More beautiful scenery
Trip Start
Aug 24, 2008
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Trip End
Jul 07, 2009
After arriving in Hanoi at 5.15am we had breakfast and then took the bus to Ninh Binh, a national park. There we once again found ourselves surrounded by limestone peaks, like in Halong Bay and the Perfume Pagoda. We looked around a pretty temple in Hoa Lu, which was very ornate and full of bronze carvings and a large drum. After this I cycled 12km to Tam Coc, and David took the bus. We cycled through beautiful scenery of rivers and rice paddies with crazy rock formations. We passed through tiny villages where the children all waved at the foreigner (me, everyone else in the group was Vietnamese) and shouted hello. In Tam Coc I met up with David again and rested my sore behind after all the bike riding (it was bumpy!). Then we took a rowing boat down the river to visit 3 caves. The rowers rowed with their feet! We saw fishermen wading in the river and children messing about on boats. The three caves had low ceilings and we rowed into the darkness and then out the other side. It was beautiful scenery and very relaxing floating down the river. Afterwards we returned to Hanoi where we caught the overnight bus to Hue and I came down with a stomach bug while on the bus, very convenient!
