Blogs from Ninh Binh, Red River Delta, Vietnam, Asia

Today was all about the weather. We woke to another hot and humid Hanoi morning. The plan was to drive to Ha Long Bay, about 3 hours away, spend the afternoon and night cruising around the bay and doing some kayaking, swimming and cocktail drinking – my idea of heaven! The only thing that would have improved it would be to throw in a geocache or two. Sadly as we got close to Ha Long the heavens had other ideas and opened up, throwing very heavy, yet surprisingly warm, rain down on the coach. We stopped for a quick leg-stretch and comfort break at a pearl outlet, and after a quick pee Susan and I went into the retail part of building. Susan had given me strict instructions before we travelled not to let her buy ... read more

Heute mache ich mir einen entspannten Tag. Vormittags sitze ich im Hostel am Pool, nachmittags fahr ich in die Stadt. Dort will ich vom Mechaniker ein komisches Geräusch am Motorrad untersuchen lassen, er findet mehrere Probleme und repariert sie eines nach dem anderen. Ka Ende meint er, der Zentralstände und die Fußbremse wackeln, aber dass will er erst morgen richten - mittlerweile ist es schon dunkel. Also fahr ich wieder zurück zum Hostel. Als ich dort ankomme, laden mich noch ein paar Vietnamesische Gäste, die zumindest ein bisschen Englisch können, zum Essen ein. So kom es, dass ich ein paar Sachen ausprobiere - unter anderem kleine, weiße Melanzane (Auberginen ) und Schnecken.... read more

Heute ist ein Reisetag geplant. Ich will von Cat Ba in Richtung Ninh Binh fahren, idealerweise bis Ninh Binh, sollte es zu weit werden, dann halt möglichst weit in diese Richtung. Unterwegs möchte ich noch in Hai Phong eine Powerbank und einen besseren Helm kaufen. Die Fahrt geht ganz gut los, ich komme fix nachHai Phong, wo ich auch relativ schnell eine Powerbank finde sowie einen Helm, der zwar vermutlich nicht ganz deutschen Sicherheitsstandards entspricht, aber immerhin ein Fullface Helm ist, also auch das Kinn und damit sas Gesicht schützt. Ich fahre weiter, nachdem ich Hai Phon verlassen habe und irgendwo zwischen Reisfeldern auf einer Landstraße bin, höre ich plötzlich ein lautes Geräusch, so als wäre etwas gebrochen oder geplatzt, und ursprünglich verliert das Motorrad einen großen Teil seiner Leistung. Toll,so kann ich wohl nicht weiterfahren. ... read more

We took the public bus from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, which took us about 2.30 hours. The bus was very full. Shaun ended up at the very front while Victor and I were at the very back. There was music and videos on a small screen... We were surprised (to say the least) to see that, on the screen were displayed pictures of naked women... We had never seen anything looking a lot like porn in a PUBLIC bus before and it was pretty disturbing! We arrived in Ninh Binh, where we took a taxi to Tam Coc, where we had decided to stay. We stayed in the first hostel we saw, which was cheap but not very clean and were the owner's son was interestingly rude... It was still quite early so we had a ... read more

Arriving from Haiphong into Ninh Binh after a two hour minibus ride I found a nice little hotel for the nicer price of $100,000VND and set out to wander this pleasant little city. It was the official "Liberation Day" here in Vietnam and many families were outside in the parks or on their patios eating and drinking and enjoying their time off. It was nice to see a little bit of daily life going by in front of me as I strolled. I made it to the market where all manner of produce, meats, and fish were on offer as well. Markets are always an interesting place to walk around. It seems that thier is always something someone is willing to buy and eat and I usually have no idea what it is. My reason for ... read more