From one jungle to another

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After two minor clips and one too many near misses in that chaos they call traffic, I blew off Hanoi for Ninh Binh. Not exactly Vietnam's culinary capital but some friendly people, rustic village life amid a stunning rice paddy landscape, and more importantly, home to Tam Coc, the "inland Ha Long Bay".

I imagined a few rocks sticking out of some fields but much to my wonderment there were dozens of gargantuan limestone rocks a la Ha Long Bay scattered among resplendent green rice paddies, lotus flower ponds, and a meandering river upon which you row. Many of the rocks serve as caves, and hideouts for some of Vietnam's most persistent sellers. However, when torrential rain hit, I didn't knock back the entrepreneurial 30c raincoat seller.

After Tam Coc, Kien, my moto driver took me to some temples and pagodas (hey, you can never see enough!) and onto Hoa Lu, Vietnam's ancient capital during the Ding dynasty (1000 yrs ago) with its undeniable Chinese influence.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to visit Cuc Phuong, Vietnam's first-established National Park - by Ho himself who declared that forest is gold - home to endangered primates, civets, squirrels, mongooses, birds, medicinal plants and thousand-year-old trees. First stop was the primate rescue centre run by some odd Germans, where I saw the striking red shanked douc langur, the spitting image of an old wise Vietnamese man, sporting a white beard and mutton chops with a French beret to boot. And then some "funky" gibbons - the Goodies were right.

Soon after reaching the boy scout cabin style guesthouse in the heart of the forest, we were requested at dinner. What we were getting was unknown, how much we were paying was the only negotiation point. I was delighted to discover the dining room, a vast Soviet style mess hall with futuristic - now retro - touches like the spiral staircase and chandeliers, and the adjacent giant ballroom. A totally alien building that would have been more at home on the set of Tarkovsky's "Solaris" than in the middle of a national park! The food matched the decor, and dinner was fried everything.

The following day I hit the rainforest trails, eyes wide open for some exotic "wildlife" sightings. Even though the forest was alive with sounds, the empty forest syndrome is a sad reality: most animals have been poached for sale in China as food or pets. However, I did get really hot and sweaty in the middle of the most inhospitable jungle I've ever been in (make that the only jungle...). If I stood still for more than two seconds, a plethora of wasps, bees and mossies would attack me. I started imagining me as the heroine-survivor of some B-grade flick about a chick in a jungle (no, I'm not on Larium). A hot, sticky, slippery, bug-and-leech-infested rainforest just aint no place for an urbane whitey like me.

After a few ancient tree visits and more of the so so"viet" food, the call of the concrete jungle and the ubiquitous internet cafe saw me hooning back to Ninh Binh.

Doomed to get the overnight bus due to a weird train ticket quota system, I decided to spend my last day on a bicycle exploring the back streets of Ninh Binh. It was a glorious and peaceful day in spite of my head-first crash into a cyclo seconds after leaving the guesthouse. I'm hoping this is the last in a series of three.

I'm off to Dong Hoi next to discover world heritage listed caves, the DMZ, Vinh Moc tunnels, and some white sand dune beaches!

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