Departed Hanoi on a hard seat train to Ninh Binh on 11 November. This caused much amusement with the locals, particularly as we almost got off one stop too early. To be fair, "Nam Dinh" does sound a whole lot like "Ninh Bihn" when spoken a million miles an hour and is hard to pick in amoungst all the other Vietnamese words. We then made friends with the family sitting across the isle, but then the old man started pointing at me and doing weird hand actions so our non-conversation ended rather abruptly there.
After checking into our Guesthouse we rented a moto (scooter) from our host and spent the afternoon driving around the local countryside visiting:
Tam Coc a la "Halong Bay on the rice paddies" where we were rowed by locals along the river in between (and through) limestone mountains.
Weaved through the back roads in attempt to avoid the swarms of ducks and herds of cows wandering all over the road.
Found a pagoda complete with a crazy Veitnamese guide who spoke no English (and what I suspect was very little Vietnamese) who insisted we take a photo of everything!
We also spent the next day on a moto, driving 65km to the mostly pristine Cuc Phuong National Park. This is Vietnam's oldest National Park (since 1962) and is home to a prehistoric man's cave, some rather large trees, and an Endagered Primate Rescue Centre. It is also home to the first giant spider in the wild viewed by me, and first poisionous snake in the wild also viewed by me. Australia eat your heart out!
I also learned (the hard way) never to touch the moto exhaust, and now rep a hefty burn to my right calve, and that a too long on the back of a moto is not fun for bums (could explain the forced smile above).
And with that we departed Ninh Binh on a "sleeper" bus to Hué, which allowed minimal sleep in between the eratic breaking and consistent tooting of the bus driver, minimal footspace of the beds, and loud chatting of the locals up the front. Next time we are taking the train.
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