Blogs from Ninh Binh, Red River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 14

Bye Bye Cat Ba and hello to yet another journey, this time heading to North Central Vietnam to Ninh Binh Province for what is supposed to be a very scenic part of Vietnam. Most of the other travellers that we'd met so far had no intention of going to NB nor had they heard of it (in most cases). From what we'd read it was supposed to be pretty spectacular so we set off in the hope that we'd find something that resembled the Vietnam that we'd imagined before coming here. The journey took 6 hours and involved a local bus ride to a ferry point somewhere on Cat Ba? a local ferry to the massive port of Hai Phong, a minibus ride to the main Bus Station and finally a local bus to Ninh ... read more

Ok, this was going to be really long but I just got disconnected and forgot to save, so am not writing it all again! Bascially, apologies for not writing sooner but our (admittedly free) internet connection was awful! So, we arrived late in Hanoi, with no pick up...so got toally ripped off by our taxi. However, even though our hotel was a tad out of town it had a bath, mtv asia, free breakfast, free interent and a fridge (all luxuries to us) so it became out hanoi base! The first day we spent largely trying out lonley planet recommendations and finding beer for 25p (it does worry me sometimes that we drink beer because it is the cheapest thing!) Tuesday....I got up early to get the bus to the airport to pick Simon up (only ... read more

With no wish to stay in Hanoi any more than necessary, and with a few days to kill before we could pick up our China visas, we headed for Ninh Binh after Ha Long Bay. The journey was marked by a rare conversation that was purely for conversation's sake (with a girl studying English at Hanoi University) and an all-too-frequent conversation with a guy who was much too pushy in trying to persuade us to stay in his guesthouse. On arriving in Ninh Binh, we were hassled by several touts, a couple of whom even followed us on motorbikes. However once we'd found a place and ditched our bags, the town showed a very different side, with kids saying "hello" to us, minimal traffic, and a very non-Vietnam feel. One of the main sights near Ninh ... read more

So Tracy and Ryan have arrived and we've been transformed into a band of hooligan teenagers. We get through all the formal talk and catching up in the first night, and move right into the dumb jokes and silly banter that you would expect of siblings and siblings-in-law. Suz comes down with some kind of food poisoning/flu-like illness, so for the first day I take the soon-to-be-married duo out for the full tour: food market; spring rolls from the restaurant balcony; Bia Hoi street watching; window shopping on the endless streets of the Old Quarter. The sights are good, the conversation is great, the company's even better. It's like we had never left Sacramento, just the scenery had changed. Suz felt better the next day so we took a visit to Uncle Ho (I decided that ... read more

West Coast Memories It rained last night and into the morning. Not ideal weather for boating and seeing stunning mountain vistas like we had planned. So instead we stayed in bed with fluffy duvet covers pulled up to our chins. We haven’t seen rain in months and it was a bittersweet reminder of rainy winter days at home that go something like this. The alarm clock goes off 7am and it’s gray and dark outside. The best thing to do is curl up with a good book or watch TV. But noooo, you have to drag your ass out of bed to make it to work on time. We weren't expected at 9am bright eyed and bushy tailed so for the majority of the day we read, watched TV and perused the Internet. We did what ... read more