Budget: 1,200k Dong/$60; Spent: 1,235k Dong/$62
Jeff here.
Today was an interesting day. It was one of those days when I didn't know whether to love or hate what was happening. It started off simply enough: we packed up our bags and were down for breakfast at 7:45am to catch a bus bound for Ninh Binh that was coming to pick us up from our hostel at shortly after 8pm. The bus ride was part of a tour, but we had only paid to catch a ride to the town. The bus arrived on time and we were soon on our way.
The road to Ninh Binh was slow and bumpy. It was reminiscent of our drive into Xingping in China. About 1.5 hours into the ride we stopped for a 30 minute break at a small mall where we could grab a bite to eat or purchase some overpriced souvenirs. This place was supposedly where local people could sell their products, like paintings and place mats, for fair prices. I didn't believe it for a second. Call me jaded, but when I see a shop that is supposedly respecting local art set up the artists to work in the middle of the shop and present them like trained animals to potential buyers, I don't just see a smart sales tactic, I see a manipulative and deceitful business that I simply could not support.
Anyway, while we were in there, the tour guide approached us to ask what we were doing in Ninh Binh. We told him that we didn't really have any specific plans, and so he described what the tour would be seeing and asked if we'd like to join the tour for $13 each. We didn't really give it a whole lot of thought before saying "yes" and we were pretty much kicking ourselves from the moment that we paid. In fact, Patty literally tried to kick herself.
So, once we were back on the bus we chastised ourselves for again not thinking something through well enough. It's really no fun being taken advantage of, and that's how we felt, although I think the issue was more that we were persuaded into doing something rather than making our own reasoned decision.
Our first stop was Hua Lu, the ancient capital of Vietnam.The temple was rather small and uninteresting. It was also raining and cold while we visited this site. It was a bad start to our tour, let's just leave it at that! Here's a pic:
After this, we went to lunch, which was included in the tour. We sat with three other people, one was from Japan and another from Thailand. The guy from Thailand was very talkative and friendly. Not sure about the third guy. Anyway, between the five of us, we were served three dishes and a bowl of rice. Drinks not included. Thank goodness we had two Snickers bars in our backpack or we would not have made it to dinner.
OK, so two strikes for the tour! Next up was a boat ride through a place called Tam Coc. Our expectations were low as we approached a dock, ready to hop into a canoe-like boat, powered by an older Vietnamese lady. When we started moving, we realized that the lady was actually using her legs to row the boat. It was hilarious! I have to be honest, the boat ride itself was definitely worth the extra $13 we were charged for the tour, despite the fact that it was cold and raining. The trip took us through three very cool caves that were just tall enough for our boat to squeeze through and by rice paddies amid the karst landscape. It's a real shame we had such a terrible day, otherwise the ride may have been one of the best moments on our trip so far. To top it off, there were mountain goats somehow frolicking on the sides of sheer cliffs. Awesome. Here are some pics:
On our way back to the dock we were absolutely freezing. I was wearing shorts because I no longer have any pants and Patty wasn't wearing a rain jacket because she no longer has a rain jacket! Good times! To save our sanity, Patty began serenading me with the likes of O Sole Mio, Cielito Lindo, and Mexico Lindo y Querido. I joined in where I knew the words, but let's face it, I can't sing. The ride back was slow and long, but I think the singing may have saved our lives.
Once we were back on land, we waited for another 30 minutes or so for the tour group to get back onto the bus and head out. While we were waiting, the tour leader tried several times to convince us to catch a ride back with him in two days' time. The timing just didn't work, but he was persistent. And annoying.
The tour leader had told Patty and I that he would drop us off outside of our hotel, but that didn't happen. He dropped us off at an intersection and told us the hotel was 2-3 minutes in *that* direction. Thanks buddy! You **********************!!! Of course, the hotel was not 2-3 minutes away, but it was in *that* general direction. I suppose he was only about 45 degrees off. Not terrible for a *********************.
Neither of us said anything to him, but we'll be returning to our hostel in two days and letting them know how crappy he is. Hopefully that'll cause a change. We had saved a couple maps of Ninh Binh, but they didn't really help us that much. I ended up asking someone in a small shop who was nice enough to point us in the right direction. It was more like a 10 minute walk to our hotel.
Our hostel turned out to be really nice and the guy who welcomed us is a real gem. We got into our room straight away, which is fairly large and clean, and we took showers before heading down for dinner. Dinner was very good. We tried the grilled goat, which is a specialty in this region. It was pretty good! Here's a pic of dinner:
After dinner we decided to go find a grocery store to stock up on some candy and just watch a movie on the laptop. We watched a movie called The Little Princess, which is a movie Patty has very fond memories of from her childhood. I had never heard of it, but it was a very cute movie. It was also an excellent excuse to eat a ton of candy.
That was pretty much our day. Tomorrow we are going to check our a national park nearby.
Good night!
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