Ninh Binh

Bailed out of Thanh hoa in the morning nice little city, with a good food stalls but not very touristy. Got on a moto to go to the bus station and he flagged down a bus on Highway 1 which pulled me aboard and an hour later chucked me out at the traffic lights on highway 1 in Ninh Binh. To easy.

Checked into a hotel dorm room and met a 2m tall German dude named Philip who was going to hire a bike and head out to the National park so decided to join him. Got a bike for $5 us and blasted along highway 1 for 10 km then another 30km inland to the national park entrance, missed a few turns and got split up a couple of times and got caught in a shower of rain, but made it in the end. The Park head quarters was another 20km along a nice thin windy road was a fun ride. Did a couple of walks and then headed back to the entrance, gave a young Vietnamese dude a ride as they had 3 on there bike. Booked a short tour around the Primate rescue centre which was nice then headed back to town, was a sweet sunset over the big rock formations which are similar to the ones in Vieng Xai. Philip picked up a hitchhiker when I was getting gas. We hit highway 1 in the dark so was an interesting ride back, the hitchhiker drove Philip, I was stoked when I made it back alive.

Second day got up early and cruised out to Tam Coc was an easy ride. Parked my bike and jumped on a boat and got rowed along the waterways of Tam Coc surrounded by large Karst formations, was spectacular especially since there was no wind and the sky was mirroring off the waterways. All up was a 2 hour journey and well worth the 70,000 Dong. After that headed up the road to cave Pagoda there seemed to be a school trip happening and there was many school kids in and above the Pagoda, got given the standard questions alot of times and had my photo taken many times. Was some very nice views from the top of the Karst stacks. Eventually got out and took a back road towards Hoa Lu, an ancient city. On the way stopped off at another sight that was on top of a Rock that overlooked Tam Coc so had some nice views. The ancient city was pretty average but met some nice people there, an Israeli girl and a Irish dude. Went for a back roads mission with them over to the Keng Ga floating village which is on the way out to the N.P. Took a boat out up a river was a nice trip took 2 hours and the Israeli girl got to drive the boat. But took us to sunset so it was another hair raising ride back along highway 1 in the dark.

Next day headed up to Hanoi on the train, hard seat all the way, 30,000 Dong for a 2 1/2 hr trip.