Vietnam (Ninh Binh)

"The Good, The Bad & The Ugly"
Not necessarily in that order, but that pretty much describes our next trip from Ha Long to Ninh Binh.

I went online again, seeking to 'hitch' (as we had done the last time) a ride from Ha Long to Ninh Binh on a day tour bus. It had worked out well for us on our way to Ha Long, but the company I had used before, was based in Hanoi and they couldn't help us with this one. Mr Long, based in Ninh Binh, seemed very nice and accommodating and assured me that we would be picked up at noon and dropped off at their office near Tam Coc at 5pm where we could then get a 10 minute taxi ride to our accommodation in Ninh Binh. I had already liaised with the owner of our 'homestay' (Dzung) who told me to call him as soon as we were in Tam Coc and he would send a taxi-driver friend to pick us up. Good plan! Everything organised!

'The Bad':
We were picked up 30 minutes late by three guys in a small, old bus with uncomfortable seats and very little leg room. There were a couple of people on board already but they got off soon after (presumably to get on their boat for Ha Long Bay). We then stopped for one and a half hours while our driver and his two 'stooges' had breakfast! We had our first Vietnamese coffee which comes in a small tin container (containing the coffee grounds and water) which drips slowly into a glass. We had seen signs advertising 'Weasel Coffee' in Hanoi and I was already familiar with Indonesian Luwak coffee which is made from the poop of civets, after they eat coffee cherries. This stuff can sell for $100 a cup in New York City! Anyway the point is that, one sip of this Vietnamese coffee (which was not Luwak), and we almost spat it out. It tasted like something that came out of an animal's butt (indescribably bad, bad, bad!) - Yuk!

After breakfast, the three Vietnamese started loading a bunch of backpackers who had just come off the Ha Long Bay boats, onto our bus until there were no seats left, the baggage section was full and some luggage was even stowed in the front near the driver. We set off, only to stop a few minutes later and take on more people. Since there was no more room and nobody wanted to share seats for a five-hour (supposedly) drive, a land cruiser turned up, seemingly out of nowhere, to take the extra passengers. The extra luggage, however, was packed (literally) into the aisles of our bus, so we had to jump over it to get out if we needed to. Our seats were up front so David, in the aisle seat, had a mountain of luggage between him and the door.

It took us seven hours of bouncing around in this old vehicle, to get to Tam Coc. All the while, we were subjected to loud Vietnamese rock, interjected by even louder jabber and laughter by Larry, Curly and Moe who, instead of turning down the music to talk, yelled even louder to make themselves heard.

'The Ugly':
Just before we arrived at our destination, the group of young people sitting at the back of the bus started yelling for the driver to turn right, because they apparently had tickets to Ninh Binh Centre where they were staying. The driver ignored them and kept going, accompanied by more yelling of "Stop!" and "Turn Right!" and "We paid for Ninh Binh Centre!"...

We arrived in Tam Coc village in front of The Long Hotel (go figure) and Travel Office at

7.30pm (instead of 5). I left David to rescue our luggage and went inside, intending to ask one of the staff to phone Dzung to tell him we had arrived and to please send his taxi-driver friend to pick us up. The girl 'helping me' said that Mr Long had told her to organise a car for us instead. I told her that we had already booked our car and didn't need their car. Since she was doing everything in her power not to phone Dzung, I insisted on borrowing her phone and phoned him myself. Dzung said that his friend would be along in ten minutes and to wait outside.

In the meantime, all hell had broken loose outside, with the backpackers demanding that the bus turn around and take them back to Ninh Binh town which was about 5 kms away. The three (or maybe two, because I think we had lost one of them by then) stooges started unloading their luggage from the back of the bus, but one of the group had the presence of mind to take the bus key and they all piled back into the bus, refusing to budge until they were taken into town. All this accompanied by a lot of shouting, gesticulating and arguing (mostly from the backpackers).

During this chaos, David and I had our own little drama. We stood to one side of the whole backpacker hullabaloo and as we waited for our taxi, one of the stooges (I think it was Larry because Moe was fighting off the backpackers who wanted him for dinner, and we never saw Curly with the dyed blond hair again) came over and offered us a ride to our hotel for 100,000VND (about $5). We politely declined and told him we already had a taxi, which in fact showed up just at that time. As the taxi went up the road to turn around and come onto our side of the road, Larry rushed out and stopped him, all the while yelling in Vietnamese. Next thing we know our taxi is driving off, leaving us standing there. Larry came over and offered us a car again and we refused (even though it was getting late) on point of principle. I marched into the office again and demanded a phone. I called Dzung who told me that they had scared his taxi friend off because they had a monopoly on transport in that village. However, if we walked a little way up the road to a restaurant close by, he would pick us up there. We did this, but the taxi never came back...he was well and truly frightened...

