Hoi-an and Hue

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We did plenty in the beautiful city of Hoi-an including a cookery school, boat trip (yes another one) and spent many hours wandering the market and supping Vietnamese coffee. Having spent a great few days with Adam and Amy we shared a car to Danang calling at the Marble Mountains, then caught the train to Hue. The train crawled through the mountains, hugging the coast of the South China Sea.

Hue- another day another city...a fallen from granduer sort of place (used to be the capital). Spent a day touring the tombs and exploring some of the countryside and a morning touring the Citadel. A take or leave sort of place and for me leave it, apart from the really hip cafes full of grafitti and friendly folk. So we left Hue on the night sleeper train on Tuesday evening and shared our 1970's teak cabin with 2 elderly Vietnamese gentleman- who I think were more concerned about their space being invaded by 2 bearded Brits. The train got us comfortably into Ninh Binh for 8.15, hotel room for 8.30 and on the back of a moped for 9! No flys on us!

Today (Wednesday) we toured the areas around Ninh Binh with the help of our guide calling at Mua Cave, fabulous boat ride through Trang An caves with a couple from Canada (finally no beeping mopeds), then onto Hoa Lu Temple, Kenga Boat village and finishing at the spectacular Van Long. The photos speak for themselves! I have seen so many great things in 1 day that I would have been happy to see in 1 week. Ninh Binh is so fantastic with no tourists- bliss!

Tonight a meal with Mr.Tuc and finalising our last few days in Vietnam.

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