Arrived in Ninh Binh

Last night we took the sleeper coach from Hue to Ninh Binh. I thought we had scored when we got on the coach... there were some seats spare across the back row, meaning I could put the bag by the window to give me more sleeping space. Once we got going I realised why no one was sat there, it was like trying to sleep on a trampoline with people jumping on it. The suspension at the back of the bus was so springy, everytime we hit a big bump I would get thrown into the air. There was one point, at about midnight where the driver hit a bit of tarmac joining the road to a bridge, that was like a ramp. We were chucked about 6 inches into the air!

We got into Ninh Binh at about 5:00am and flagged a taxi down. There were three parked up on the road, but the drivers were sleeping. I knocked on one window but he didn't wake up, we didn't have to wait long for one to drive past. We got to the hotel, which was all locked up with the lights off. The taxi was 47,000 dong (nearly £2), I gave him a 50,000 note which he was clearly quite chuffed about so he started ringing the bell on the hotel for us. Shortly after, a very tired looking Vietnamese woman came to the door, let us in, and took us to our room.

It's so cold here, about 10-12C! After catching up on some well deserved sleep, we hired a Honda Wave RS 'Urban Sport Edition' motorbike (not as exciting as it sounds, just a scooter!) and rode the 20 minute trip up to Tam Coc. Tam Coc means 'Three Caves', it is the main tourist attraction near Ninh Binh where you can take a small boat rowed by a local along the few km's of river through the caves. There are mountains of limestone jutting out of the water, which were eroded by an ancient sea. The river is quite shallow, only about 1 to 1.5 meters deep, so the locals still live on the river and use it to grow crops.