Once again, the sun never made an appearance. The temperature is fine, nice and cool with a high of about 20C, but it drizzled with rain on and off. Not enough to stop us from going out exploring on our rented scooter!
The hotel arranged it for us. 200,000 dong ($8.20 USD, $11 CAD) per day.
Our destination was the Kem Waterfall, about 20 kms (12.5 miles) away.
Lots of very green rice fields.
We stopped to take a few photos along the way.
There was very little traffic. And we were just taking our time anyhow. I don't think we ever went over 40 km/h (25 mph) which is just fine with us.
A little village along the way.
Fence made with bamboo.
Water wheel used to bring water to the rice fields.
Indigenous stilt house.
Small waterfall along the way.
The road was a little rough at times!
They were doing some road work where Ruth got off and walked, while I pushed the scooter through.
First view of the Kem waterfall in the distance.
Surprisingly, there was someone at the entrance booth, and we paid 30,000 dong ($1.25 USD, $1.65 CAD) each for the entrance fee. We were the only ones there though, and likely the only ones all day!
Can you see me?
Click the photo to make it full screen, then click again to zoom in.
Ruth, at the base of the main section of the falls.
Wonderful to have it all to ourselves!
Scenery on the way back.
Growing tea.
It was only spitting... we never really got that wet all day.
Stilt house in the village of Yen Khe.
There is a natural spring in the village of Yen Khe.
More rice.
The road back to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, we booked in for yet another night. The hotel has 171 rooms, and I think there might be two or three other occupied besides our own. The staff are all so friendly and helpful, and they hover over us like they just can't wait to do something that will make our stay better. We think they must be bored!
So we're not leaving until Thursday morning.
We weren't back at the room for very long when there was a knock at the door. They sent us up a couple of glasses of watermelon juice. Complimentary.
Ruth with her watermelon juice.
Oh, and I booked us a flight from Hanoi to Bangkok on March 6th. We are going to skip the northern part of Vietnam, and Laos, which are probably the parts we were most looking forward to. But it's not easy or cheap to extend our visa here, so we're going to head back to Thailand from the 6th until the 23rd when we fly to Maldives. We will return to Vietnam and do Laos another time.
Once again, it is overcast and foggy this Wednesday morning. It's supposed to clear up in the afternoon, but they said that yesterday and it never happened. No matter, we are taking off on the scooter again to do some more exploring!
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Wow, what a stunning (and TALL) waterfall, and to have it all to yourselves. Amazing! Glad you decided to stay in the nice hotel for another night. Looks like such a pretty area.
ReplyDeleteIt was a beautiful waterfall and yes, very tall. They had a trail nearby that would take you to the top of the waterfall but there was also a sign there stating that is was dangerous to do this trail if it was wet and rainy, which of course it was and we could see that it looked really slick so we chose not to do it as it was also going to be very steep, so slippery and steep are not a good match together.
DeleteWe are glad that we decided to stay the extra night as well and we were even prepared to do one more night if we woke up to sun today but unfortunately we didn't. :-(
Wow! Did you have jackets on because of the waterfall? Really love your hair Ruth, it shows of your high cheekbones and slender neck
ReplyDeleteNo we had them on because it was drizzling pretty much the whole time we were out and also chilly when we were on the scooter.
DeleteThank you! I like my hair now that it has got a little longer, the first few weeks I was not happy with it.