Ninh Binh and Tam Coc

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We arrived in Ninh Binh at 10pm expecting to be met by someone from the hotel, but the street was deserted. Luckily there was a shop open and the owner kindly rang the hotel and got someone to meet us. After a few minutes a guy on a moped turned up, and realising there were 2 of us hailed another moped and told us to get on. We had been offered moped taxi rides in Hanoi and always said no, but this time we didn't have a choice, so with our heavy packs on we each got on the back of a moped. I asked my driver if I could hold on to him as I was worried about falling off sideways with my pack on, when he went around a corner. He said he would go very slowly which he did. After a few minutes we were at the hotel and I quite enjoyed the ride.

We checked in and asked about trips to Tam Coc. The guy at the hotel went through the options and we decided to again get mopeds with drivers to take us there and back. (Chris wasn't too keen driving with a passenger, and I wasn't happy driving one myself). Plus having a driver meant that we could look at the scenery.

So after breakfast the next morning we met our drivers and headed off to Tam Coc. The main part of the trip is a boat ride down the river, through rice fields, surrounded by mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking and was really how I expected the countryside to look. There were the 2 of us in the row boat, which was rowed by a woman using her feet! We saw goats on the mountains and monkeys in the trees.

We also saw first hand that they eat dogs, as we saw 2 guys with sharp knives taking the fur from a dead dog. Not nice to see.

After the boat trip we went to Bich Donu pagoda, which was very chinese in appearance, and then we went to Thai VI temple. We then chose to go to Mua Cave, which was to a view point overlooking the rice fields, with a dragon and pagodas at the top. The stairs were quite steep but the view from the top was worth it.

We were hungry and thirsty by this point so went back to the hotel on the mopeds. After food and a shower we waited for the night bus that would take us to Hoi An and hopefully a day or so relaxing on the beach.

Hope all is good at home.

Love to you all

Tina


p.s. Happy birthday to my niece Stacey - it doesn't seem like a year ago that I ran the marathon and we celebrated your 21st does it?

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