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Trip Information |
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May 11, 2006
Ninh Binh - We got on a bus to take us from Hanoi to Ninh Binh. Man, I would not like to have to take the bus more then once here. It was crazy! They pass on blind corners, and follow emergency vehicles, so they can get where they're going faster. I was happy to step off that bus and into the Queen Mini hotel. They are really nice, they've carted us around this whole section of the map. We had them take us places by "motorbike" which is the most efficient way to travel I think. But it can get uncomfortable pretty fast.
Cuc Phuong - this is Vietnam's oldest park and it's just west of Ninh Binh where it's about 33 degrees celcius which is about 95 farenheit, with 88% humidity. Whew was it HOT!! But for about 3 weeks out of the year the butterflies hatch, and it just so happens to be while we're there. It was amazing biking up this long hill with literally millions of butterflies following you. I really can't explain it any better then that. I did take some video and pictures though, hopefully you'll be able to see that when I can update my website when I get back to Montana.
We did some hikes around the bungalows the next day, nothing really that exciting, just trekking through the jungle on some pretty popular trails. But that night I think I say a Langur, which is a sort of monkey that there are only 60 left of in the world! So it was pretty rare to see.
The next day we woke up and biked back down the mountain towards the gate and stopped half way to meed our guide for our real jungle hike. It was SO awesome. If we hadn't had a guide I don't think we would have made it 200 yards on the trail. I have no idea how the guide knew were we were going half of the time. It was a 13km (8 mile) hike. We where climbing over these limestone rockpiles where our guide, Phuong, would tap his large knife before he would go over any large boulders. I asked him why he was doing it and he said it was to scare away the King Cobras, he had come face to face with too many times. EEK!! But we unfortunately didn't get to see any of them. I got to swing from a vine and scramble up limestone boulders, needless to say I had a blast!
Our last day we got up early and caught our motorbikes back into Ninh Binh where we've been staying for the past couple of nights, and then arranged for a trip later that day out to Kenh Ga, the floating village.
Kenh Ga - We got on yet another motorbike to Kenh Ga, where we got on a boat for 3 hours to go by the floating village where all the children and people kept waiving at us almost begging for us to take their picture. Everyone was looking at us and talking at us as though we were celebrities. Whenever we stood in one spot for too long we would draw a crowd, and they would just sit and stare at us. The teenage girls would stare at Tom, whisper to eachother and giggle, and whenever he would say something to them they would repeat it and laugh loudly. Some of the boys blew kisses at me. It's like they've never seen white people before.
On our way back from Kenh Ga, the most beautiful place around Ninh Binh, we took the back roads. Our guides were just trying to show us the best parts of their country. We took this clay road right after it had rained so needless to say we got stuck in the clay and it gummed up the tires of the motorbikes so Tom and I got off and walked while they pushed their bikes out of the clay. It was fun, everyone was laughing and having a good time.
We went to Hoa Lu, the ancient capital, and Tam Coc (three caves) yesterday and took boats through the caves. It was pretty, but really touristy, so not really a highlight of the trip.
Now we're on our way to Hoi An, central Vietnam, by train tonight. It should take about 12 hours putting us there at 5am. Then it's off to China beach and to spend time in the city life.
That's all for now I'll write more later.
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