ninh binh

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Ninh Binh is a small town a few hours south of Hanoi, maintaining its small size (relatively) as is a bit more off of the standard tourist trail with the main draw being the Tam Coc grottoes a few kilometres outside of town. The latter is usually described as 'Ha Long Bay on land' and surrounded by rice paddies. As it was on our route south, we thought we'd stop for a few days and see if it was a fair comparison

We opted for another bus-boat-bus deal from Cat Ba island because again the standard ferries leave at totally inappropriate hours for us to make a bus connection in Haiphong. Now, we organised this through our hotel for the princely sum on 200,000 dong but I didn't have much confidence in it as the ticket was hand written on a piece of paper and except for some good faith, it realistically wasn't worth the paper it was written on.

A bus picked us up at 9am and shuttled us to the west of the island to catch the tour company's ferry to the mainland. It was a swift crossing and the deck of the boat was full of motorbikes that Vietnamese people were taking with them. Now this is where things may have gone wrong. I knew the bus company didn't run a service south to Ninh Binh so was half expecting to be dumped here with only the hand written ticket from the hotel that was now safely on the other side of a few miles of sea. Thankfully, we were dropped at the bus station and the driver got off and bought us tickets for the bus south and shuffled us in the right direction and the good faith system seemed to work. I may be a bit cynical in being suspicious of the transfer but, being a realist, we could have quite easily been abandoned with no way of getting our money back, short of swimming back to the island. All' well though!

After a short wait we were on our way south, with our luggage having been moved several times from the back seat, to the roof of the bus, to the back seat again - obviously they thought thy were at one point going to fill the seats inside! About an hour into our journey past paddy fields and remote little villages we were very glad our luggage HAD settled inside as the heavens opened and the heaviest rain we had seen since our departure descended upon us and the steadily filling bus. In fact, when we stopped to pick up several passengers they had to skip across quite large puddles of water to reach the bus - some even walking in 3 inches of water! As we travelled further the rain continued and began to drip on the INSIDE of the windows, narrowly avoiding my legs as it dripped down the walls. Quality bus. We were very grateful that by the time we reached Ninh Binh the rain seemed to have subsided - lucky as we knew we had a bit of a walk ahead of us to our chosen guest house.

As we descended the steps of the bus we were accosted by the usual touts who we began to shoo away until I realised - joy of joys - that one was actually the place we wanted. Even better - she was offering a free transfer to the hotel! The news did not come a moment too soon as the rain began to bucket it down again and it was all we could do to jump from the small lean-to we were sheltering in to the waiting dry taxi without becoming something akin to a drowned rat (very hard to do when you are trying to climb into a back seat with your rucksack on!) It was a pleasant ride to the hotel shared with a guy called David we met on the bus, although we still had to overcome a taxi driver who a) didn't know where we were going and b) tried to drop us off at 2 other more expensive hotels and c) reversed his car into a bollard while reversing out of one of the aforementioned hotels. Who said there was no justice?

Once at the hotel we were shown to a very nice double room ($8) and the only inconvenience was we had to wait for it to be cleaned. Thankfully this was the last negative for the day and we tiredly fell onto the fresh bed to relax for a while before a brief exploration of the town which consisted of finding the local bia hoi sellers (having a couple) and eating a well received dinner at our hotel.

To get to the grottoes there were two options: either hire motorbikes with drivers to drive around for the day ($8 each) or jut hire the bike and explore on our own ($6) - needless to say we opted for exploring on our own. We were presented with a really crappy Honda Dream from a decade or so ago with no working headlights or speedo, and the electric start didn't work so I had to brutalise the kick start to coax it to life. On top of this and unlike the other bikes I've ridden, there was no indicator on the 'dash' to show what gear you are in so I had to do it the old fashioned way and try and remember. At least the fuel gauge worked but of course it hovered on empty.

After a brief fuel stop we were on our way. Now the idea of visiting the limestone grottoes is to get a boat ride along the lakes in which they stand, through small caves under the hills and into secluded lakes and grottoes. The Tam Coc boat ladies are infamous for hassling tourists halfway through the ride to buy crappy souvenirs from them or pay them large tips, otherwise the return journey is not guaranteed. They are well known for hard sells and for ruining people's days. Thankfully we'd researched all of this before hand and found that another set of Grottoes called Trang An about 6km north of the town. This had recently opened and promised a hassle free and more enjoyable experience so thought we'd try there instead.

It turned out to be a wise move as we were pretty much the only tourists there. We had a bit of hassle from one guy who wanted us to buy a ticket for motorbike parking but through lack of English was unable to communicate this. He was losing his temper (Vietnamese people can get pretty aggressive) and things were on the verge of getting nasty when someone was able to explain what the hell he wanted and decided to pay the 15 pence parking charge to keep the peace. We bought tickets for the boat and headed off, stopping first at an island temple on which a man was carving up a spit roasted monkey (yum!) although we didn't realise this at first and though it was a cat!

