The last stage of this stay in the north of Vietnam, wanting to see something different (reference to the passage towards Lake Babe normally required), we stopped there for a night before returning to Hanoi and concluding this stay.
The day I almost ate dog
After finding a hotel (see below in the article), we set off to explore this region with the little time we had left on this day. Knowing that time was not really on our side. And when I say "time", I mean both ways. At the same time, we were a little short of time, leaving Bac Son early in the afternoon, and despite the only 2 km to travel to reach our stage of the day, but also the time, the weather.
80 km, the only notable anecdote of which is when we stopped for lunch. Finding a restaurant in one of the villages we passed through, we sat down, alone in the middle of an empty room, apart from a few locals in a corner.
In front of the restaurant.
The 2 friends from the restaurant at our lunch break.
Our presence amused 2 women (owner, waitress, cook, a bit of all 3, we don't really know). When ordering, I pointed to some meat, in a display case. While we had asked what it was, but the name in Vietnamese didn't catch my attention at all, so basically, I didn't know what I was about to eat...
Before my wife suddenly threw a STOP at me followed by a "if you eat that, I will never forgive you!" Dog... It was dog... Animal lovers be careful... That won't prevent us from having had an excellent welcome, but we can't say the same about the meal which had nothing really "welcoming" about it and our taste buds are definitely disappointed.
On the road before Thai Nguyen.
Walk around Nui Coc Lake
To get back to our topic of the day, we headed towards Nui Coc Lake, located about fifteen kilometers from the city, once settled in. And after about ten kilometers, we saw the first plantations, with the bonus of pickers still at work.
Time to stop, take a few photos, and walk there along a path running alongside tea plantations, but also small rice fields (that makes a long sentence...) we set off again and reached the main dam, the lake being artificial.
And I walk, alone.
Here, people are fishing peacefully, young people admire the sunset while enjoying an aperitif. Further along the road, partly along the lake, we still came across a few hillocks with tea plantations, surrounded by rice fields, buffaloes pass by, the atmosphere is quite soothing, but we already had to come back, because night was already falling.
The gloomy, grey weather made it hard for me to appreciate this landscape which ultimately seemed almost too “ordinary”.
Note that apart from tea, the city is also known for its open-air mine that extracts tungsten (only 2 km from the center…). If you are in the area, you can also stop by and sleep in the mountain resort and national park of Tam Dao, apparently popular in this corner of Vietnam. It was, like Dalat, in the south of the country, a resort created by the French during the Indochina era, but which suffered from the war… (see some info and photos here)
Landscape by Thai Nguyen.
There are remains of colonial buildings, trekking opportunities, etc.
In the evening, we looked for something to eat, thinking we would find a restaurant near our hotel. In its basement, instead of the parking lot, we found a real market, with this particularity, people come to do their shopping directly by motorbike, stopping as they pass by without getting off, a sort of "drive" in the Viet way.
In the end, we found a restaurant on the floor above our hotel building. Not great… If you find something better, feel free to share the info here!
How to shop in Vietnam…
Our hotel building.
At the restaurant in our hotel building.
Where to stay in Thai Nguyen
After a little research on the internet, we opted for the Hoang Mam Hotel, which offered good value for money, in this case, it was 500 Dong per night (000€), it was our most expensive hotel but given the one we had visited before coming to this one, we obviously don't regret it....
Because yes, when arriving at a roundabout, we saw a large building that was a hotel. Already from the outside it looked a bit austere, but it looked okay, but when I asked to see the room, I wondered… Are there really people sleeping there??
Be careful, I'm exaggerating a bit and if you're really limited in budget, I imagine that it's still tempting for one night, knowing that the price was, I think, 350 Dong.
Not great that one…
Our finally chosen hotel was just 800 m further away.
Rachel - Travel blog Discovery World
Woaaa lucky your wife was there! Since I received some funny stuff in China on my plate, when I don't understand the menu, I just eat veggie hehe. Less risk of having to eat unappetizing food.
Xav
Eating dog, luckily you were careful, well she was :)
Afterwards in Asia you never really know what you are eating!
Roman
Especially in Vietnam, it's more obvious than in Thailand where we generally know what we're going to eat...