Tam Coc Cave Tour in Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam

One of the more popular day tours from Hanoi is to go to the Ninh Binh province, especially to do the Tam Coc caves (which actually means three caves). There are a couple of styles of boats that will take you along the Ngo Dong River, but the ones where the oarsman rows with their feet are different from anything else that we’ve done. The caves themselves are quite interesting as they have been carved out by the river and they actually create tunnels that take you under the mountain by boat.

Rowing with Their Feet
Going Through a Cave
Boats Going One After Another Through the Caves
Beautiful Scenery

The area of Ninh Binh is also known as the Halong Bay of Inner Vietnam for obvious reasons if you visit both of them as we did. The scenery is absolutely beautiful with the mountain scenery and the rice paddies. Due to the popularity of the tour, you will likely find a lot of boats on the river with you as you make your way through the three caves. In fact, we actually teased during our tour that it almost felt like we were on a ride in Disneyworld as the boats went one by one through the caves.

Enjoying Our Boat Ride in Local Hats
Fascinating Ceiling of a Cave
View Along the River
Overhanging Rocks

Most tours provide you with a local, handwoven hat, which you will need to protect from the sun during the hour and half tour. The limestone caves have unique formations due to the elements that have created them and will be within arm’s reach at some points as you make your way through them. One of the caves is so long that you will virtually be in the dark as you pass through it. As the boat turns around after passing through the last cave, there will be boats with local vendors offering to sell you drinks, snacks, and other items.

Selling Items After the Final Cave
Low Ceiling of a Cave
More Interesting Geology
Start of the Tour

We saw so many amazing sights during our time in Vietnam and Tam Coc in the Ninh Binh province was certainly one of our favorites. There are a variety of choices of places that you can visit during a Ninh Binh tour, but we would highly recommend making Tam Coc one the choices that you make. Between the scenery, the caves, and the unique boats, it is well worth dealing with the potential crowds.

Mountainous Terrain
Rocks Along the Shoreline
More of the Scenery
Approaching a Cave

 

Old Town Alexandria, Virginia

Walking the streets of Old Town Alexandria was very nostalgic for us and reminded us of walking the streets of old towns in Europe. The history of Old Town Alexandria may not go back as far as those medieval towns, but it does have its roots in the foundation of the United States. Situated just outside of the Nation’s Capital, Washington D.C., the cobblestone streets of the city were once walked by many historic figures that influenced and shaped the country. Even today, you can still find gas lit lamps on the sides of the brick buildings that date back to the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

King Street is the Main Street of Old Town
Walking the Side Streets
Beautiful Homes
Historic Streets with Shops and Restaurants

Today, of course, the streets are lined with upscale cars and tourists enjoying the variety of restaurants, retail stores, antique shops, and museums that are in the area. It is a residential area with a very walkable lifestyle, although it is a very expensive area to live in. At night the streets are lit up and the streets are full of people enjoying a night out on the town, especially during the summer, but even in the fall when we were there.

Nighttime in Old Town Alexandria
Autumn in Old Town
Brick Buildings
Working Gas Lamps

In the early days of its history, it was a busy seaport as boats would make their way up the Potomac River to deliver their goods to be sold in the Northern Virginia area. Today, the waterfront area is a bustling art district with the focal point being the converted Torpedo Factory, which houses a variety of artists selling their artwork. There are also many restaurants with views of the river where you can enjoy a nice meal while watching the yachts, river taxi, and dinner boats that make their way along the Potomac.

Waterfront Restaurant
Sitting Riverside
Yacht on the Potomac River
Marina in Old Town

We had a short visit, so we spent most of our time walking the streets and stopping in a few shops and restaurants, but we did take the time to tour the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary Museum. Founded in 1792, it was an active apothecary in this particular location from 1805 to 1933. Upon closing, it was immediately purchased and preserved as a museum, with all of the original ingredients still in their glass jars almost a hundred years later. Although most of the sales of the apothecary were to other pharmacies around the area, but they did mix and fill prescriptions for many people, including George Washington and his family as they have notes from Martha Washington requesting prescriptions.

Apothecary Sign
Inside of the Museum
Glass Bottles
Unicorn Root and Mandrake Root

A visit to the Washington D.C. area should definitely include taking time to step back in time and walk the streets of Old Town Alexandria. Although the restaurants can be a little pricey, there are an abundance of choices and something can be found to suit anyone’s tastes. Even if you don’t want to buy anything, walking through the art district and window shopping as you walk by the various shops is still a great way to spend an afternoon.

Cobblestone Streets
King Street Trolley
Historic Buildings
Apothecary Entrance
Glass Harp and Christmas Music
Close-Up on the Glass Bottles in the Apothecary
Enjoying the Harbor
Diversity of Buildings

Whitewater Rafting in Colorado

Living in Colorado, we have the opportunity to take part in a variety of outdoor activities.  One of the things that we’ve been able to do several times over the years is to go whitewater rafting on the Arkansas river.  It is an exhilarating feeling as you bounce over the waves between the huge canyon walls, but make no mistake, it definitely has risks.  When our children were young, we had gone on what is called a “float trip”, where you don’t have to paddle and the currents are only strong enough to carry you down the river at a mild pace.  As they got older, we took them on the more adventurous trips where the degree of difficulty ranged from a class 3 to a class 5.  Class 5 is the highest degree of difficulty and therefore danger.

