Rare Adventures

Tag: rod sowden

Coconut boats and Cham Islands from Hoi An

However captivating the lanterns of Hoi An can be, ultimately there is only so much time you go can spend sat on the quay watching the boats go past, or sweating in the back alleys of the old town looking at shops, so it isn’t long before you are looking for something else to do.

Staying out at An Bang beach really helps, as there are plenty of things to do, from jetskiing on some dodgy old boats to just marching along the beach in the heat, which is my favourite pastime for some reason.

Coconut basket boat ride

The obvious thing to do is head for Da Nang, but as most of the people we spoke to travelled down from Da Nang this didn’t seem a great strategy so we tracked down a couple of fun things to do.

This was a great little trip, a taxi picked us up and took us to the harbour to meet our boatman. All Vietnamese seem to have a fun gene and a good sense of humour and our boatman was no exception.

The boats are very odd, because they are round, and totally unsuited to going anywhere but years of practice clearly helps, and we headed down the river in a little procession of round boats that soon split up. We were then on our own with the boatman serenading us, rather like a Venetian Gondola but in a mango swamp.

The boat dodged in and out of the mangoes where there were large pineapple like things hanging from the trees, which were generally harvested at some point. We then tried a bit of fishing, throwing a hook and line into the roots and trying to coax out one of the numerous crabs out, but they were cunning beasts and seemed to guess that simply letting go of the bait would save their lives.

We then moved out into the main estuary, offered the chance to try standing up and spinning the boat around as per a demonstration by a very agile young fella. Wisely, nobody in our flotilla took the opportunity to demonstrate how to get dizzy in a boat as falling out seemed the inevitable consequence.

Then we boarded the fishing pontoon, and were given the chance to try throwing a net out into the river and haul in a fish. The bloke ahead of us nearly followed his net into the river, which was a warning to us all, so when my turn came I made a big point of planting my feet firmly on the deck and throwing the net, needless to say we didn’t catch any fish but at least I didn’t fall in. Not surprisingly, Wooksie sat in the safety of the boat hoping for a big splash.

We then headed back up the river to the dock, having a lovely sing along with our boat man, and finally stepping ashore and having a nice cold beer, this was 2 or 3 hours very well spent.

Cham Island snorkelling

No trip to a tropical paradise is complete without a snorkelling trip, so it had to be done. The trip departs from a modern port near the mouth of the estuary near Hoi An, so only a 15 minute taxi ride from the old town. The organisers picked us up from An Bang in a taxi which was a nice easy start.

We assembled on the quay and it was good to find myself in a nice fun group of people, most of which had travelled down from Da Nang, with the English Premier league coming to an exciting season ending we all had a lot to talk about.

The trip itself is a very simple model, we boarded a high speed boat, put on life jackets (and were inspected by the river police) and were then jetted out of the harbour in the direction of Cham Island, we held on tight and bounced across the waves until we reached the remote islands.

The boat steamed along the coast to the best spot, where we donned our snorkelling gear and set off following the current along the coast. This is no Great Barrier Reef but the seabed has plenty of variety, reflecting the history of volcanoes that created the islands, but there was enough coral to bring in the colourful fish that make the snorkelling fun.

We reboarded the boat and headed for one of the most beautiful island beaches I have seen, with white sand spreading around a bay, and opportunities to paddle board and kayak, but most people took the opportunity to have a coffee or beer in the shade and sit around chatting.

We then reboarded the boat for a second dive off one of the headlands, to be honest, this one wasn’t as good but it there was enough to keep us interested and just enjoy being in the sea. Nothing goes off without a drama, and I lost my snorkel when I jumped in and forgot to hold on to my mask, luckily the locals can hold their breath so the snorkel was recovered from the depths.

Last job of the day was a great lunch in the beach bar, a chance for a swim or something, but I was just happy chatting with my fellow travellers and solving the problems of the world, interrupted by the occasional dip to moderate the temperature.

The trip home was similar to the trip out, board the boat, strap yourself in and bouncing across the waves to get us home.

So another great day out, lots of great company and plenty of things to enjoy beneath the waves in the snorkelling gear.

30/07/2026
Nim Bin – the ancient and modern worlds meet

The trip to Nim Bin is one of those “must do” tours when you are in Hanoi, and it was the last on our itinerary before heading south to Cambodia and Da Nang.

We booked this tour through Tripadvisor, there are a couple of itineraries to choose from, one has a longer boat trip than the other, it wasn’t really clear how to make a choice so we flicked a coin to save on brain power.