'The Good':
Instead, Dzung and his wife showed up on two scooters, intending to take us back to their

homestay themselves. David and I exchanged looks of horror as Dzung (bless him), with exclamations of "Don't worry!", tried to load my 20 kg luggage in front of his wife intending to put me behind her. If it wasn't so scary, it would have been comical, and even though she smiled shyly, her arms could hardly reach her handlebars and she said something to her husband who finally realised that this wasn't going to work. The restaurant owner where we were waiting was Dzung's aunt and she also had a friend who drove a taxi. Another quick phone call and we were soon loaded up and on our way to Dzung's. The Limestone View Homestay is in a small village off the beaten path, near limesone karsts and waterways. It is close to the major sights of Ninh Binh and about 7 km away from Ninh Binh Town. When we arrived, we sat with Dzung (lovely, lovely guy) who told us that we were his only guests at the moment, so he had upgraded us to the best room in the house! We also talked a little bit about the sights around the area and he volunteered to take us around on his and his brother-in-law's scooter (since he wasn't too busy) for a reasonable charge. We accepted quickly. It was so reassuring to be able to trust someone after the stress of the day before. It was about 10.00pm when we were finally in our room with the amazing view of local karsts, and home for the next few days...

Moral of this story: You pay peanuts you get monkeys...and monkey drivers...and monkey transport...

20 January 2016
After a delicious home-made breakfast of pancakes with bananas, and true to his word, Dzung (together with his brother-in-law, Vuong), took us to the following places:

1. Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex (another UNESCO heritage site). The 'boys' took us to the pier where we bought tickets and got onto one of many boats with lady rowers who rowed us down waterways, among limestone karsts (similar to Ha Long Bay) and through caves, some of which were so low that we had to duck to avoid being hit by stalactites or ceilings. It was a wonderful, beautiful and peaceful two and a half hour tour which we enjoyed tremendously, helped by the fact that there were few boats on the water at that time of day (Dzung had told us that it would get busy in the afternoon).

2. Next up, we rode through valleys with rice fields, duck farms and parts of rural, raw Vietnam, to Bai Dinh Pagoda. It's Vietnam's largest temple complex in a 7 sq.km area. Covered walkways with seemingly never-ending (actually 500), 2.3m tall statues of different Arhat (enlightened quasi buddhas) and a beautiful 13-storey tower as well as many other temple buildings and pagodas.

3. Our next stop was Hoa Lu, site of the ancient capital of Vietnam. All that remains of it are two temples dedicated to Emperors Dinh and Le (ancient emperors of Vietnam). Both of these were a little underwhelming, but once again, the countryside on the way was beautiful. It was also interesting, though somewhat creepy, to see ornate tombs and sometimes just plain dirt burial mounds scattered on the water, at the edge of rice paddies or at the foot of mountains...

21 January 2016
Today we planned to see the rest of the Ninh Binh sights, but Dzung was busy so Vuong and another friend, Huang, took us instead. We loved sightseeing this way, with honest locals who aren't trying to scam you and will take you off the beaten track. Today's agenda:

1. Bich Dong Pagoda built into the side of a mountain. They seem to have a lot of cave temples in Vietnam which makes a nice change from the different temples we saw in other parts of Southeast Asia. There's only so many temples we felt we could see, but the scenery around these Vietnamese ones has been absolutely stunning so far.

2. Next up Thai Vi Temple. We were dropped off by the boys in front of a 'work in progress' with construction work still going on, so we took a quick peek and figured that this was a waste of time. The boys were drinking tea when we came out, but Huang gestured towards the mountain behind the 'construction site' and since we had nothing to lose, we walked in the direction he had indicated. We got to the mountain and saw some steps which we climbed. There we found the old Thai Vi temple, which was built into the side of the mountain with a big hole in the ceiling of the cave - almost like a huge natural skylight. Beautiful...and not a tourist (apart from us) in sight!

3. Last on our agenda was Thung Nham or Nham Valley which contained a bird park, waterways (so you could go by boat), several caves and various other interesting things like small temples and a 1000 year old tree. We walked around for a while and then down through a long (1500m) subterranean cave on a rickety bamboo walkway surrounded by water. The stalactites grew so low at certain points that we had to bend down and walk under them. It was fun and well worth the visit...