On the first trip through the Royal Gorge area, it was the two of us, our son, who is the oldest, and our youngest daughter.  It was a wonderful trip and ended without any incidents.  Definitely one of those wonderful memories that we look back upon with fondness, but not the nearly the same as our last whitewater rafting trip.  Our second time rafting down the Arkansas river and under the Royal Gorge Bridge is something that we will never forget and might likely be our last whitewater experience.

Our First Whitewater Rafting Trip

On this trip, we were taking our two daughters and our youngest, who played soccer, was nursing an injured ankle.  We knew that the conditions of the river could change based on time of year and the amount of runoff from the mountain snow, so we called the guide the morning of our trip to ensure that it would be okay for our youngest daughter to go since her ankle was wrapped in an ace bandage and sore.  They assured us that the water levels were down and that the river was more at a class 3 than a class 5.  We would later find out that they lied to us and that although the water levels were down, it was running fast and the lower water levels meant a higher degree of difficulty due to more exposed boulders in the water.

Despite our trepidation, we decided to go (always trust your gut intuitions).  The rafting trip started out normally with the typical thrills, but no spills.  Then as we approached one of the more difficult waterfalls that we would traverse during the trip, it was clear that this was going to be challenging.  There were several rafts within our tour group as well as other tour groups on the water this day and the rafts would go through the falls and then stop at the bottom until all of the boats were through the falls.  It was also the “photo shoot” spot where the tour companies took pictures to then later sell to you when the trip was over, so the pictures you see in the post are all ones that we purchased and obviously not ones we took ourselves.  Our raft was the “rescue boat”, which meant we would go down last and were poised to rescue anyone should the worst occur, but all of the rafts before us made it down without incident.

Before heading into the waterfall, our guide explained to us that we would be making an “S turn” through the falls, first heading to the right of a large boulder, then turning the boat to go in reverse as we went to the left, and then we would switch back to going forward as we made our way down the final section of the waterfall.  We made our way through the first section just fine and then started the backwards run through the second section.  This is when things went horribly wrong.  In what is apparently an extremely rare occurrence, as we passed below the boulder, the raft was grabbed by an eddy, an upstream current, that pulled the back of the raft up towards the rock pushing the front of the boat, which is now in the rear, down towards rushing water.  From this point forward, everything happened in extreme slow motion.

As the front of the raft was pulled down into the white water of the river, the water immediately overflowed the sides of the raft and Peter and our youngest daughter were sucked out of the boat and dragged under water.  Still in the boat, Dona and our oldest daughter were doing as instructed, which was to get as high on the raft, called getting high-side, in an attempt to stay in the raft as well as to hopefully keep it from flipping.  At this point, the guide did as he had been trained, which was to abandon the raft and swim towards shore.  You can’t save anyone else if you don’t save yourself first, this was something that we were all instructed prior to starting our trip.  Dona and our oldest daughter were flung into the swirling water as the raft did indeed flip over.

Our Raft Immediately After Flipping

Once in the water, everything became very disorienting.  Peter’s sandal had gotten caught on a rock and he was trapped, being pushed face down by the rushing water.  Dona slammed against rocks as the water pushed her away from the raft.  Finally, after a few terrifying moments, Peter’s sandal ripped due to the force of the water dragging at his body and he was freed to pop up to the surface.  Now we were both above water and finally able to take in just exactly what was occurring.  We both immediately looked for our daughters, but there was no sign of either of them.  We weren’t aware of it at that moment, but they had been pulled by the same eddy that had grabbed the boat and pulled towards the boulder and were now underneath the flipped raft.  We can’t describe the terror of coming to the surface, both of us having barely been able to rip ourselves from the current, only to have no sight of our daughters.

At this point the guides on the shoreline were throwing ropes out to pull people to safety.  In addition to the four of us, there was another couple on our raft with us, so a total of six people.  The other couple had also come to the surface and then, suddenly, our daughters emerged from underneath the raft.  At first there was a sense of relief, but that only lasted a moment.  As they emerged, the water started pulling them down towards the waterfall.  The guides tried throwing rescue ropes out to them, but they were unable to grab them.  So, as we were being pulled toward the shore, we watched helplessly as our daughters were swept out of sight and over the waterfall.  We had been told at the onset of the trip to be sure to hold on to our paddles as they were needed to help guide us through the rapids and if you look carefully at the photo of our oldest daughter, you’ll notice that she still has the paddle in hand as she heads down toward the waterfall.

Our Oldest Daughter Emerging from the Raft

Hearts racing, we swam to shore and then walked down along the river to the bottom of the falls where all of the other rafts were waiting.  We didn’t see our daughters at first, but finally we saw that they’d been pulled into other rafts.  Our raft had made its way over the falls as well and our guide now assisted us and the other couple into the raft as there was only one way to get home, to continue on the river in our raft.  At a calmer section of the river, our daughters were transferred from the rafts that had rescued them and back into our raft and we were finally reunited.

Our Youngest Daughter Heading Towards the Waterfall

There were a couple of close calls as we continued down the river, but fortunately we didn’t get dumped out of the raft again.  As we got onto the bus that would take us back to the parking lot where our car was parked, the guide smiled at us and welcomed us the “Arkansas river swim club”, it was and wasn’t funny.  We’re not sure if it was a blessing or a curse that all of this occurred at the photo shoot spot where it could be captured for all time, but we don’t need any pictures to remember that trip.  Every second of it is permanently seared in our memories and we haven’t been white water rafting since.