Blogs from Ninh Binh, Red River Delta, Vietnam, Asia - page 7

Still wiping the sleep from our eyes we stepped off the overnight bus from Hue and were greeted by Mr. Xuan. He showed us to his hotel which was imaginitively named, Mr. Xuan's. The hotel was, depsite the five floors of stairs to our room and the noisy construction work outside, just what we needed after a long trip. Since leaving Saigon we had travelled 1,600 kilometres and now came to the quietly emerging area of Ninh Binh around 90 kilometers south of Hanoi. The town itself is nothing more than an urban sprawl of shops and non-descript buildings but it is the countryside that is the main draw. After a nap and some breakfast we hired a moped and hit the road like everyone else in Ninh Binh it seemed. The main road that runs ... read more

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 ... read more

19/2/10 - The Dinh and Le Temples are located in Ninh Binh province, and are surrounded by hill country. This is also the site of Hoa Lư, the former ancient capitol of Vietnam before the seat of power moved to Hanoi 1000 years ago. For this reason Hoa Lư is one of Vietnam’s important cultural and historical sites. A visit here also helps put the story of Hanoi in historical perspective. The layout of the Le Temple reminded us a lot of a mini temple of literature. Despite the rain there were many visitors to the temples and it is interesting to watch how the Vietnamese visitors use these cultural sites. They are not just buildings of great beauty; all the local visitors use them to pay respect to their ancestors and the families that the ... read more

After a better night’s sleep than anticipated we arose as the sun was rising. Leaving morning chorus of cockerels crowing and pigs scuttling under the houses behind, I walked up through the village. A few girls were already out cooking, sifting rice, and preparing vegetables. Gradually, a mist came in, softening the surrounding forest and creating a magical serenity all around. Yes, we are glad we did the homestay, it really gave us an opportunity to meet some wonderful people, see how and where they live and experience just a little part of that life ... but I have to confess - I would have loved a nice sit-down flush toilet!!! Apparently there is a saying amongst the trendy set that ‘Laos is Now’, well for us it is so yesterday as we trundled across the ... read more

We were dropped off on the highway in Ninh Binh at 4.30am in the dark. We had not even checked out a map let alone booked any accomodation, so when we were greeted by a gentlemen who introduced himself as Mr Xuan we were more than happy to let him guide us through the dark to his hotel. Mr Xuan runs the Xuan Hoa Hotel, which is actually two hotels seperated by a small road, and showed us a room we managed to haggle down to $8. We only planned on staying in Ninh Binh the one night, as we were really only interested in checking out Tam Coc and perhaps a few pagodas, so after a long breakfast and a bit of time updating the blog we were off. We hired a couple of bikes ... read more