Vietnam 7: Under a mountain and an encounter with a bat

This morning, our guide picked us up and drove us to a nearby restaurant.  I was given a bike, and followed the guide and Stephanie to a local area that had people being paddled around on boats.  The unusual thing was that the people were rowing with their feet.



I biked to the next spot of the day, the Bich Dong Pagoda.  Before looking around, I got to see some baby chickens.



The area was beautiful, with a pond filled with lotus flowers.  The site itself was a set of Buddhist temples.  First, we went to nearby steps that led behind and to the side of the temple, which led to a beautiful view of more rice fields and mountains.



While walking to the entrance to explore the temples, we decided to stop for water.  With some pushing from our guide, Stephanie was given sugar cane to put through a machine, which crushed it, and turned it into liquid.  She seemed to enjoy it.



We went under a beautiful archway and up a few steps

The first temple we saw was a few steps up and built into rocks.  Behind it was a small cave path that led to a really cool looking staircase.  There wasn't much to look at up top, but our guide claimed that these temples are visited in order to reach enlightenment.  I didn't bother telling the guide that I had reached enlightenment years ago.  Anything else at this point would just be gravy.



The last event of the morning was a private boat ride through and around the local limestone mountains.  The boat driver paddled with his legs as well.  He legs must have been strong.

Most of the cave tunnels under the mountains were quite lengthy, so we were given a headlight to look around while being paddled.



At the end, in the biggest cave, we found some bats on the ceiling.



We decided to take a video of the largest set of bats we found.  I'm not exactly sure what disturbed them.  Stephanie claims that she inadvertently made a noise.  In any case, the bats began flying away, and then one fell onto my leg.

The bat was sitting in the boat with us.  It was moving around, but was not flying away.  Stephanie, of course, decided to try to help it...

We asked the boat operator to help us out.  He grabbed an oar and pushed the bat upwards on the boat and then it flew away.  Crisis averted.  Keep in mind that if Stephanie is correct, and that her noise disturbed the bats, then this is the second day in a row that her noises have caused us problems!  We proceeded to finish the boat ride.



Our guide brought us to lunch.  This is the first lunch that this guide brought us to.  Our previous guide brought us to two as well.  Each time there were about 4 courses.  Because we had informed the organizers of our trip about our stomach issues, all of the meals were pretty healthy, but it was still a ton of food!  They have been a great way to sample some local dishes though.  At this lunch, we were introduced to our first dessert of the trip, which is a small stick of sesame seeds, a peanut buttery substance, and I think another ingredient or two.  It was very good.

We plan to hike up the mountain again tonight.  Tomorrow, we will be driving up to Hanoi, where we will be staying for the final two nights of the trip.