Day 3 Hopefully still bug free and dog free
Ready for the day trip to Ninh Binh, we were picked up early this morning from our hotel by our guide, Thai. The destination, Ninh Binh was about 120kms to the South - Jumped in the 4WD drive and noticed that seatbelts were only for the 2 front seat passengers. Not a surpise - the driver worked his way out of Hanoi in the usual honk and go, disorganised way it usually goes here.
Thai, the guide was very formal but friendly and started every guidey speil with 'ladies and gentleman' even though the audience was only me and Jess. I dont know too much about the history of Vietnam but in the same way that queenslanders or victorians are parochial about why the bit they are from is better than other bits Tai was the same way with the North of Vietnam, it didnt take him much to get started about why the North should monopolise most of out Vietnam holiday time - almost made me feel guilty for planning to spend most of my time in the south. Almost.
Anyway the whole 120km's (approx 2 hours travel) to Ninh Binh was pretty dodgy road with basically old buildings and yet to be complete construction (think roads and buildings) all along the way. Hanoi is booming by 2020 they say it will have 20 million peple. In the few minutes leading up to our midway pitstop, I noticed people and dogs having conflicts (didnt see any bites but mainly people throwing stones at dogs or holding sticks up to hit them) - given that i hadnt had rabies shots (quote from Dr 'dont worry if you get it we'll treat it') i was a bit aprehensive about street dogs. And yep we pull up at our rest stop open the door and five metres away is a guy with stick ready to strike a growling dog. Dont tell Jess but i deliberately chose a seat that would put her in between me and the rabid dog during our tea. Chivalry is dead + plus Jess loves dogs and vice versa. A cup of tea and a toilet straight out of trainspotting (see the movie) and 1 hour later we are in Ninh Binh.
Before our riverboat we had a 9 course lunch, was hoping to not see either local specialities dog or goat on the menu but alas goat was snuck in there. Food came out one at a time and we had had the 9 dishes and doing a quick recount none of them looked like beef and we werent sure whether we had 1, 2 or 3 chicken or goat dishes - hope they didnt slip in a local specialty dog dish in there......
River cruise was great, through caves and rice fields, we went through 3 caves then turned round and came back the same route. At the halfway point there were the usual tourist gouges (drinks, food and does anyone want a table cloth?) and we thought we were special when the rower of the boat (damn hard work) pointed out a monkey in a tree on the edge. After tasking some photos of the monkey Jess's voice sunk as she said 'Oh, its got a chain on its ankle' (damn thought the little guy came by just as we pulled up). But the beers hit the spot.
On the trip home to Hanoi I was sort of marvelling at how noone in this crazy traffic ever gets hurt. Unfortunately we did pass a motor cycle fatality on the way back to Hanoi so that myth was busted and I was feeling a little sad about it. Also it has dented my confidence in taking a motorcycle trip in Vietnam.
Got home, organised our hotel in Hue, we were feeling tired and unadventurous from a long day so got a cab to whre there was supposedly an Australian bar "the spotted cow" couldnt find it - so walked back and got an unadventurous dinner by the 'lake' (think Hanoi's Darling Harbour) and a few beers and an early night ready to be picked up early tomorrow.
Not sure if ill have time or wifi to post in Halong Bay so next post may be from Hue
Thai, the guide was very formal but friendly and started every guidey speil with 'ladies and gentleman' even though the audience was only me and Jess. I dont know too much about the history of Vietnam but in the same way that queenslanders or victorians are parochial about why the bit they are from is better than other bits Tai was the same way with the North of Vietnam, it didnt take him much to get started about why the North should monopolise most of out Vietnam holiday time - almost made me feel guilty for planning to spend most of my time in the south. Almost.
Anyway the whole 120km's (approx 2 hours travel) to Ninh Binh was pretty dodgy road with basically old buildings and yet to be complete construction (think roads and buildings) all along the way. Hanoi is booming by 2020 they say it will have 20 million peple. In the few minutes leading up to our midway pitstop, I noticed people and dogs having conflicts (didnt see any bites but mainly people throwing stones at dogs or holding sticks up to hit them) - given that i hadnt had rabies shots (quote from Dr 'dont worry if you get it we'll treat it') i was a bit aprehensive about street dogs. And yep we pull up at our rest stop open the door and five metres away is a guy with stick ready to strike a growling dog. Dont tell Jess but i deliberately chose a seat that would put her in between me and the rabid dog during our tea. Chivalry is dead + plus Jess loves dogs and vice versa. A cup of tea and a toilet straight out of trainspotting (see the movie) and 1 hour later we are in Ninh Binh.
Before our riverboat we had a 9 course lunch, was hoping to not see either local specialities dog or goat on the menu but alas goat was snuck in there. Food came out one at a time and we had had the 9 dishes and doing a quick recount none of them looked like beef and we werent sure whether we had 1, 2 or 3 chicken or goat dishes - hope they didnt slip in a local specialty dog dish in there......
River cruise was great, through caves and rice fields, we went through 3 caves then turned round and came back the same route. At the halfway point there were the usual tourist gouges (drinks, food and does anyone want a table cloth?) and we thought we were special when the rower of the boat (damn hard work) pointed out a monkey in a tree on the edge. After tasking some photos of the monkey Jess's voice sunk as she said 'Oh, its got a chain on its ankle' (damn thought the little guy came by just as we pulled up). But the beers hit the spot.
On the trip home to Hanoi I was sort of marvelling at how noone in this crazy traffic ever gets hurt. Unfortunately we did pass a motor cycle fatality on the way back to Hanoi so that myth was busted and I was feeling a little sad about it. Also it has dented my confidence in taking a motorcycle trip in Vietnam.
Got home, organised our hotel in Hue, we were feeling tired and unadventurous from a long day so got a cab to whre there was supposedly an Australian bar "the spotted cow" couldnt find it - so walked back and got an unadventurous dinner by the 'lake' (think Hanoi's Darling Harbour) and a few beers and an early night ready to be picked up early tomorrow.
Not sure if ill have time or wifi to post in Halong Bay so next post may be from Hue
posted by Anthony at
7:44 AM
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