Advertisement
After leaving Hanoi we drove for a couple of hours through scenic rice fields to our second destination, Ninh Binh. We checked into our rooms and had some food before going to a local pub for a couple of beers, followed by an early night. The next day we had language lessons with Giang (I now know how to spell Andy's proper Vietnamese name!) and learnt how to say all of the basic words, plus some useful phrases and how to count all the way to a million - very useful when even a bottle of water costs 5,000 dong! We also went for a walk in the afternoon to see the local pagoda. As we walked down the streets of the town we kept seeing red banners with slogans written across them in Vietnamese. We asked Giang for a translation of one of them and he said that it read "Eradication of drug use is the responsibility of each individual and failure to do so will result in the breakdown of society". It was to the point. Further banners that we asked him to translate read similar messages on different themes such as crime and education. We also walked past
the odd loudspeaker attached to a telegraph pole that was blaring out news and government propoganda. Good to see that brainwashing a nation is still a viable government policy in 2009.
The next morning we learnt the Vietnamese for all of the various ingredients we would need for the afternoon when we were to make Vietnamese spring rolls. With our new language skills we walked to the market and split into groups to buy all of the different ingredients. Giang had said that if we spoke Vietnamese in the market we would get much better prices and produce and sure enough we managed to get pepper, rice paper, onions, ginger and more for less than two pounds. Bargain! After sitting and having a drink at one of the market stalls and chatting to some of the locals in broken Vietnamese we met the others and headed back to the hotel to attempt making the spring rolls. Unfortunately the whole process was rather manic and far less controlled than our cooking course in Thailand but it was still fun to be running around the kitchen making a magnificent mess. Somehow, despite the pandemonium the spring rolls actually turned out to
be quite nice and we all at so many that we were utterly stuffed. I got a good video of Charlie and Emma expertly rolling a couple of nem (Vietnamese for spring roll) that you can check out here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/leeandamyfarfaraway#play/uploads/5/LoybuGOWMOo
That evening the group split into boys and girls. The girls went to a local swimming pool and their trip was not exactly a complete success. Reports of the locals freezing in their tracks and staring fixedly when 10 swimwear clad white girls emerged from the changing rooms made the experience sound fairly unnerving and they had a quick swim (with local lads swimming around them in goggles) before hurridely leaving. The boys went on a more successful search of some street football with local lads. We found a pitch with some goals where we had a kickaround for a bit before we were shooed away as a game was about to start. We walked to the edge of town with our guides and and found a game being played on a side street so joined in. Despite having football history and knowledge on our side the locals ran rings around us as we suffered in the stifling
heat. Even so it was great fun and we played for a couple of hours before breaking off when the light was too bad to continue. Utterly exhausted we had an iced coke on the side of the road to give us the energy to walk back to the hotel and a waiting dinner.
Friday was without doubt the best day of the program so far. After breakfast we got a bus to the small village of Van Lam where we rented bicycles and set off for the best bike ride ever. As we got to the edge of town the buildings were replaced by enormous towering limestone karsts and rice fields on either side of the path. It was beautiful and we cycled for an hour or so through the incredible scenery. After a while we stopped at a local pagoda where we learned some history of the area before heading back to Van Lam along the same fantastic path. I got a video of the scenery but unfortunately its very short because I filming is not easy when you're trying hard not to cycle straight into a rice field. Link is below:
When we
arrived back in town we went to visit the famous, and amusingly named moutainside pagoda called Bich Dong. The pagoda comprises three buildings at various points up the mountainside and we climbed up before enjoying the view at the top. Then we had lunch at a local hotel before starting a boat trip along the Ngo Dong river. We went to the pier and all boarded tiny wooden boats with locals as rowers before setting off in convoy. It took us about 15 minutes to get out of the town but once we did we hit some more spectacular looking rice fields surrounded by giant karsts and drifted peacefully through the countryside for a while. We had an old lady and a younger guy rowing on our boat and after a while the lady pointed out some rather brave looking mountain goats near the top of one of the karsts which I thought were immensely cool. We were also warned against trailing our hands in the water because of crocodiles so my wildlife spotting habit was satisfied for the day.
The river actually flows through caves in three of the huge karsts and approaching the dark entrances on the
boat felt very eerie. As we were rowed through we had to be careful not to bash our heads on the hanging rocks and emerging into the sunlight at the end of the rocky tunnel was amazing with bright colour flooding into as we neared the exit. At the end we were rather craftily convinced to buy our rowers some drinks and snacks from a passing boat at an extortionate price (a well known scam that is pretty difficult to avoid if you do actually want to be rowed home) but by using our new language skills we managed to barter the price down to a more reasonable level. Also, we did think that the poor guys deserved a drink after rowing us upstream for about an hour. On the subject of rowing, we noticed that a lot of the rowers had taken to rowing with their feet which looked very bizarre, although must have given their arms a well needed rest. On the way back we took even more photos of the gorgeous route and managed to get a few decent videos too, including one of a passing foot-rower. Links below:
That
evening we went out to a local karaoke bar in town. It was Jenny's birthday so we had all chipped in to buy her some small presents and a surprisingly nice cake from local shop which we presented to her at the bar. The beer started flowing and we belted out songs in our private room until the bar finally had enough of us and kicked us out about 1am after a brilliant night.
Weekends are free time on our course and Saturday morning we were all very glad of this after a heavy night on the beers and karaoke. Most people just lazed around the hotel and sat in rooms chatting. On Sunday we decided to visit Hoa Lu, a small village about an hour outside of Ninh Binh that actually served as the capital of Vietnam for about 50 years in the 10th century. We saw some pagodas dedicated to the kings who ruled Vietnam at that time before climbing a small mountain to the the village and river from the top. The view was gorgeous and we all clambered over the rocks taking pictures before trekking back down.
Sorry if this blog is a little
less detailed than some of the others but I'm a little behind as we don't always have access to the internet out here at the moment. I may go back and add details as and when I remember them!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0843s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Claire
non-member comment
Hi
Like videos really made me laugh at the one on the pushbike as you sounded quite scared, wobbling about trying hard for Amys attention then the first bike ride one Amy so uncomftable and you filming oncoming mad traffic, brill loved seeing you both having such a great time, love you lots Claire AKA mumsie Look forward to our next Skype! xxxx