Blogs from Ninh Binh, Red River Delta, Vietnam, Asia

We took the night train from Hue to Ninh Binh a day late, due to a mixup with our tickets. Not a problem, as we’d scheduled a “no-activities” day in the middle of our NB plan. We’ve talked to many tourists who said, “Ninh Binh? What’s there?” and had to tell them that they might want to miss the beach at Nha Trang, but they should NOT miss Ninh Binh. We stayed at the Ngoc Anh hotel and understand why the recommendations we read were so strong. It is family-run and one of the friendliest places we’ve been in this friendly country. The father is happy to help and very ready to do whatever’s needed, the mother hugged us every time she saw us, and the daughter (an English teacher) came to give me a neck ... read more

Hi everyone, I’m back in Hanoi with the crazy traffic, the unfriendly Vietnamese people and the buzzing feeling. And I’m not alone for the moment, Bertrand (who I met in Malaysia last month), joined me for 5 weeks to visit Vietnam and that’s really nice to travel with someone. One of the things to see in Hanoi is the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. Small history lesson (from Wikipedia): Hồ Chí Minh (1890 – 1969), born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc or Uncle Ho was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister (1945–1955) and president (1955–1969) of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam). He was a key figure in the formation of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in 1945, as well as the People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) ... read more

After arriving back to Hanoi from our trip to Ha Gaing and the far northern reaches of Vietnam we decided we needed a rest. After all it was our third time in Hanoi after using it as our base for our other travels and we felt we had seen what Hanoi had to offer. So we ran to the nearest video store which wasn't far and bought some 75 cent movies. We only felt a little bad that we contributed to Vietnam's movie piracy problems but we were in desperate need of indulging in doing nothing. We locked ourselves in our hotel room and watched the entire first season of HBO's Game of Thrones, SO good! But we also watched some bad movies, hate to say it but Columbiana was a bust and Horrible Bosses wasn't ... read more

Steve's alarm goes off at seven and it's raining. Shower, dress and head down for breakfast. The Ha Long bay trip is (eventually) cancelled because of the rain. We opt to do the Ninh Binh day trip instead. Upstairs to pack day bags and out the door. I drop my washing off and wont find out till later that I left my favourite shirt crumpled at the bottom of my bag, dirty. We're told the bus ride will take 2 hours, the flier says 2.5 hours and the actual journey time is 3 hours, with a 10 minute toilet stop. I sleep across the back seat for most of it. First stop in Ninh Binh is Hoa Lu, has some story about it being the old capital of Vietnam or something. One of the offerings on ... read more

Ninh Binh and our first taste of the insanity that is Hanoi Ninh Binh So, we tried our luck with a 3rd sleeping bus and booked through Sinh Café (the real one), the same place we booked the nice sitting bus through. The bus left right on time, we had 2 drivers who were taking turns instead of one coked out one, and we even got the seats we were assigned to sit in! Sweet! Almost every other person on our bus was headed to Hanoi and not stopping in Ninh Binh, so we have to say we were a little worried that they might drive right through the town and just take us straight there instead. Just to be safe, we set the alarm at 5 am to make sure we were awake well before ... read more