day 12-2. 世界遺産『チャンアンの複合景観』と警察への賄賂 14日間ベトナム縦断・統一鉄道の旅

day 12-2. 世界遺産『チャンアンの複合景観』と警察への賄賂 14日間ベトナム縦断・統一鉄道の旅

It really took me less than 10 minutes by bike from Hoa Lu. I got to Trang An in 7 or 8 minutes. This is a perfect place for tourists. This is the center of Trang An World Heritage Site and it is very common to take a cruise from here.

So it’s like a river cruise. You have to buy tickets, you know, there’s a lot of restaurants and souvenir shops and it’s a fairly new building. Yes, this World Heritage Site in Trang An is the newest one in Vietnam. Around the year 2010?

“Registered in 2014 to be exact.” So this must be a fairly new facility. “Registered in 2014 to be exact.” I buy a ticket and go inside. The boat ramp. There are three routes, but I chose route number 1. Looks like I’m going to ride it from here. Destination 1.

There are three routes as shown here, and each of them would be a 3 hour cruise. This is a pretty long cruise. I’m not sure, so I took this one. I’m not sure what to expect, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to see anything in the dark.

But I was already happy with the scenery just by riding my bike here. It’s such a spectacular view. World Heritage Site, Trang An Landscape Complex From the ancient capital of Hoa Lu to the karst landscape of Trang An, this is the first area in Southeast Asia to be designated a World Heritage Site.

So the water is beautiful here. There are carp. The scenery is beautiful, as you would expect from a scenic forest. There is a large sculpture of a carp. There are about three temples and I was told to stop there. It’s a 3 hour cruise, so we stop at quite a few places.

It says “Changan”. I’m not allowed to take pictures inside, so I’m going to close it for a while. There are several caves in Trang An, just above the surface of the lake. Lying on the boat on the back. It’s like a real Disneyland.

Vietnamese Shochu turtles are also lined up. It’s like the Gyokusen Cave milk caves in Okinawa. I got dropped off because I was told there was a second temple. where the hell is the temple? Not at all. Still, this place looks amazingly mysterious. Something really unbalanced.

Is it a nice river or a big lake? This huge lake is surrounded by steep karst mountains. Not this way. It’s like a peach orchard with lush nature. There are so many trees. There are lots of fish. There are temples on top of steep mountains. This scene is like a jungle itself.

This is a very interesting scene with a temple on top of all this. I hear there is a temple on top. It’s pretty steep. Really this one, This is some kind of temple? The second temple is so far away that even Indian tourists are worried…

There was a temple on the other side of the hill. Tran Temple King Dinh at 968, .., Dai Viet built,, Built by the dynasties of the time, that’s how it would be. This should be a world heritage site. It’s 968, so it’s still from the Dinh or Le dynasty.

This temple was built very close to a cliff. It says “Peace”. How did you decide to build a temple in such a place? I guess it’s because Hoa Lu is so close, but…, It is hot. I came here with such thick clothes because I’m coming on a bike, but I shouldn’t have.

Let’s take it off for a minute. This is Tran Temple, but I can’t believe I have to climb this mountain again to get back to the boat. He said there was no other way back. It’s exhausting. This is. The scenery I never get tired of looking at…

And there are countless caves like this one that I never get tired of. This is the third temple. It says Khong Temple, right? This place is kind of maintained. It’s a little more groomed than the other places. Unlike the other temples, this one has monks. What? The boat goes that way.

I got off there, but she will be waiting for me on that side. It was built in the 10th century. And then up again. Trang An has very little flat land, it’s always mountains, so it’s suitable for a temple.

Like Yamagata’s mountain temple, a temple can be more valuable if it is on a high place. It’s still beautiful nature. It might have a totally different atmosphere if you were here in the summer, but it’s January now, so it’s cool enough.

The temperature is just below 20°, so it is nice to walk around. But if you come here during the hot dry season, when it is 30° or so, you will get a different impression.

I’ve seen the movie Skull Island, the King Kong movie, and I was just passing by the place where it was filmed. This is the movie where King Kong fights in the endless jungle.

It’s a movie where he’s fighting an unknown monster that I don’t understand, but it looks like it could be a monster. There are eight golden statues. What do they represent? Penglai?

*Penglai Palace is a palace where a hermit made of gold is said to live in Penglai. So these gold statues should be hermits. It says that photography is not allowed inside. This is great. This place is awesome. I’m going in for a minute. What are these letters? I can’t read them.

