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hey everybody,
a severe cold was almost killing me last thursday, so it wasn't a bad idea to purify my longs with some fresher air...
after a great "farewell" evening for Xavier and Jenny, Ione and I decided to catch the bus to Ninh Binh, only 90 km south of Hanoi... in belgium this would take less than an hour to reach... (un)fortunately this is Vietnam...
always same, same but different 😊 And what started with the 2 of us, ended in a great day with Becky, Thobias, me, Ione, the Aussi and the american...
It sounds easy, "take the local bus to the busstand and from there you catch another bus to Ninh Binh. Every 10 minutes, one is leaving"
That's what we did... and so we were waiting in the bus that the nervous guy pushed us in.. waiting... half meter forwards... waiting... half meter backwards... waiting... bit to the left... waiting bit to the right... and then.. we got stuck for almost an hour ...
a tip for all who wants to catch the local bus to Ninh Binh: just jump on the first bus in the line and buy your ticket at the
the ancient capital of Hoa Lu
this was the capital of Vietnam during tyhe DINH (968-80) and early Le (980-109) dynasties.
View from the Yen Ngua Mountain... bus itself.. to avoid overpricing, just check quickly at the busstand how much a ticket should be...
Anyway, we got off, left stormy Hanoi behind us and arrived almost two hours later in a peacefull and silence atmosphere. The rain was even more severe than before, but we were in the right mood to overcome all that... Holy bible in the hand and straight to the hostel that we had in mind...
on the way we checked our plan with a vietnamese guy who pretended to know the way, but probably got troubled by an overconsumption of Bia Ha Noi ...
anyway, we reached the hostel and we were immediately overwhelmed by a really warm welcome and the hospitality of the staff...
we made plans for the next day, had some delicious food and went straight to bed to catch up some of the lost hours of the night before... ( thanks Xavier and Jenny for the great evening! Xavier I hope you arrived safely in Barcelona... check out that Salsa place for the time that Ione and I will come / Jenny, Hope your journey to Hue was bit more comfortable than the one from Sapa. I miss
the bedtimstories)
Sunday, 5am... the sun was there and so was my camera... the night before we couldn't see anything because they had switched of the light and it was raining.. what I saw was relaxed, peacefull and made me curious to explore
7.30am All of us were ready and excited to explore Ninh Binh. the evening before we agreed to rent some motorbikes... first only two cause "driving that thing is easy" but at the end we choose for 3 "cause you'll never know" we met a really nice Aussy and he became our guide for the whole day... ( aussy, you did a great job!)
the first steps were hesitated, soon we acted like "biking is our life" and Vietnam, here we come!
The surrounding were magnificent... breathtaken... beautiful...splendid...waaaaw...
First stop was a small Pagoda (temple), we prayed and got on the bikes to the next stop, a boattrip through nine different caves.... The aussie and I in one boat, the rest of the crew ( four) in the other boat... The local women found that hilarious ... More than 2 hours in the heat of the sun... normally I would complain, this time I
just enjoyed it...
After the boattrip, we "scootered" through the landscape to the ancient capital of Vietnam(Hoa Lu). we made a stop for lunch, cause our stomaches were refusing hihi... A local boy convinced us to have lunch at his parentshome and that was an excellent choice. The food wasn't 'GRAND CUISINE" but so was the hospitality. After an hour of relaxing, a quick visit to the ancient city ( there isn't much left anymore) and hundreds of words of thanks to the local family, we got back into the seat with one goal: the floating market...
only 2km ....only 2km...another 2....again two fingers... We were never able to visit the floating market because calcutating distance isn't the strongest talent of the Vietnamese locals... but what we saw on the way was a nice alternative!
Back to the hotel, I experienced for the first time what real vietnamese traffic is... from now on I have lots of respect for all of you who are able to conquer the traffic in Hanoi by bike...
everything went smootly, the city of Nin Binh was really close and then, there was the police who almost made our lovely day into
a nightmare... the van with two bikes was waiting to pick up ours, but luckily the Aussie saved us with some card, pretended to be a "police card" ...
Anyway, we got back to the hotel safely and still alive... that was the end of the day and also of our trip. Thanks to the really helpful staff of Xuan Hoa Hotel 1 and 2, this trip ended in one of the best one so far...
Tomorrow is another working day, but i think I safed enough energy to reach the end of this week...
Hope you're all doing fine over there...
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charlotte
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how you doing?
hei lieve meid Hoe is da nog met gij, zit je nog in Vietnam? Doe ze daar de groetjes, zeg da'k ooit ook eens ga passeren.... Hou je goe en kun je mij eens iets laten weten als dit bericht je reikt? Ik weet niet in hoeverre ik hier goe bezig ben...XXXXCharlotte