The trip sets off at the crack of dawn with an early pick up that leaves you scrambling for some breakfast before it the hotel officially opened. To make matters worse, I had picked up some sort of horribly runny nose kind of cold and was not in great shape.

It is a long journey from Hanoi, about 3 hours to get there, and all the while the day is warming up. Nim Binh is the name of the area and there are a number of things going on, first activity involves climbing up a near vertical staircase to get to the top of a mountain and we assumed a temple of some sort. It was quite evident from the state of the people coming back down that this was going to be a hot and sweaty climb, and so it was.

The entrance involves some walks through huge fields of water lilies, with the inevitable South Koreans getting dressed up and having their photos taken in wedding outfits, while we took selfies of ourselves and tried to avoid having them in the background, though I am sure I was in in a few of theirs!

In truth, I don’t think it actually took much more than 20 minutes to climb the stairs, but it felt a lot more and was hard work on the heart and the knees in humid 40c conditions, especially when you have a cold.

On the way up there are lookouts where you can have a breather and admire the views down to the river where the tourist boats move in and out of the limestone caves, this is the post lunch activity.

When you get to the top of the climb, firstly you find the recently built Bich Dong Pagoda, after that you can join the queue to get a selfie with the recently built dragon as well, this is a rather precarious exercise on sharp rocks with hoards of young people getting their Instagram photo.

You then realise that Bich Dong has no historical or religious relevance, like many the tourist attractions it has been built for tourists to climb and have their photo taken, other than that it has no purpose. To be fair to their tourist people, it works because there were hundreds of people clambering up and down the path. There is a statue of the mountain lion in the cave, with some vague reference to a fable, but mainly it makes a good photo, this is brilliant marketing.

After the climb, it was back on the bus and off to the ancient capital of Vietnam, Hoa Lu. On a hot and humid day after that hard climb, all we wanted was shelter but there wasn’t any. This is potentially a really interesting place because it dates back to the 10^th century so lots of history, but not really that much to look at if I was honest.

We then headed to a little restaurant with great aircon, but first we had to go on the bike ride around the village, which involved a close encounter with a local tractor, Wooksie hates bikes but I thought she did rather well not getting annoyed, but we did all get even sweatier.

It was then time to get in our boat which promised to be a bit cooler, until we actually saw the boat, which had no shelter from the sun. Luckily, everyone was issued with an umbrella for sun or rain. A few people decided they couldn’t take any more sun and didn’t want to sit cross-legged for 2 hours and opted out, so we were lucky to have a little more space in our boat.

The rowers were all women, and they were super strong, I bet they had 6 packs like washer boards as they stood up all the way and were rowing against the tide. We then realised that the passengers were expected to help, so the chaps got to work in the boat and before long we were in a race with the other boats, which helped pass the time, it isn’t easy being cramped in a boat for 2 hours, however stunning the limestone scenery is. In fact, there comes a point when the novelty of the limestone scenery does actually wear off, but it takes a couple of weeks.

The journey along the river took us through some huge caves, and it wasn’t clear to me if they were all natural or maybe some were man made to open up the river to tourists. Vietnams investment in tourisms has been huge and it wouldn’t be a surprise if the caves hadn’t been enlarged to take the traffic.

One of the highlights was a pagoda in the middle of a lake, once again great for photos but not sure it was actually used by the locals for anything. The best thing about these trips is the people you meet, and we had the company of a couple from California and enjoyed many laughs about the state of the world and the US role in the continuing chaos, lovely people. In the photo they even leaned forward so they didn’t spoil the picture, that’s them lying in the front of the boat!

So Nim Binh was the last of the tours in Northern Vietnam so it is now time to head to Cambodia and have a look around Da Nong and Hoi An, a few hundred miles south.

24/07/2026
Ha Long Bay cruise – a bit of 5* luxury

Basically, the Ha Long Bay 2 day trips are 24 hours spent on a ship. There are dozens, probably hundreds of them, in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. They don’t really go anywhere either, Cat Ba Island is vast so they cruise a few miles along it’s coast and that is it. All the tours do roughly the same itinerary and we discovered that you actually do a lot more activities if you do a 1 day trip rather than an overnight. All that said, 1 or 2 day Ha Long Bay is an essential element of any trip to Hanoi. Basically, you get what you pay for with the cruise ships, the cheaper the trip the older and rougher the ship.

This was probably our most anticipated trip. I had really wanted to make this our first adventure but the schedule didn’t work that well so it ended up as our penultimate trip in North Vietnam.

