Another bumpy night bus endured, we arrived in Tam Coc at 4am. I had contacted our accommodation – Green Peace Bungalows – to let them know of our early arrival and very kindly they agreed to let us check in on arrival so we could get some sleep in our room. Our hostess at the accommodation was absolutely lovely and proved to be super helpful over the following 2days staying here. Once we had sufficiently caught up on sleep and stretched out creaks in our necks from the bus, we ventured into Tam Coc to explore the local sights. The town itself is tiny but has plenty of small traditional restaurants and coffee houses. Still recovering from the arduous journey from the night before, we decided to go on a row boat tour which was highly recommended by our hostess. The traditional Vietnamese way of rowing is not with their hands but with their feet. With three of us packed onto a small wooden rowing boat, it was impressive to watch this small Vietnamese lady propel the boat along, let alone with her feet! The boat ride lasted around 90minutes and honestly was through one the most beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. This area is often nicknamed “Halong Bay on land” and after marvelling at the sky scraping mountains over the calm waters we rowed through, I could understand why. It was a very calming experience, listening only to the sound of the water on the paddles as we glided past flooded rice paddies and through caves. We were lucky to see kingfishers flit across the waterways and see ladies working in the fields harvesting the rice crop. It is customary to tip at the end of the trip, however we didn’t expect the lady to outwardly ask for it and then show obvious dismay over what we had given her. Another strange experience but she seemed happy enough when we left.
The following day we rented scooters from our accommodation. Our hostess was kind enough to allow me to practice on one of the scooters, as I hadn’t ridden before. After a slightly hesitant and wobbly start, we hit the road with me driving and Luke on the back, towards a nearby Pagoda. The grounds consisted of a small courtyard and then lots of stone steps leading up to a shrine hidden within a cave. On the way out, we noticed some dogs in the courtyard and as we walked through to exit, one dog ran out and bit Luke on the leg. After Luke had given it a bit of a whack and the owner bothered to appear to call it off, the dogs disappeared. The wound was on his left thigh and was not deep, more of a graze from a tooth but unfortunately it had drawn blood. This lead to me fretting about whether he’d need treatment for potential exposure to rabies. The decided the best plan of action was to return to town and seek some advice from out host who could liaise with Vietnamese medical services should we need to. Unfortunately the universe seemed to not want to play fair, as my scooter then broke down about 2minutes after leaving the pagoda. Our friend Mark was with us fortunately and he was able to go and get some petrol to revive my bike. On return to the accommodation and after explanation of what had happened to our hostess, she brought Luke to a nearby pharmacy who checked the wound and recommended he clean it and dress it with an iodine patch. I had the supplies needed but was still concerned regarding rabies exposure. Luke and I had received the vaccines to protect against rabies prior to our trip, however the protocol states if blood is shed then a following course of shots is recommended. This was unearthed from my frantic google searches rather than from the pharmacy staff. The information I had researched stated that he had up to 6days after a bite to receive the shots, therefore we planned to head to Hanoi within that time frame.
The rest of that day was a bit odd due to the drama of the dog attack that morning. We felt we didn’t immediately have to attend for urgent medical attention however it seemed weird to carry on sight seeing as if nothing had happened. Luke however insisted we did, so after thoroughly cleaning and dressing the wound we mounted the scooters again and drove around 15km to Trang An. Here, we went on another row boat trip which lasted around 2hours. We selected a route which involved going through caves, past temples and of course through stunning mountain scenery. Upon returning to town, we went to get some food and planned the next part of our trip north towards Halong Bay.
Gone Travelling 
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