Ninh Binh - 30/1-1/2 - 13

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I went to Ninh Binh with Linda, whom I met in a homestay in Sapa. We found a hotelroom, where we bargained a lot for the price, but it was not worth it, not even at the price, we ended up paying, since it wasn't a nice room, the toilet door couldn't close, it smelled and the lady, wholived there, kept touching my face and shoulders, which was really weird. The next day we rented some bicycles and went to the "Tam Coc cave", where we enjoyed the amazing scenery from a boat. the landscape was quite similar to "Ha Long Bay", except fr the fact that there down here weould be rice on each side of the boat during the rainy season. But even without the green rice on both sides it was a beautiful trip with limestone cliffs on both sides. When we got to the end, there were some women in some boats trying to sell us things, that we did not want to buy. Among other things, they wanted us to buy a banana for the lady, who was rowing our boay, instead we gave her one of our bananas, but neither she or the other women seemed happy about that. When we got near the shore, the woman started saying "tip, tip", but neither Linda or I wanted to give her extra money, especially not when she was asking for it. After this we went to see a pagoda in a cave, "Bich Duong", where there was a pagoda in the bottom, and then we walked up some steps to a pagoda in a cave, afterwards we walked through the cave and saw a sign saying "climb", so we climbed the limestone cliffs, me in peeptoe ballerinas, but that should not stop me from seeing what was on the top, and it was deffinitely worth the climb. There was a beautiful view of the valley and it was incredible peacefull up there. But eventhough we really enjoyed it up there, unfortunately we had to climb down in order to return to the city, before it got dark. The next day we rented a scooter and went to "Cuc Phuong National Park", where we trekked for a bit, which was really nice. But unfortunately the national park is a bit away from the city, and we left later than expected, so we didn't have much time in the national park, since we had to return the bike before it got dark. The next day Linda left to meet up with a friend in Hanoi, and since I had a minor food poisoning, I also ended up leaving. I had been thinking about staying for one more day, but since Linda left, I had to change room anyway, so I thought, I might as well leave for Hanoi as well, since I didn't really like the city that much. Over all, in my oppinion, Ninh Binh is a bit boring, but there is a lot of beautiful spots outside the city, so it is definitely woth going there, but don't expect much of the city in it self. I did however have a funny massage. One of the nights Linda and I thought, we really deserved a massage, but it was definitely a different experience, than I expected. In the room, there was a bath tub and a shower. It took med some time to convince the woman to leave the room, since she didn't speak English. After taking a shower, I let her in the room again, and then she wanted to give me a bath and wash my hair, that was difinitely something different and unexpected, and the massage wasn't that good either, but neither the worst one, I had. But we were both pretty surprised by the experience, since it wasn't a place with red lights, where you would have expected something like that. But hey well.. It was an experience.

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