They’re not Chinese characters. But maybe it’s Vietnamese? I have no idea. It doesn’t look alphabetical, but it’s unusual. I have never seen an alphabetical notation framed like this before. I’ve been around three temples, so I guess this is the end of the main temples.

I think the ride is over after a few more caves because it’s a 3-hour ride. But we still have about an hour left. There’s a lot to see. Trang An’s boat ride is over. I enjoyed it for 3 hours and now it’s about 5:50.

Suddenly it’s getting dark. It was light 30 minutes ago. It’s suddenly getting dark. It is beautifully decorated with lanterns and other decorations, but it is already dark except for a few facilities. This is a natural heritage site after all.

Maybe that’s why, but it seemed like the tour was already over when the boat arrived a little after ours. So now it’s 5:50, almost 6:00, and we’re going back to Hanoi for another 2 hours or so.

The Indian guy I just met said he thought about taking a day trip from Hanoi, but it would take too long, so he decided to stay here and get a hotel. It’s true that a day trip is no problem if you come early in the morning.

I think it would be easier to stay overnight, but I say goodbye to the world heritage site of Trang An and head back to Hanoi. More than 90km to go, heading north. I’m going to make it back to Hanoi without getting hurt or having an accident.

I refueled in Hanoi but I do not have enough for a round trip. I just came to the gas station and filled up. It’s pretty scary to drive at night on the country roads in Vietnam.

This is a bright area, but it’s 6:30 at night. It’s not 6:30 yet. I mean, it’s not even 6:30 yet. This is a little too dark because in Japan, even in the countryside, the main roads are always brightly lit.

I thought it was scary. And the road is a bit bumpy so I’m riding a bit scared. I don’t want to take it easy as I still have almost 2 hours to go but I’m going back to Hanoi. Oh no. I’ve been beaten. This is unbelievable. I didn’t know it was possible.

I was stopped by the police on the main road and they told me I was going too fast.

I wasn’t speeding at all. They told me I was going too fast and stopped me and asked me to show them my driver’s license, car registration, etc. I showed them my international driver’s license and other documents. I told them I was renting the bike and didn’t have any other documents.

And of course they didn’t speak English, and I don’t speak Vietnamese either, so I ended up using the Google translator and showing them like this, but in the end they told me to give them 500,000 dong. The point is, it’s a bribe, right?

I happened to have three 200,000 dong notes, so I gave them to him and he put them in his pocket. I think 600,000 Dong is now less than 3,500 Yen or 4,000 Yen. For those of you over here, it might be worth 10,000 yen or so to us.

They caught me. They were indeed the police of a socialist country, so I was not willing to negotiate with them. I didn’t want to go to jail or anything like that. But I was surprised. I didn’t know it existed. This is really happening.

I’ve just lost 3 or 4,000 yen, but I still have about 40km to go to Hanoi, or 42km. I was surprised. I didn’t know it was possible. I’m a bit disappointed. I will go back to Hanoi with care. I just returned my bike to the bike shop in front of Hanoi station.

It took me almost 2.5 hours to get back because I got caught by the police. It took me quite a while. But I’m glad I got to see the world heritage site of Chang An.

It took me about 2 hours and 15 minutes to get there, and then I saw Hoa Lu for more than 30 minutes and took a 3 hour cruise in Trang An, and then I spent 2.5 hours coming back, so to say the least, today was very fulfilling.

I’m leaving tomorrow, but before I leave I want to see Halong Bay, the most famous World Heritage Site in Vietnam. So this is the end of day 12 of our trip through Vietnam. Thank you very much.

レイオフされたので、年末年始に統一鉄道を使ってベトナムを縦断してきました。

ベトナムには、国土を南北を縦断する鉄道があります。
正式名称は『南北線』ですが、ベトナムはかつて南北に分断されていた歴史があるので、『統一鉄道』という呼称で親しまれています。
最南端のサイゴン駅（ホーチミン）からハノイ駅まで、1726㎞を寝台列車に乗って旅しました。

１２日目（２）は首都ハノイから９６キロ南下して、世界遺産の「チャンアンの景観関連遺産」を見に行きます。陸の桂林と呼ばれるだけあって素晴らしい景観でしたが、帰路で警察に賄賂を請求されて悲しい気持ちになりました。

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