Ha Giang Loop planning had been a bit of a distraction and there was little internet coverage out on the roads to book our trip. When I came to book the trip 3 days ahead a lot of the options were fully booked, so if you are planning a trip then give yourself 7 days ahead. We were using Tripadvisor and plenty of options were offered, until you tried to actually book the trip, so we booked with Getmyguide in the end.

As a result, we ended up booking on a 5 star trip on the ship Celina, which I have to say, was a fabulous luxury, the only regret was we only had one night to enjoy it. We chose the 2 day trip and it was the equivalent to booking 1 night at a luxury hotel, you board about midday and checked out at 1030 the next morning, before being dropped at the quay for the bus back to Hanoi.

We were picked up at our hotel in the old town in Hanoi, very efficiently and in a very nice mini coach. We were joined on the bus by a mother and daughter who said they were Portuguese, but they had very distinct Russian accents. They explained they were from Porto, where we happened to go last year and we seemed to know more about it than they did. We then realised that there are not many countries in the world that welcome Russian tourists nowadays so we let the matter slide and enjoyed their company as they were fun people, it was their idea to do the Jeep Tour of Hanoi

We arrived in Ha Long, and after trying extremely hard to board the wrong cruise ship we discovered we had a 1 hour transfer on a tender, our boat was too big to get into the harbour apparently. So, after a trip through the bay, we spotted our ship and boy did it look aexpensive. We were advised it is the biggest and most expensive ship in the area.

We were helped aboard by attentive staff and found our way to our fabulous cabin with its own balcony; this is the life. The schedule quickly kicked in and we were sent up to the lounge for our 5 star lunch, which was excellent.

I don’t know why, but 5 star is full of snobby guests. On this trip, there were no friendly people to have a chat with, they all seemed to want to live inside their own shells, except the crazy South Koreans who lived in a much bigger shell, and created a lot of noise and karaoke, now who’s being snobby!

We did have a kayak but it was very dull, we had full stomachs and paddling around a flat calm bay wasn’t any fun. So, we went back to the ship to enjoy our luxury surroundings, we sat on the balcony and were immediately inundated with little boats selling beer and sweets, these Vietnamese know how to make a quick buck, the ocean version of Lidl.

Eventually, the engines started and the ship set off for our cruise, we took up residence on the top deck and ordered cocktails to help enjoy the sunset. 30 minutes later the engines stopped, we’d reached our destination, this came as a bit of a surprise but to be fair, the view was very nice and we concluded that pretty much all the scenery was the same so why waste fuel. The limestone peaks stretch about 50 miles out to the ocean, so it was all going to be the same.

The scenery is absolutely stunning, it is basically the same landscape as the mountains of the Ha Gaing loop further inland, but the deep valleys are flooded so we are just seeing the peaks. Below the ship the water is hundreds of metres deep.

We discovered that the Vietnamese don’t really know how to pour measures into the cocktails, so after a particular weak cocktail, we had to advise them on the size of their measures and we got drunk a lot quicker than we would have done, and spent less money as well.

So, after a smashing lunch it was time for kayaking. Wooksie didn’t want to join me so I boarded the transfer boat. The guide started to pair people off as the canoes were doubles, to my complete alarm I was paired with a crazy South Korean woman who couldn’t apparently swim. I was sat there in shock and decided I wasn’t having any of this nonsense and told the guide I’d forgotten my swimmies and would skip kayaking or go and kidnap Wooksie to ensure I had a sensible partner.

Dinner was very pleasant with fine food, none of the guests talked to each other and the crazy South Koreans continued to make a lot of noise in their part of the ship. Basically, the rest of the day was spent waiting for the sunset, which was very nice, but not as nice as the sunrise that we had to wake up at 4am to see, but it was worth it and was the highlight of the trip.

After sunrise we had a fine breakfast before heading for the coconut boat rides, I think they call it day and night tour, basically a local woman rows you through a cave into an inland stretch of sea which is very pleasant but not particularly exciting.

Once you get back from the coconut boats, the ship cruises very slowly back to its anchorage. I would estimate that you ship moves less that 10 miles at the most, and when they come to sell the cruise ship, it will be categorised as very low mileage.

You can tell that I think we should have gone further than we did. We had a nice time, probably a bit of an anticlimax if I was honest, but you don’t get to spend 24 hours on a luxury yacht very often and I’m sure there were plenty of worst options looking at the state of some of the other ships racing us back to port.

