Day 21: Caves and sampans at Ninh Binh

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Geo: 20.25, 105.98

The music played in the corridor and the train attendant tapped on the door to wake the train travellers. It was an uneventful night although in comparison with the ride up there was certainly much more revelry from the young back packers on board and the train seemed to be hurtling at a faster speed with a more exaggerated sway. But the important news of the morning was that the combination of the tablets and the bands had made a significant difference for Loraine.

Did get a surprise when I opened the curtains of our cabin and there was Way at our window, with the wide grin, waving vigorously to let us know that he was there.

And all debts have been paid in the "saving the life" category. The wheels of my luggage were caught in the train tracks on exit, and despite no train in sight, Richard was the one to race back and disentangle me from the tenacious iron groove of the Hanoi Express line.

It was a marathon effort to drag the luggage the length of the street and then down an alley to arrive at the hotel which was our "freshen up"and breakfast stop. Definitely not a five star hotel and to be truthful, would be hard to classify it as a three star, but theoretically, we were here to use the toilet, bathroom and dining room. Two out of three worked well for us. The toilet - not so much.

I can't begin to tell you the drama Mac created by simply being the first to visit our bathroom. After he made a serious visit to the loo - the dramas began. He flushed 10 times but had little or no success. For some reason, this one just didn't want to find its way to the Red River. I came up with the genius idea of filling the bowl with water. Unfortunately, it was very hot water! You can create your own picture of what was happening as the hot water combined with the stirring action of the flushing. And the water level just continued to rise. There was an increasing risk of spillage and it is very hard to keep your nostrils and mouth firmly closed while alternating between gagging, gasping and guffawing. We called it quits on our plumbing attempts and evacuated the room leaving that little (actually it was BIG) surprise for the hotel staff. We just had to use the "we'll never pass this way again" mentality to ensure that we would never have to own up to this disaster.

And it is worth noting that all toilets that we have encountered do have a hose attached that should be used for personal hygiene and that the resultant paper should be used just for drying and then deposited in the bin beside the loo. Sounds good in theory. We've all tried, but the freezing squirt of water from the little high pressure nozzle "up the hinnie" has left us all cold on the idea. And who knows where that thing has been. Mac has a new strategy in place that hopefully reduces the pressure on the flushing capacity - first flush takes care of the "business" and second flush for the " clean up." Wish he had that in place BEFORE he trashed the Hanoi Happy House!

Our destination today was Ninh Binh the first imperial capital of Vietnam and some 100 kms south of Hanoi. This was a three hour trek through the hustle and bustle of Hanoi followed by views of the countryside which was blanketed in the green of the second rice crop for the year. The sky was overcast and as had been typical for the north, the horizon was permanently blanketed in Way's fog.

The first stop was to the river at Van Long Wharf to get up close and personal with the limestone peaks that are the "Halong Bay" of the land. These were very rundown wooden boats rowed by very worn down Vietnamese ladies. Chook and Lin were in charge of paddling us through the wind and rain for 90 minutes. Way had told us that we didn't need jackets (although we did notice that he had grabbed his) and our current gear would be fine. Perhaps we should have looked up for ourselves and made an assessment, although with a sky constantly obscured by a thick pall of smog it is difficult to tell what was going on. LO_RI ignored Way and put on their water proof gear - I had a cardigan and Mac was wearing my black long sleeved (3/4 sleeve on him) shirt.

The very used two seater, bamboo boat sat low in the water as were handed onto the wooden plank that was to be our seat for 90 minutes and with our knees tucked under our chin, with a quiet splash of the oars we joined a stream of similar boats and wove our way through the lily free track. The boat moved slowly between the towering cliffs to end up in a cave which had stalactites dripping from the ceiling. It was cool and dark inside and we could see light at the end of the tunnel and could feel the burst of cold fresh air that blew through the tunnel, but the roof of the cave became so low, that the sampans had to turn around. We did linger in the quiet of the entrance and tried very hard to piece together some scraps of French to communicate with Lin but all we got was fish, duck and snails - the only three words we had collectively retained from junior French. And Chook, our ancient paddler could add little to the conversation.

The return journey took us via an alternate route but by this time the thunder was rolling across the sky and a constant breeze and steady rain had us huddled against the cold. Poor Lin coughed with almost every stroke she rowed LO_RI and Chook was beside herself that my hair was getting wet - she was tearing plastic bags open to make hats for me and at one stage urged Lin to fish a discarded Coolie hat out of the lake for me. But it was only water and Mac scored a laugh by mimicking having a shower in the rain.

