Bich Dong Pagoda

#thingstodo A beautiful pagoda complex with caves and is free to visit . This is an easy walk or bike ride from Tam Coc. The bottom area has temples with interesting posters that explain beliefs around karmic repercussions for specific behaviours. You can climb up stairs into a cave and enjoy the shrines inside. It’s really quite lovely. Just outside the complex is another staircase up a hill. This will take you passed a family dwelling with a rice paddy and grazing goats. The family has a private cave they give tours to - it’s by donation and we made a point of being generous. The grandmother turned on the lights of the cave and showed us the unique structures - one looks like a giant woman. The cave has lots of fossils and some sections of the wall are actually ancient coral. You can walk a path around the rice paddy, but eventually the path ends. If you push on you’ll find yourself walking through very tall grasses and some very muddy spots. Worth doing just be prepared for what’s to come. The goats were adorable, they are very human habituated and the babies like to be pet. There are a couple of little restaurants,, spots to purchase water, and tourist kitsch just outside the entrance. They also sell big beautiful water lilies to leave at the shrines as an offering.