Ninh Binh

So we spent our last morning in Hanoi purchasing weasel coffee. Weasel coffee is coffee that has been fed to weasels and then its excreted in the stool and the bean is reshaped or so the story goes...

It's only 3 or so hours from Hanoi which was great except the guy opposite us kept smoking in a non-smoking carriage. Took LPlanet's advice and stayed at Thanh Thuy Hotel. Apart from being pestered while eating your breakfast to go on tours they were unbelievably rude. Still we somehow got a good room for US$10/night with a little sad face routine. The only honest person that worked there was our tour guide Luc, who was from Halong Bay and had only been there 2 months.

The next day we headed out with Luc on motorbikes with Jono somehow being convinced to drive his own bike in a country that drives on the wrong side of the road!

We visited Tam Coc -basically a floodplain river, where women or man in our case paddle you along the river while old ladies try to sell you bottles of beer for extortionary prices. They even go so far as to embarass you into buying by asking you to buy a beer for the boat rower. Then the boat man asked us a for a tip even after we helped him row! We gave them a lesson in negative punishment - we won. It was a very beautiful trip, especially cool was the goats high up on the mountains either side of the river.

Ancient Capital Hoa Lu- lots of old buildings for very small people. Better visit it before progress ends up on top of it.

Floating Village Kenh Ga - not really a floating village anymore, everyone lives in houses on the banks of the river. Guy that paddled us around was genuinely a nice guy (after we paid anyway) and even helped us learn to count to ten (in vietnamese you doubters!!) not that we can remember it now without looking it up. Showed us the Catholic Cathedral in town. Wanted to show us inside but it was locked. Very lovely church none the less. Catholicism is the second biggest religion in Vietnam. He couldn't explain to us how it came to be the religion of the village though. We drank lots of tea with him and he evn tried to get us on the whiskey when we got back. At least Jono had the excuse he was driving.

Mua Cave - which is actually a really long staircase to the top of a mountain and a really small cave tunnel that looks over to Tam Coc. Breathtaking view from the top. Photos would never do it justice. Somehow survived US bombing very well. Able to see town of Ninh Binh from it. A bit like a Himalayan staircase to a hidden monastery except not very hidden.

Next day the powers that be at the hotel stole our trusty driver/guide and tried to palm us off to another driver so we decided to go ourselves to Cuc Phuong National Park and Primate Centre. We mainly just wanted to see the Primate Centre and had the pleasure of motorbiking in howling rain about 80kms to get there. When we got there the office told us it was better to wait till the afternoon to visit the primate enclosure and we should ride into the park to have a look. So we did and Jono nearly committed murder when they charged us 3000 dong to park our motorbike in the rain, even though you pay to enter the park before that and then proceeded to let all the Vietnamese visitors park undercover. So much so that he let the park ranger at the office have it....they'll probably be getting an email soon too. After we've left the country.

So we waited around to see the primates after turning right back around in the national park and was treated to a blindingly long 10 minute wander around the primate centre. Captivating is too strong a word. The fact they think people should visit this place is delusional enough to have them committed. So we got back on our bike and headed home in the rain. A bus overtaking another bus on a narrow bridge tried to run us over about 5km from the hotel. The tourist bureau will be getting an email about the standard of bus drivers in this country too by the way. They seem to have got their bus licenses from ACME School of Stunt Buses.

Booked our train to Dong Hoi for the next day. Only had hard seats available because it was Liberation Day in Vietnam and everyone was travelling to the country.