The journey to Hoa Lu took us through long stretches of highway and packed bumpy roads. It was harvest season. In some communities, each household dries its own harvest of rice along driveways and flat surfaces -- any flat surface. In fact, a whole lane of a quiet highway is covered in a layer of light brown grain as it dries in the scorching sun.
Drying Grain
Hoa Lu is was once, the ancient capital of Vietnam, and is rural area that still bears the relics of the 10th century. It is a lovely picturesque area, filled with rice plantations and limestone mountains
The Temple
Tam Coc: Halong Bay on Land
Around us the greenery wrapped limestone mounds rise out of the mirror-like lake which winds its way past a lush carpet of rice plants. We see villagers hard at work, harvesting the rice; white smoke drifts up in the distance and the whirr of a machine can be heard. Our boat rower uses her arms, then feet to aptly guide the long thin metal skiff through the clear water. It is breathtaking here -- and also as a large sign declares, Safe and Friendly.
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