We had fun identifying the shapes that had been formed in the limestone and convinced ourselves that we saw monkeys, elephants and lions. Ninh Binh is the Halong Bay of the land and it is a spectacular landscape of limestone karst peaks and coincidentally, this was the location for the recent remake of "King Kong."

And despite being cold and wet, a little cramped and having a sore bottom - it was a great experience and we smiled all the way.

Safely back on land it was time for the ox cart ride. True to form Way had us laughing again. Hopping from one foot to the other he informed us that "the ox was busy" (doing what we never did discover) and that we had organised us a cow! The hysteria continued as Loraine and I loaded up first into the dilapidated tin and wood cart to take front row seat on a plank of wood up close and personal to said cow's swinging tail and bottom. We did cope a lashing from the tail as it swished away the flies but thankfully there was no karma moment in reply to Mac's early morning indiscretion at the hotel.

Have to say that all the locals popped their heads out of their homes to wave and exchange some conversation with our driver. They are of course all smiles at us and I bet they are laughing inside as they wonder what the heck four adults are doing trundling (@SEllis) behind a cow when they have access to perfectly good minibus! Me too actually.

Lunch was in the lower floor of a local home and had a distinct resemblance to some of the street food venues of last week, but we had survived that so had very few qualms about tucking into goat for lunch. Can't believe that two days ago we had been taking photos of the "cuties" at the Ecolodge and today we were chewing through a cousin. Loraine and Mac loved the goat - Richard was non committal - and I was not a fan...more on a cerebral level than a taste bud thing. It wasn't a tarantula or a cricket....so I did have a couple of pieces. It was only "one of many" dishes so it was possible to skirt the goat.

We had delayed enough and booked in to the Esmeralda just on two o'clock. The entrance was massive and had ponds, pedal boats In the shape of swans, we had to walk across a bridge over a pond filled with golden carp and slide by a cascading waterfall to enter the cavernous wooden reception area. Nothing, however, had prepared us for the accommodation here. We literally gasped as we opened the door. The bedroom and bathroom of the villas at 626 and 627 were bigger than our house. They were a wooden luxury with cathedral ceilings, an expansive king sized bed set on a polished wood pedestal and a beautiful bath tub in a glass enclosed bathroom - we were in heaven.

It was not for long though, because we had to meet Way for our 3 pm appointment to visit the Dich Long Cave and Pagoda. After walking through the three rooms of the Pagoda and climbing the bell tower, Way secured permission from the monk for us to climb the 105 steps (verified as "correct" by Mac) to the cave. This was definitely a surprise. From the bell tower we had made out the steps and the small dark entrance to the cave. But once we scaled the stairs, the cave opened out into a series of caves that wound their way back through the mountain. Jumping from step to step and over and around rocks, Mac and Richard followed Way and were like mountain goats as they wound their way through the caves. In fact, they ran into some mountain goats further up the mountain (lucky the goats escaped - after lunch think Mac would be keen to eat them fresh off the hoof!)

Can't stress enough that Vietnam is just one gigantic building site that is consuming all the building materials that it can muster. Bamboo stands, forests, sand from the rivers and of course, the limestone from the karst mountains. The Dich Long Pagoda was a mess. It was blanketed in the white powder from the adjacent cement factory. As we were there , large lorries were lining up to have tonnes of the pulverised limestone dumped into their trays which caused large plumes of white powder to fill the air. As magical and beautiful as the stories of Buddha and the cave were, they were almost the side attraction to our first meeting up close with an increasingly urbanised Vietnam that seemed to be consuming itself one natural resource at a time.

On return to the Esmeralda a soak in the tub was in order to shake off the day's adventures. And then it was time to eat AGAIN. This was the first time we haven't gone "banquet style" and decided to have an individual meal. And yes, Mac had goat! He is a fan. Of course, every choice was a winner - Loraine had an Australian steak, Richard opted for the carbonara and I had a tiger prawn pad Thai - all wrapped up with the essential spring rolls and a bottle of wine.

Just a very brief stop over at the Esmeralda - would have loved to stay a few days longer but Halong Bay and the junk are calling.

Steps: 6 539
Temperature: 23 degrees (light showers)

PS Always check the hotel bills at checkout. Well, we actually thought we had, but when Richard was looking over the Ecolodge account he noticed that one of our meals had been charged at 1,280,000 dong for a hotpot for four instead of a single meal of spicy prawns at 118,000 dong. Did take Way about 7 phone calls to sort it - but sort it he did and theoretically a refund should be hitting Richard's credit card anytime soon.

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Comments

[Aunty Gail]

I think a great big congratulations is due to the planner of this amazing trip (Mac).....unbelievable adventures all the way......looking forward to tomorrow!!....xxxx