Wow!! I just went on the most incredible row boat journey on the Tam Coc river in Ninh Binh!! Absolutely stunning! The limestone cliffs on the abolutely serene and still river - no noise except some crickets, birds and the sound of the water against the boat and oars... and occasionally you can hear the sound of goats bleating to each other on the cliffs - so peaceful! I saw 2 kingfisher birds which was exciting - they are so beautiful but too quick to take a photo of. Also saw some of the mountain goats - amazing that they can get so high!!
Then of course it was funny because I came across the exact scam that was written in the Lonely Planet - a woman in another boat tried to get me to buy some of her goods and then asked me to buy a drink for the woman rowing my boat - "Madame Vietnam". The scam is that you buy the drink and then the rowing woman sells it back for half the price. Anyway, it was pretty funny coming across the exact scam written in Lonely Planet. Also the Lonely Planet said to prepare yourself for a good hard sell of items from sellers - it warned that it can even get quite aggressive! So I was prepared for it when it came but luckily my rowing woman didn't get aggressive - she just didn't like it when I refused to buy her embroided baby T-shirts that said they were made out of 100% cotton but which I contested! It certainly didn't feel like the cotton I know!
Anyway, luckily the souvenier pushing didn't last too long - it could have been bad because the woman pushing me her products was the woman rowing my boat which meant that she could have left me there on the river until I agreed to buy something! Then on the way back, I started to see MANY tourists on the river - a major flow of them! I realised I was so lucky I came when I did - I saw the occassional row boat with tourists but not like it was when I had come back! By then it was major tourist time and you wouldn;t have been alone on the river at all!! Phew I was lucky!! And I even bumped into the girl I was hanging out with in Hoi An on the river! Funny.
Before this, I went to the Mua Cave - I don;t know why it's called a cave - I didn;t see any! It was actually a climb up a limestone cliff to a small alter at the top with incredible views. It was really beacutiful and again just the sounds of crickets and birds - such a relief after the awful city of Hue!! Again I was one of the few tourists here so it was really peaceful. Actually it was funny because I didn't bring much water with me cause I expected a flurry of women trying to sell me "cold drink" on arrival - but shock horror - there were NO sellers!!!! Not one!!!! I had to ASK for a water rather than be pushed for one!!! RELEIF!!!
At the bottom of the limestone cliff was this absolutely amazing greeney aqua clear water - incredible! Also there were some really cute goats around on the scooter trip on the way there but then I realised that these are the goats mainly for eating! :( They really were so cute! Like having a dog for a pet! And apparently dog not only tastes good but it's cheap... (so my scooter driver informs me).
So, going back in time a bit just to fill you in on the journey from Hue to Ninh Binh. So the tourist office tells me I must be there at 5pm to get the bus. So my tour finishes at 4:30pm and I rush back to the hostel, quickly buy some junk crackers to eat cause I'm hungry but there's no time to find proper food, and then get a scooter ride in the rain to the tourist office by 5pm. On arriving they say that I must go to the bus station as the bus isn;t coming to the office cause of the rain. So I get back on the scooter in the rain and the scooter driver takes me almost back to where I started to another tourist office and tells me to wait there for the bus. So it's 5pm and I'm told to wait few minitues for bus. At 5:45pm a minivan picks me up to take me to the bus station! And yay I arrive at the bus!
THEN, when I'm getting on the bus and getting my ticket, a little old lady starts pushing me from behind. Now I can't go anywhere cause I'm waiting for my ticket, and the woman is still rudely pushing me, and I am not up for any nonsense at this point, so I turn around and firmly say to her, "No! I am getting my ticket!" and she responds by smiling and doing a ha ha.
Finally I receive my ticket and find my booth in the sleeping bus. I love these sleeping buses!And then by 6:15pm we are on the road! So all that time that I wasted going from tourist office to tourist office and waiting I could have found some proper food to eat and I didn't have to rush back from my tour!!
Anyway, it was kinda funny cause later that night on the bus, I was surrounded only by Vietnamese people and this one woman kept looking at me and smiling and asking me questions in Vietnamese which of course I didn't understand! So all I could do was smile back and indicate that I didn't understand! Then heaps of them were talking about me in Vietnamese! One guy tried to speak english to me but that didn;t go far. And guess what? The rude old lady from before also joined in the conversation with me and she was really cute and indicated to me that she was 80 years old! And doing a 13 hr journey on a sleeper bus! Amazing!! They ended up sharing their fruit with me (which I think was pomello) which was nice. So not all North Vietnamese people are unfriendly as the stereotype goes!
Another thing I've noticed which I think is really strange is that when you go into toilets, often there may be other things there like a toothbrush and toothpaste but there is never any soap!! How do these people not get germs?? They obviously do ok without soap cause they can nimbly ride a 13 hr sleeper bus journey at the age of 80!!
So anyway, thats Ninh Binh for now. I'm glad I came here to go to Tam Coc as it's not part of the standard open tour bus stops. It's also decent weather!!!! Not sunny but pleasant - not stinking humid like Hue!!
I've also planned my last part of Vietnam - touring the north by motorbike!! Ahhh!! The Lonely Planet says this is the best way to do it, so I'm trusting them and doing it this way starting from tomorrow. So I have 7 days and 6 nights touring to Sapa and Bac Ma (where the rice fields on the hills are and many minority people), then to Hanoi and then from there to Halong Bay for 2 days and one night and then back to Hanoi. Then I have another day or 2 before I fly back to Bangkok. So - thats the plan!
xxx Orna