The boat trip lasted about 2 hours and was very picturesque, with the lake running through caves under the limestone hills and out into watery grottoes that would otherwise be inaccessible by lake. There were the usual sparkling rock formations in the caves and lots of wildlife on the land including monkeys and goats. After this, we jumped on the bike and headed a few km north to Hoa Lu, which is an ancient capital of Vietnam (968AD to 1009), built here for the natural protection of the surrounding hills. Today there is only a small town and two ancient temples which we eventually found after driving a few km down the wrong road and turning around, but seeing sign for the destination from the other direction. This has happened to us a few times where the sign for a place is only visible from one direction but of course we don't see it until we pass right by and have to retrace our steps after getting lost.

At the temples, the guard promptly marched over to us and administered the usual 5000 Dong parking charge. We looked around the temples which were quite pretty but then when heading back to the bike, he came back over to us and wanted us to buy entry tickets to the temple- cheeky! As he didn't mention this to start with we argued the point and eventually got bored with him, kick-started the bike and drove off.

We tried to follow a hand drawn map provided by the hotel in the general direction direction of the other limestone hills, Tam Coc, but the route started to lead us down smaller roads, onto gravel tracks and eventually onto a dirt footpath. It really didn't look right but there were other drivers going along the footpath so we decided to check with a local. He assured us with an enthusiastic finger-pointing gesture that Tam Coc was in the direction we were heading and another driver heard us while passing and he indicated to follow him.

So we drove along this track through small hamlets with chickens running about the road, over stone bridges and along the side of rice paddies. Our guide stopped but indicated that we should keep going with a friendly smile and of course we eventually found the main road again a few km from Tam Coc. It was a beautiful ride and we saw the 'real' Vietnam which only really exists when you get off the tourist trail. Driving through the villages with the small children waving and shouting 'hello!' was a really nice experience and we were pleased we persisted with going on the scenic route instead of heading back to Ninh Binh and taking the busy main road.

Tam Coc was, as we expected, very touristy with hundreds of boats and boat ladies with their bag of souvenirs ready for the hard sell. The boat ride was slightly cheaper here than at Trang An but we were both pleased that we'd opted for this as it was infinitely quieter and more tranquil. We drove a few more km down the road, following the edge of the limestone hills to a temple complex set amongst a series of hill caves. Entrance was free but there was the usual parking fee trap so this time we opted to turn around and park at the side of the road on the basis that if someone knocked over the crappy Honda then one more dent wouldn't be noticed!

The cave complex was pretty but it was back on the tourist trail so we had to fend off the usual souvenir sellers. After a chaotic ride back on the main road, we got back to the hotel chilled to the bone from the cold wind that seemed to plague us all day. Thankfully the delicious noodle soup in the hotel warmed us up. It was then we noticed that the girl who served us at breakfast was still in her pyjamas and probably had been all day. It reminded me of my sister Rachel when she was a teenager who would regularly spend all day in her Pjs for no apparent reason, but we were impressed that this girl was doing so while cooking and waitressing.

Fortunately/unfortunately depending on your perspective, Vietnamese hotels are the best we've stayed in so far and regularly have free WiFi and cable TV so we ended off spending the evening indulging in both. Now this really is a no-no when you're away for a short time and should be out in the local culture but after travelling for nearly four months, the home comforts were just too appealing to resist!

Our next destination was 10 hours or so away and the only way to get there from Ninh Binh was an overnight bus which meant we had a day to kill the next day. We took full advantage of the room before reluctantly leaving to meet the 12pm check-out and then wandered around the town to see what the place has to offer. The answer is not a lot for tourists, but we did spend some time reading in a run down park with major communist overtones. From the obilisque-style war memorials to the playground rides rusting away to nothing in memory of better times, it was hard to ignore! There was a newly built cathedral further down the road which really was a sight- but not in a good way! We also checked out the local market which offered a huge range of vegetables and meat. One sinister sight was a group of caged ducks who were sitting in front of a woman's stall watching as their comrades were seized, beheaded and plucked before being hung and sold. Chilling...

After exhausting all other sights, we headed to the river side for some bia-hoi in one of the many makeshift stalls, rain-proofed with tarpaulins and we pulled up a plastic chair. There we killed a few hours drinking cheap beer and reading, occasionally watching the river rats daringly run across the floor. A young girl of about 4 caught a glimpse and starred at us for a moment, before going to grab her little brother who also joined in. They both stood there watching us with open mouths, two white strangers in the bia-hoi stall and you could almost hear them thinking, “What the f*ck is that?!?”. After that we killed the remaining few hours back at the hotel restaurant before jumping on the coach for the long journey through the night.

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Comments

[David B]

Is Stacey a Ton Up girl now?
I see Stacey is ready to go on the motorbike. Is she doing all of the driving now? A Harley next?