masses in Halong Bay. No matter how beautiful the World Heritage Site was, however, taking an eight-hour round trip to spend four hours on a ship didn’t seem like a good use of my time. Tam Coc came up often in discussions about alternatives to Halong Bay; being less than two hours from Hanoi, it seemed like a sensible pick.

I decided on one of the many organised day trips that also included a visit to the ancient citadel of Hoa Lu and a bicycle ride around the rice paddies. The Ninh Binh region is full of the same limestone formations as those out at sea, but I’ll focus on the river ride in Tam Coc for this post.

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Photographs of Long Bien Market at Daybreak

Photographs of Long Bien Market at Daybreak

You know you’ve missed Hanoi’s Long Bien market at its peak when you can take photographs without getting pushed aside. However, it wasn’t even my intention to see the market on my first visit to Vietnam.

I’d set out from the Old Quarter at 5 that morning to snap the sunrise over the Long Bien bridge. While I didn’t get that iconic shot, I found myself wandering through one of the great street markets of Asia as it began to wind down. [Read on]