Nimh Binh

Ninh Binh – and ‘Halong Bay on land’

The next morning we formally met David the owner of the hotel. We had slept until 11.00am, (without sheets and just on top of the mattress cover!) and went down for our free breakfast. He is a 37 year old who made a bit of money speculating in the gold market a number of years ago and worked in the hotel trade as a manager for several years, after some international training. He had pride in the fact that the hotel he worked for was No1 on Trip Adviser, and when he decided to build his own hotel he was determined to get it to the same status. He has done this in the first three months of being open!

He has built a compact hotel on a back street in Ninh Binh which at the moment only has TWO ROOMS. It is three storeys high with the two rooms on the first floor and on the top floor it is unfinished with a rooftop laundry and storage with the stairs leading to nowhere. The plan is to build another three floors. His total spend so far has been $70,000US. The room we had was 5 star quality and clean. He sleeps in the kitchen on a pull-out bed and all of his ‘stuff’ is in storage cupboards neatly concealed. Everything is well designed and thought out. He was educated and studied to be a doctor, but changed careers when he needed to work to pay fees and never went back to it. An enterprising young man, who also does all of the cooking and organising the tours etc..

We sat down with David and he planned out our days for us. First day we had a car and a driver and went to see some caves which were only accessible by boat. The rower expertly took us through some very pretty and scenic caves via about 7km of reed lined waterways. It was peaceful and serene and we took many photos.  A bonus was that we shared the boat with an English speaking Vietnamese girl and her Canadian friend. We were thus able to communicate with the male rower and ask questions. He was a gentle man and rowed some of the time with his feet. An amazing experience.

Next day we hired David’s motorbike and went to a national park. It was a 120km round trip in the searing heat on unfamiliar roads. We got lost and went through some delightful villages where we had to wind our way through the hay and rice spread out on the main road to dry. In some places we had to drive over it. Passing through one settlement we heard a whistle blowing. Peep peep peep, peep peep peep, peep peep peep. I carried on and Cathie said did you not see that Policeman? Oops!  I wouldn’t have stopped anyway, as we had heard that they make you pay bribe money to be let go. I didn’t have my licence on me either! At each intersection I had to refer to the GPS on my phone to see where to go and eventually found our way to the park entrance. We paid our money and were taken to see a monkey sanctuary where they cared for sick and orphaned rare monkeys. It was a whirlwind tour and a little disappointing. Nothing like our Gibbon Sanctuary experience. Next we rode the bike 7km into the park to see a prehistoric cave which was inhabited 5,000 years ago. It was a bit of a hike in the bush and up steep rocky paths to get there, but we were in no hurry. It was quite a feeling to be where prehistoric man had lived for thousands of years. The cave system wasn’t large but apparently several families existed in it at one time. Next we had to find our way back to civilisation, which we did by a bit of guesswork and ended up on a motorway in rush hour traffic. We pretended we were in the Amazing Race and aimed to beat everyone at the traffic lights. That worked. Lane changing was done with skill and a bit of fat pinching by the pillion passenger alerted me to any danger. A great day out with Cathie getting relaxed enough on the back to be able to take pictures and video.

On the third day we again had the car and driver and went to a temple, visited a village next to it (where I helped a young girl carry buckets of cement, while the men just wanted me to smoke a pipe of some sort with them), and then went to another lake which had towering islands and secret caves. We were alone in the boat with a female rower this time and it was once again very peaceful and quite beautiful. Some of the photos are awesome. We interacted with her throughout the trip but when we returned to the jetty Cathie gave her a Kiwi key ring and 20,000vnd tip. This went down like a lead balloon… she refused to take the money and was obviously upset as she considered it wasn’t enough. Based on an average income of $80 US per month, we figured it was ok for a mornings work. She got paid as well! Cathie was very upset too and it sort of ruined a great experience.

We were so busy each day we didn’t really get a chance to see the town of Ninh Binh, but it seemed very bustling and busy. A good access to ‘Halong Bay on land’.

David had arranged our onward bus trip to Hanoi for which we were picked up from the Hotel at 4,00pm. An hour and a half later we were delivered directly to the pre-booked Hotel which had been recommended by our girl in Hoi An.

I have to mention too, that our three night stay at The Vancouver Hotel only cost us $3.72. We used our accumulated Agoda credits to pay for the rest. Nice one.