Goodbye Halong Bay - Hello Ninh Binh

It was a great experience to spend the night on the ship among the rock formations. The ships around were all beautifully illuminated, looked fantastic. We left the karaoke party at around 22:45 and went to bed. It was already swaying a bit, phew I found it very uncomfortable :-()... and my night was over at around 3:00 am. My throat hurt so much from singing that I couldn't fall back asleep. But that was okay, because sunrise was supposed to be at 5:42 am ;-). So I staggered onto the deck at 5:30 am and waited, waited, and waited for the sunrise... nothing happened... There was no sunrise, but there were a lot of clouds. Hm, that was a shame, especially since I wanted to show Daniela the pictures with pride! - Too bad -

After our breakfast at 7:00 am 😖, we had to get back on our dinghy and were taken to a pearl farm in the middle of the bay. That was very interesting to see how the oyster farming works. We were able to observe everything closely and take photos. The only downside was that it stank a bit... but whateeeever 😉 it was very impressive.

Then we went back to our dream ship... lauγh and we were allowed to jump from the deck into the water and what do you think - did we dare????? Well, we would have dared, but our cold forced us to stay on the ship, what a bummer... smile :-). Actually, I was glad because I thought the water was dirty, Daniela said, oh nonsense, there are worse (dirtier) waters to swim in. Thanks cold... lauγh, sometimes a stuffy nose has something positive to it.

Then we went back to the harbor, we could admire the amazing cliffs once again before we were driven back to Hanoi by bus. The bus ride was an experience again. This time we secured the best seats - right behind the driver! So I was able to take some snapshots during the ride.

What was sad was that during the ride, an older man's scooter and its load lay on the road, many things had already been run over and he sat next to it looking very sad! No one helped him and of course our bus driver didn't either, because he thought he had to imitate Nico Rosberg :-()... ghastly.

In Hanoi, thanks to our race car driver, we arrived punctually and went to Mrs. Moon's office. Mrs. Moon is a very friendly Vietnamese lady through whom we booked the Halong Bay trip, and in the meantime she had booked our onward journey by train for us. We thought that was super nice, 'another big thank you to Mrs. Moon' :-)))))!

It's now 7:27 pm and we're sitting at the train station in Hanoi. The train station looks very fancy, lots of people, lots of hustle and bustle, and great Wi-Fi... lauγh. The best so far... grin. Our train departs at 8:15 pm, it's an express train and we're traveling for 1 hour and 15 minutes to Ninh Binh. When we arrive in Ninh Binh, it's only 2 km to the hotel. We already booked it, actually only for 1 night, but maybe we'll stay for 2 nights. We'll see, because the next place, Hue, requires an 11-hour train ride from us :-(). That's why we're not stressing and deciding at the last minute ;-)!

I just said to Daniela, 'I feel seasick, not because of nausea, but because I feel like I still have the motion of the sea, my body is rocking'! Well, the train will soon restore my balance 😀😉!

The train left with almost 1 hour delay 😩, the reason for that was/is a typhoon raging in central Vietnam 😵! Well, we're not affected by it, we'll get off a bit earlier :-)!

The train ride was very eventful! Shortly after the start, the service came, two funny young men served soup, sausages, snacks, and soft drinks. The locals couldn't wait, almost everyone around us was munching away :-)))! Across from us sat a nice couple from New Zealand, they gave us plenty of tips 👍 After 1 hour of travel time, heavily loaded with our backpacks, we got off the train and stood on the platform of Nanh Dinh:-(((! So we turned back and got back on the train, with all our stuff :-). After another 30 minutes, we finally arrived in Ninh Binh and were finally able to admire Ninh Binh train station. Two guys came directly to us, in a cowboy stride - so wide-legged -, toothpick in their mouth and said TAXIIIIIIIIII? We said yes to the Vancouver Hotel, then one cowboy turned away and went to the next passenger. Our 2nd cowboy showed us a 100,000 VND note. We told him, 'not interested'!!!! So for the taxi ride, you pay 40,000 VND with a tip and not 100,000 VND! We called the hotel and they sent us a proper taxi. The hotel owner greeted us outside, he felt so sorry for everything, including the train delay... hmmm, he really can't do anything about it. Hm, but he said he'll give us an upgrade :-)))). Well, we won't say NO to that!!! Instead, we say ooooooohhhhh, that's so nice, thank you very much and good night. Here in Ninh Binh, we have by far the most beautiful room, it's fantastic and also very spacious... oh, I'm thrilled and now I'll just take a quick shower and then go to bed, it's almost midnight here :-()

Goodbye, my dears 🤗

PS: We just took a selfie and at the same time we said 'wow, we look exhausted' 😂😂😂😂