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Sampan Boat Ride
A sampan is a relatively flat-bottomed Chinese and Malay wooden boat to allow them to travel along shallow rivers. Some sampans include a small shelter on board, but these are not common in this area as none of the sampans are permanently inhabited. The design closely resembles Western hard chine boats like the scow or punt. As well as taking tourists on picturesque rides down the river they are still used as traditional fishing boats which we see sometimes along the way.
The sampan operators are mostly women row us along the river. We travel down the river, with many huge limestone karsts alongside the river. Some karsts straddle the river and we pass through them!
Location change
We used to take the sampan from Tam Coc but recently that has gotten very busy with longer queues for the ride. Trang An offers the same experience and is just a few kilometers away.
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