Basically, the Ha Long Bay 2 day trips are 24 hours spent on a ship. There are dozens, probably hundreds of them, in all sorts of different shapes and sizes. They don’t really go anywhere either, Cat Ba Island is vast so they cruise a few miles along it’s coast and that is it. All the tours do roughly the same itinerary and we discovered that you actually do a lot more activities if you do a 1 day trip rather than an overnight. All that said, 1 or 2 day Ha Long Bay is an essential element of any trip to Hanoi. Basically, you get what you pay for with the cruise ships, the cheaper the trip the older and rougher the ship.

22/07/2026
Ha Gaing Loop – Ma Pi Leng Pass and an early morning waterfall

Day 2 of the Ha Gaing loop started in Dong Van with good news, the rain and cloud had cleared and we had beautiful blue skies. Even better, no hangover from the Happy Water which our driver, Mr Happy, had provided in great volume the night before. He had promised that we would have no aftereffects, though lack of sleep from the late night was still an issue.

We loaded ourselves into the SUV and headed for the Chinese border for views into their superpower neighbour. Basically, we were only a few miles from the border so it wasn’t long before we were staring across the vast expanse of a valley across to China.

During Covid, the Chinese were clearly bored or had a spare million workers, so they erected a still fence along the 800 miles of border with Vietnam. It is also not clear what the border is for, it is to keep the Chinese in or the Vietnamese out. Either way we could see the fence stretching in both directions with guard towers long the way.

After waving at the Chinese guards we settled into the SUV for a long day of driving. One of the most memorable things about this trip was hiding in plain sight. The Vietnamese subsistence farmers have used every inch of these mountains to cultivate crops. The soil appears to be sparse, so wherever there is a nook or cranny in the rocks, they have filled it with soil from the valley and planted corn.

Mr Happy advised us that all this corn is so that they can drink lots of happy water, but I’m thinking that it might reflect just how hard the mountain life is for these dispersed communities.

The next big event was the Ma Pi Leng Pass which is part of the Dong Van Geopark, this is an amazing feat of humanity, a road built in the 1950s and dug by hand by thousands of labourers, opened up a pass that rose to 1800m. It is a really stunning site and there is a monument at the top to all they labourers that lost their lives in what appeared to be brutal conditions.

We trekked up the mountain for a better look out, and there were corn crops everywhere and we were amazed at how hard life is for the locals. The climb also gave us a view of the beautiful reservoir in the valley, once again, man made but provides a stunning contrast to the mountains.

It is quite difficult to pick out more highlights as the Limestone Karst landscape rolls through the mountains for miles and miles as the roads wind through the valleys and over more passes eventually dropping down into our overnight village.

We stayed at a little village and stayed at a hostel, which inevitably had a karaoke machine that the bikers loved and the Dutch made extensive use of before heading off to a night club in the village.

The highlight of Day 3 was the early start, before breakfast we headed off early to avoid the crowed, Mr Happy led the way along the valley promising us something special, and it was, we arrived at a stunning waterfall, and I might be 66 years old but there is nothing quite like jumping off a waterfall into freezing cold water to start the day.

The final part of the trip was the drive back to Ha Gaing and the bus back to Hanoi. The highlight of this having an egg coffee at the top of one of the valleys watching the easy riders coming up valley and hoping that we would see our lad Sam in one of the groups with his tour operator Bong.

A last coffee with Mr Happy overlooking Ha Gaing and it was time to board the bus.

The Ha Giant loop was a lot of fun, a lot of driving and we were very grateful for the company and humour of Mr Happy who made the time go quickly.

Time to head for Ha Long Bay and the adventures that away.

19/07/2026
San Jose – our first day in Costa Rica

I guess the lesson from the trip out from London is don’t fly via the US to get anywhere, Newark airport is now on my blacklist along with Paris airport.

When we finally got here after 24 hours travelling it was typically clunky, and we could have done without being given a room next to the motorway by Radisson, but it’s all sorted now, and we are happy again.

My mate Jason Cole told me not to bother with San Jose because there was nothing to do there, as normal I ignored advice.

How wrong he was, we found a walking tour of the best sights that included TWO markets, eating strange fruit, chocolate and coffee tasting and we even cooked ourselves a meal in a café, and this tour generally proved that there is actually nothing much to do here.

We did learn that in Costa Rica their version of an orange is actually yellow, and moreover it tastes of absolutely nothing – which is weird.

So we went for a beer and watched the parrots giving the pigeons a bit of an airborne kicking in the park.

Clearly the Spanish and Portuguese weren’t interested and gave it a miss but at least we proved Jason’s theory, so tomorrow we have a long drive down to Porto Viejo on the Caribbean coast and then we go sloth hunting, by canoe, in the forest on Saturday, hopefully we will bag a couple for tea.

25/07/2025