On Sunday afternoon (14.04.), we arrived in Ninh Binh. After settling into our accommodation, we took a walk around the area. We discovered some very opulent buildings that showcase the French influence on the architecture of the houses.
We walked to the train station to get tickets for our onward journey to Hue. Getting tickets for the next leg of the journey on the arrival day? That doesn't sound like a good omen! 15.04.
We borrowed some bicycles from our accommodation and headed towards Tam Coc, where we took a boat trip.
During our ride through the Vietnamese idyll, we saw some water buffalos 🐃 and many ducks. Upon arriving in Tam Coc, we quickly noticed that it is very touristy. From bicycle parking fees to the usual souvenir shops to hundreds of small boats cruising through the wonderful landscape.And that's exactly what we wanted to do today - take a boat ride through the area. Our driver was the lovely Hong. The special thing about Hong is that she doesn't paddle with her arms... And so we were driven around for about 1.5 hours. Then we had to saddle up our bikes again and head to the Bich Dong Pagoda, which was not particularly special for us. But it was still good for a snapshot 😉 The third destination of the day was the Hang Mua Cave. Here, we had to climb 500 stairs to enjoy a magnificent view - according to our tour guide. However, with the drizzle setting in, us already being a bit tired from cycling, and the entrance fee, we decided to skip the fun.We rode our bikes back to the accommodation and enjoyed the drizzle 😅 By the end of the day, our bottoms were quite sore from the not-so-comfortable bikes 😩 In the evening, we met up with Ben and Frederick, whom we met at the airport. They brought along two Australians whom they met that day. The funny thing was how they met. The Australians were caught by the two of them in the act of lovemaking in a cave high up. We laughed a lot about that 🤣🤣🤣 16.04.A day that was ruined by rain, and this brings us back to the aforementioned omen. It wasn't a good one...We first went to the Hoa Lu District, which was the capital of Vietnam until 1009. On this day, we wanted to be more active and hike to the largest pagoda and temple complex in Vietnam. The motorbike taxis were very confused because apparently no one in Vietnam walks a distance of 6-7 km 😅 We set off on foot and the drizzle turned into light rain. But it was still quite warm.We could at least see the area from a distance. From here, it should have been about half an hour. At this point, we could already feel the distance we had covered so far.Then we arrived at the destination, but unfortunately, Google Maps sent us to the staff entrance 😳 We wandered around a bit and eventually arrived at another staff entrance. Fortunately, the guard there let us in - what a great guy 😃There was a kind of mini train on the premises. We took it and noticed along the way that it took us to the exit of the complex on the edge 🤬 Confused again, we looked for the entrance and realized how huge the area is.Finally inside, we wanted to at least visit one pagoda. The continuous rain made the climb quite difficult. Wet, high, slippery steps made us turn back halfway. The only interesting things were a grand entrance gate and numerous Buddha statues guarding the path to the pagoda. We took a taxi back...😅
