A two-hours drive south from Hanoi, Tam Coc is also referred to as "Halong Bay On Land" or "Halong Bay On The Rice Paddies". Tam Coc means "Three Caves" in Vietnamese, and the reason for the name is self-explanatory as you take the rowboat ride from the Van Lam wharf (located behind the Van Lam Village restaurants) along the Ngo Dong River for several kilometres to the Tam Coc wharf at the end. The river flows through three grottoes carved out of the limestone hills by the eroding effects of water since ancient times when the sea occupied the area. The first grotto (Hang Ca) is 127m long, the second (Hang Giua) is 70m long, while the third (Hang Cuoi) is only 40m. Along the entire length of the boatride, limestone hills rise precipitously towards the sky from a sea of green paddy fields on both banks of the river, and the scenery is reminiscent of the classic and famous landscapes of Guilin and Yangshuo in China.