Hello, and welcome back to my adventure in Vietnam’s Trang An, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the set of the 2017 film “Kong: Skull Island.” So far, this trip has been completely different from my first visit, when I was the only boat on a peaceful and mysterious river. This time, the river is full of boats, my group has just been separated, the sun is high, and we have just been challenged to a boat race. Our challengers are a group of men in work wear (button shirt, ties, slacks), who had just been cheersing beers mid-river.
I asked my friends if they were ready to meet the challenge, and with a round of nods we each picked up an oar, and we gave a nod back to the other boat. The race was on! We can see up ahead that there is our first stop on the river, the site of an old temple with a small dock. This was our finish line. The men in the other boat have an early lead on us, but we quickly start to pick up speed once we get our rowing into rhythm. I lead my boat with a chant of “row, row, row” to keep our rowing consistent on both sides of the boat. This consistent rhythm and the determination of my trusty crew give us the speed we need, and we reach the packed dock before the men. When we arrive at the dock, I notice the old woman who had been rowing our boat from the back was smiling, clearly, she was pleased with our performance, and how much easier we had made it for her to guide us upriver.
When we depart from the boat, we are met by the group of men from the other boat. They acknowledged our victory in the race, but now offer up a new and more daunting challenge. In their hands is a bamboo water pipe known as a Điếu cày (yow-kai), and a bag of brown tobacco called thuốc lào. This traditional pipe and tobacco is famous in the north of Vietnam, particularly in Hanoi and much of the countryside. It is very powerful tobacco that must be respected if tried, as I have seen many people fall over the first time they try it. I quickly explain what it is to my crew, but they shy away from the challenge. The men insist, and as I see this as a harmless form of camaraderie and cultural exchange, I accept their offer.
I have smoked thuoc lao before, so I know how strong the effect is and how quickly it can hit you. Knowing this, I have my eye on a table and chairs nearby, next to a large fan. My plan is to take the smoke and quickly make it to the chair before I get too lightheaded. I know this sounds dumb, but in the moment, I was full of excitement from the race, and the energy of the moment was pumping through my veins.
One man holds the pipe for me and the other lights it. I take a big puff, exhale, shake their hands, and quickly make my way to the chair without falling over. Success! I immediately feel tingling all over my body, lightheaded, and super sweaty. Luckily, I am sitting in front of the big fan. I take a big drink of water and within a few minutes I am good to go again. This is not the experience I was expecting to find here, but I think it is good to embrace the moment and have genuine experiences with locals whenever possible, as it makes travel more memorable and unique.
We continue back down the river, and with the rowing spirit still alive and well, we easily pass by the other boats and get a nice, gentle breeze to cool us off. A few other boats want to race us, but we beat all of our challengers. One boat even uses their oars to splash water at us, it makes the ride so much fun, and helps to cool us down on the hot sunny day.
Unfortunately, at this time the water level was too high, so we were not able to go through the cave as I had been able to before. We can still visit the other temples though, as well as the Rising Phoenix peak, which was still looking as impressive as ever.
When we arrive at the final boat dock we run into the group of men from before. They invite us to have lunch with them and give the address to our driver. A few minutes later, the second part of our group arrives at the dock, the first we have seen of them since we left the boat launch about 1.5 hours earlier. Apparently, they were held up at the boat launch because they only had 3 people in their boat, and they needed to wait for a fourth before they could leave.
We tell the other part of our group about the men who had invited us to join them for lunch, and they agree to this plan. We arrive at the restaurant just a few minutes up the road, it is totally packed with people, with many others waiting out front. Judging by the sign, I learn that the specialty of this restaurant is goat meat.
Luckily, the crowds are not a problem, because within a minute or so, we are being guided upstairs. We are the only foreigners here, but no one seems to mind our presence as we enter the large, crowded room with long tables. I soon see the men waving over at us, and we make our way to the open spaces they have saved for us. Within moments of us sitting down, the men introduced us to another specialty of this restaurant, ruou or Vietnamese rice wine. Shots were quickly poured for all of us, and we all joined in the customary Vietnamese cheers “mot, hai, ba, yo! hai , ba, yo! Hai, ba, uong!” (1, 2, 3, yo, 2, 3, yo, 2, 3, drink!) The alcohol is like a light rice vodka, and luckily, the first plates of food come just after our first round of shots. There is lots of goat meat served in a variety of different ways, and accompanied by other unique appetizers. I wish I had taken pictures of the food, but to be honest, we were all preoccupied with the constant stream of alcohol that was poured throughout the meal. All of the food is great, and the company we had was even greater.
We say goodbye to our new friends and wish them a pleasant rest of their day. When we got back in the van to leave, I couldn’t help but reminisce on my visit back in 2021 and just how different this experience had been. It is hard to believe Kong would have stuck around for all of the crowds that have now descended on Skull Island, but I still have my memories of a time when he still might have been hiding behind every corner.
I am sorry I did not get a chance to take many photos on this visit. If you are interested in seeing some of the amazing landscape photos from my first visit, please read that post here.
To read the first part of this return trip, you can view that here.
I hope you enjoyed reading about this crazy day I had in Trang An, Vietnam. All photos were taken by me unless otherwise sourced.