Last weekend I joined my housemate Zoe to go on a walk in a random bit of Vietnamese countryside with the Hash House Harriers. A long rickety bus ride out to the middle of nowhere and a walk through the countryside. There was another group that ran the course but I wasn't up for that. The walk itself was fine but afterwards there was all this lame standing round in a circle ritual crap. That dragged and was rather tedious. Then it was another bumby bus ride back into the city.
On Sunday I up with Lou's friend Rachel and her friend John in the old quarter. We went to my favourite Pho place for dinner and then went for a drink at Le Pub. We wandered around the Old Quarter and then went for some ice cream as well as picking up soe tickets for the water puppets thing the next day.
On the Monday I had to go to a meeting at work all about the fun and games that is the Vietnamese tax system and then I went to meet Rachel and John at the Temple of Literature. We went to KOTO for some lunch and then went to the temple. We then walked into the Old Quarter and went to a second hand book store. I couldn't resist and picked up a couple of books! Then we sat by the lake for a bit before going to the water puppets show. It's a very strange thing - a group of musicians and singers sit to the side and sing a story whilst some puppets are manipulated on the water. It was good to finally get round to seeing the show after being in Hanoi for so long.
On Friday after work I went for a drink or two with some people from work, Caroline and Allison, and their partners. We started at a Czech beer hall near the language school then we went to a couple of other bars. It was good fun, and Caroline offered to teach me to ride a motorbike - I'm going to see if she's still up for this when she's sober!
On Saturday I got the train down to Ninh Binh. I travelled hard class and got to sit on a wooden seat for 2 1/2 hours. Good Fun! Once I'd checked into the hotel I went for a walk around Ninh Binh to see what I could find - not a lot! Plus there was this horrible drizzly rain going on that was very off putting. In the end I went for some food then went back to the hotel and watched a bit of TV and made good progress with my monster 1000 page book.
On Sunday morning the rain had stopped but it was still a bit overcast. Despite this I had a good day sightseeing. The hotel arranged a motorbike and a driver for 2 days for me and he took me off to all the places around Ninh Binh. We went down the back roads and through villages rather than along the highway which was cool as I got to see a bit ore of the country. The first stop on the day was a place called Mua Caves. I had to climb up 500-odd steps cut out of the hillside to a small shrine at the top. The view wasn't clear as it was misty and rainy but it was still pretty cool. All the rock formations looked pretty atmospheric, shrouded in mist and clouds.
Next up was Tam Coc. It's the biggest tourist thing in the region and you get rowed along a river through more of the crazy rocks and some tunnels. The place was full of tourists and it was pretty busy and although the scenery was cool the amount of other tourists kinda spoiled it a bit. Once the boat ride was over I got some really lunch in a restaurant recommended by my driver.
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After lunch we went to Hoa Lu - an ancient citadel that is apparently very important judging by the number of Vietnamese visiting it. It seemed to consist of two temples where everyone was making offerings. There was also another set of steps carved into a hill and at the top there was another shrine - they seem to believe in making you go to a lot of effort to worship a at a shrine! There was also a group of schoolkids clambering all over the rocks who kept calling out hello to me as I passed.
The next day the first place we went was called Van Long. It was a similar idea to Tam Coc but the boat was a rickety woven thing, the scenery was even more impressive and there were only a handful of other tourists. It was so peaceful - just the sound of oars cutting through water, birds chirping and locals who work on the river shouting out to each other every so often. It was much better than Tam Coc. The cloudy weather added atmosphere to the area.
After lunch I then went on another boat trip - this time a big engine powered boat with a couple of Aussies. We sailed along a river to a palce called Kenh Ga. It was originally a floating village thing but now most people live on the land. The river is still an important part of their life though. We sailed on down the river to a random shrine in the moddle of the river in the middle of nowhere - again its an awful lot of effort to get there!
The last place we went to was a massive pagoda complex in the middle of nowhere. The main pagoda was at the top of a monster hill. The devoted were walking up through all the smaller temples to get to the top however we whizzed up the hill on the bike. Inside the top pagoda there were three massive gold Buddha statues as well as statues of the heron things and turtles that can be found at a lot of temples and pagodas. The place appeared to be under construction - whether they were just improving the existing layout or building it from scratch wasn't clear and the driver didn't speak much English so couldn't understand what I was asking. Either way it was a monster complez and again seemed to be very popular with Vietnamese visitors.
In the evening I got the train back to Hanoi. Again I went for the cheapest ticket but this time it cost more as the train was more modern. Even though I was in the cheapest class again this time the seats were upholstered and reclining, and there were Tv screens showing lame Vietnamese TV shows. This ticket cost closer to £2 rather than the £1 I paid for the journey down which is still dirt cheap compared to trains back home. In future I'll be trying to catch the more modern ones as it was much more comfortable coming home than heading down!
It was nice to get out of Hanoi for a bit, and to be able to walk on the pavements. Unlike in Hanoi, the pavements in Ninh Binh aren't crammed with crap so I didn't have to walk in the gutter over the weekend! IT was also a lot quieter there. It was nice. Next weekend I am escaping again, this time to Danang. I'm looking forward to it!
2 comments:
I forgot about how water puppets are huge in Vietnam! I actually learned that three years ago, in my Muppet Magic class, freshman year of college. Hah hah. Hope the show was a lot of fun!
It was pretty cool. I didn'y understand the plot behind the obvious though as it was all in Vietnamese!
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