Arrived in
Hanoi,
Vietnam via a flight, we cheated, didn't fancy a 24hour bus ride, a 1hr 20mins prop plane was more appealing...Oh my Buddha Hanoi is CRAZY MAD, never seen so many mopeds in one place, everyone constantly beeping all night and all day, walking down the street proved very difficult and crossing the road took some balls, you have to be like a local and take a leap of faith..All in all Hanoi is an great experience..
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| Hanoi |
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| Hanoi |
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| Hanoi |
After Hanoi we went to
Halong Bay on a lovely Junk Cruise Boat. (see separate blog on Halong Bay)
We changed our itinerary with the cruise and asked the guide if we could get off at
Cat Ba Island as we wanted this as our next destination and thought it would save money rather than going back to Halong City and having to make our own way to Cat Ba. Our very nice guide let us do this, only thing is we missed out on the cooking lesson on how to make spring rolls. Steve was gutted he was so looking forward to making them, NOT!!! We arrived on the island and followed the group to Cat Ba National Park.
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| Cat Ba National Park |
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| Cat Ba National Park |
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| Cat Ba National Park |
Cat Ba Island is a beautiful forested island with many beaches, the town itself is a traditional fishing village with 3 of the best beaches located here. Along the promenade locals set up plastic tables and chairs selling local food and cheap beer, get in!!! Mopeds again all over the place, we decided to join them and hired one for the day to get around the island. It's true what they say the island is like a scene out of Jurassic Park, only down side to this is the locals are a little hard faced and none to friendly...
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| Cat Ba Island |
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| Cat Ba Island |
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| Cat Ba Island |
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| Cat Ba Island |
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| Cat Ba Island |
Oh my Buddha what a journey to
Ninh Binh. Small bus, small cramped boat, small bus again, but with nicer seats, then yes another small bus with cramped seats and no leg room. 6hr journey with the craziest driver we have ever experienced, think he was playing chicken with other vehicles, one of the worst journeys so far... Thank god we made it to tell the story. All experience......
Ninh Binh is totally different from anywhere we have been so far, not on the tourist trail, no one trying to sell us stuff, you can walk round freely without having to say NO THANK YOU all the time. Good to see locals how they live and work in a city, this is a real Vietnam city. Local children look at you and want to say hello to practice their English, how good is that, puts a smile on your face.....
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| Ninh Binh School finishing |
We hired a moped (oh yes Andrea got on a moped again in a busy town) and rode to
Tam Coc, known as the " Halong Bay of the Rice Paddies" it is a collection of huge rock formations jutting out of rice paddies making for breath taking scenery. The only way to see Tam Coc was by rowing boat on the Ngo Dong River. The boats row through Karst Caves on this beautiful trip.
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| Tam Coc |
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| Tam Coc |
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| Tam Coc |
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| Tam Coc |
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| Tam Coc |
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