Lining the landscape: A pyramid karst admired from the lake. — VNS Photos

by Mark Robert Carle

This past Saturday I organised for a small group of friends on a 50km day trip to Quan Son Lake. I was determined to get outside the city for some fresh air and quiet and found an online review which said the lake was,"favoured by nature with a romantic landscape, fresh air, green mountains and blue waters... and a lot of caves, pagodas, temples".

With that, I was ready to fill up my motorbike and set off to see for myself.

It had rained pretty solidly the night before but we packed our optimism along with some provisions for the journey and ventured off. Luckily, it seemed the weather gods were on our side and a slight drizzle soon turned into glorious sunshine.

Unfortunately, with summer sun came heat and humidity. After a sweaty hour stuck playing dodge 'ems in the city traffic, we decided to revive our spirits by pulling over for a cold glass of mia da (raw sugarcane juice over ice) – a drink so refreshing I'm convinced that if I put it in cartons, shipped it to the US and sold it in my hometown during summer, I could soon retire for life from the sales.

We continued our ride. As with any trip outside the city, directions were constantly required.

Since there are so many small and similarly named villages, they're very easy to miss and I had suffered bad experiences before.

Luckily this time we were in luck. Good timing brought us into contact with a helpful tea stand lady who pointed us towards a small dirt road just a few metres behind us. We make a U-turn and followed her instructions. We finally came across a small sign for "Quan Son Lake" and a simple visitor centre. We parked, paid our fee and set off across a narrow bridge to cross to the wharf, where we rented three boats for VND120,000 (US$7) each.

Laid-back locals: A few local ladies chat while making bracelets.

A lady on each boat carefully rowed onto the lake while we took in the scene.

We had the water and the surrounding karst mountains to ourselves. The sun was sweltering by now and we were offered umbrellas to stay cool. I declined, choosing to absorb as much vitamin D as possible.

The only sound was the occasional soft splash of the oars moving through the water, which for me was a welcome change to the constant horns and loud engines of Ha Noi.

After about 30 minutes we arrived at a small island, where we got off to walk amid the trees and tropical plant life. There were small grottoes with statues of Buddhist Gods and platforms you could rent for meditation, exercise or a spot of lunch.

We absorbed our near soundless surroundings without wishing to disturb the valuable quiet and took some photographs.

After some time, we returned to the boat and went in search of food. After a tasty meal back at our start point, we climbed back on our bikes and went in search for a nearby pagoda. After a scary jaunt down a badly chosen shortcut we eventually found it. Sadly, it was locked up and empty, except for a few farmers drying their rice in the courtyard. We all agreed we had had enough of the heat and decided to drive back to Ha Noi.

For my part though, I really could have stayed several days. Being in this quiet and peaceful area with nothing much to do but relax and listen to the sounds of birds, frogs and the rustling of leaves sounds perfect to me.

It is nice to know that this spot is here just a two-hour drive away as it would make a great weekend getaway. I can only hope developers don't discover this "secret" area and ruin it with big plans to turn it into VietNam's next natural tourism hotspot. — VNS