From Cat Ba to Ninh Binh

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Very much not looking forward to 9pm tonight. It entails a ten to twelve hour bus journey to Hue. Oh yikes.

From Cat Ba internet cafe, having eaten a couple of rather delicious chocolate icecreams, oh merino, we found a place to stay and ate a cheese burger. Such a thing has to be admitted. Next day we were told accomodation on the island wold go up to the equivalent of about 80 dollars a night (independence day you see, fall of saigon was 35 years ago) and so we hopped on a boat and hopped off onto an island with bungalows as dreamt. Pity about the weather. And the price. Did a fair amount of sleeping and a fair amount of reading, but never got around to hiring kayaks to go arond the bays (weather here falls as the scapegoat). Stayed two nights because the man that booked our tickets said if we came back in two days we'd have a free boat. Such a deal, it seemed did not exist on the morning of our departure. Second night there we met a group of people who kept switching between languages most impressively. French, Spanish and English. A couple of friends from Belgium, a Spanish girlfriend, a woman from Germany and a guy from New York. Learnt to play m&m poker (supposedly) and Asshole which was the card game analogy of a capitalist system (also supposedly). Thus I stayed within my rank throughout each game and never made it close to president. Only gave my best card or two each time. Drat it.

On the day we left beautiful but cloudy and under construction bungalow island the weather cleared. Super. We got a small boat back to Cat Ba and ate an icecream. An increasing pattern. Wandered about till 3 then got a hydrofoil boat back to mainland, Haiphong. The severe contrast between the clear green water of halong bay and the murky brown industrial wasteland esque water through which we returned was quite a shock. On the mini bus to Haiphong centre were two men travelling together post conference in Hanoi who decided to take a private car to Ninh Binh. Being the back packers that we are we said we couldn't afford the mere 40 euro car and were going to take the bus. To which they said we could pay the price of the bus and come in the car. Agreed. The Italian Hugo with a silent H pointed out the strangeness of many Vietnamese houses.. "it's all about the facade". We drove past many two storey concrete bloc houses of which the fronts were painted and decorated while the still rather visible sides were left untouched. As is often pointed out, it's about not losing face. Lucy pointed out "Ugo" had an air of philosophy lecturer about him.

Having both agreed we've been waking up too late and ought to wake up more like 7 we arose at 8.30 and were ready by 10.30 to motorbike about. That two hour period did involve breakfast and agonising over buses. We went first to the Tam Coc caves which are described as Halong bay on land. That description now makes alot more sense, it is the rocks of Halong but the water is replaced by rice paddies. Pretty incredible. We took a two hour row boat along a river that wound its way through the rice fields and through caves. Exiting one of the caves it occured to me it seemed a whole lot like one of the settings in the film Indochine. Scene: Beatiful runaway and lover awake in a boat to find they are no longer adrift in Halong Bay but have floated into a secret mysterious landscape. Quite a feat really when there's a great expanse of land separating the two, at least there was when we got there.

Next to a pagoda tucked into the hills. We bought incense but never ended up lighting it, instead we climbed many a stair to a sacred sight inside the caves dating back to about the 16th century. Lovely and cold. Climbing a little further we reached a point on the rocks where we had a 360 degree view of the land. Rice fields stretching out forever with amazing rocks sporadically grouped about. If that makes any sense. Enough sense. Escaped a woman who took our photo, laminated it and wanted 5 dollars for a somewhat undesirable snap shot. After a great deal of refusal on our part. Then we took the motorbikes again to find a very steep climb waiting for us. On the top of a mountain was a shrine to which a great flight of stairs led. Puffed our way to the top and looked out on another amazing view.

Ah and the food today got a thumbs up and a half. Rice with what was either beef or goat with lemongrass and tofu stuffed with pork. And mango juice.

Bus in two hours. Dread dread dread. Not sure if I said how painful the 8 hour bus from Sapa was. Oh so I did I think. The British couple in front of us were valiumed out and had their chairs as far back as possible. Blissfully unaware. We were most awake to the heat and sound of Vietnamese comedy and the inability to move. Roughing it can somestimes be better in theory.

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