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Published: August 7th 2007
Filling station
Copyright LA Woman 2007With no wish to stay in Hanoi any more than necessary, and with a few days to kill before we could pick up our China visas, we headed for Ninh Binh after Ha Long Bay. The journey was marked by a rare conversation that was purely for conversation's sake (with a girl studying English at Hanoi University) and an all-too-frequent conversation with a guy who was much too pushy in trying to persuade us to stay in his guesthouse.
On arriving in Ninh Binh, we were hassled by several touts, a couple of whom even followed us on motorbikes. However once we'd found a place and ditched our bags, the town showed a very different side, with kids saying "hello" to us, minimal traffic, and a very non-Vietnam feel.
One of the main sights near Ninh Binh is Tam Coc, often described as Ha Long Bay on land, and where much of "Indochine" was filmed. We hired bikes to get to the start point - the trip is conducted by sampan along a river threading between the rocks. I was amused to see a sign stating a limit of 2 foreigners per boat (versus 4 for domestic tourists). Our
Rowing with feet
Copyright LA Woman 2007 sampan was powered by a woman and her young son. The landscape was pleasant, with highlights being 3 low tunnels under the rock - we had to duck in a couple of places. At the turnaround point, a vendor in a boat came up and persuaded me to buy drinks and some food for our hard-working crew. As a reward for this, our rower then tried to sell us some tat on the way back to the start point, and then had the nerve to ask for a tip - as though food worth more than the actual boat ticket wasn't enough. By any reckoning, that's just greedy.
We then visited a pagoda and some mausoleums that were nothing special, though the response we got from kids in the villages we passed through was like being in Laos. With neither of us having cycled much recently, our arses were most pleased when we returned to the guesthouse at the end of the day.
The following day we took a motorbike tour to Cuc Phuong National Park, which gave our bums a further workout. The first stop in the park was at the Endangered Primates Research Centre, home to
Gibbon
Copyright LA Woman 2007 a selection of langurs, gibbons, and lorises. The way the gibbons whizzed around their enclosures was an unbelievable demonstration of agility and dexterity. We then did a walk through the park, where the slippery footing and interminable flights of uneven steps meant I saw more of the ground than the forest. Groups of youths with Daniel Powter's "Bad Day" blaring out of their phones did not improve the atmosphere.
Once our days in Ninh Binh were up, it was time to return to Hanoi, pick up our China visas, and immediately catch a train north to Sa Pa.
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