Motor bike tour in Ninh Binh

Before I start I have to say that yesterday evening I changed my plans all over again. When I arrived yesterday in the hotel I wanted to go to Sapa in the North of Hanoi tomorrow. This is a place in the mountains close to the boarder to China with minority tribes. It has become pretty touristic, especially the Sunday market. The way to get there is by the night train from Hanoi and then a bus ride – the way back is the same. Pretty hard travelling to be honest for two days of trekking, or even less. Okay, coming back to my arrival to the hotel. I asked if they can book me the night train to Sapa and the answer was, why I wanted to got there?

I answered, because it is nice. The return answer was, that there is a place also with rice terraces much closer and better to reach and there are NO tourist there. Phu Long Natural reserve is the name and the Lonely Planet only shows is on the map, but does not mention any sentence about it – well done so I will have it on my own.

So plans changed totally – I will start tomorrow a two day motorbike trip to Phu Long reserve instead – I is really cool to change your plans on a daily base just being flexible – never to know where the wind blows tomorrow…

So let`s start with the report of today. Thang was the man of today, actually my motorbike driver. The plan was to find investigate the surroundings her in Ninh Binh

We started at Tam Coc the river that flows through three caves.

You are rowed by a lady and to my surprise she started quite normal but then started to row with her feet. Incredible, changing between bicycle pedalling mode as I called it and normal rowing mode – unbelievable. I had to try it on my own, because it looked to easy and check out the pictures to see how I looked – I did not even managed to row one stroke, nor was I by any means able to TURN the rows – so I stick to paddle with the spare paddle…..

The rive is quite a tourist attraction – I was rowing aside Vietnamese people singing and the little temple at the end of the 3 km river stretch. It was quite idyllic though, but it got even better when my lady asked me if I want to continue for a tip further 3 km upwards. I agreed and this was the best choice of my life – I hade the river for my own only the paddle strokes, the water splashing and the birds were present together with that atmosphere of the misty weather great.

Then we went with the motorbike of the beaten tracks to Mua Cave, a small cave. The cave is not really interesting, but what is interesting is the temple on the hilltop, which offers splendid views to the country side. This area is also called the dry Halong Bay and when you seen the pictures you know why. Actually you could peer down from the temple to the river where I before passed with the boat.

The next stop was the Hoa Lu, a place where the an ancient capital once was situated, protected by the limestone mountain, additional defence walls were erected in-between the mountains the city was well protected. Today all what is left over are two temples, though erected in the 18^th century, but still nice to visit.

After a late lunch the final stop was Bai Dinh, which reminds me a bit of Burma – it is no Budda Park, but a new erected spiritual centre with the usual asian overkill in Buda sizes of xxxx tons – but see yourself –

currently an interesting congress is taking place there – I just wonder what spiritual tourism is really meaning and if that is sustainable, but the conference will find out for sure.

As I had to take care during the day on the goat shit that is lying around everywhere – this is the famous area of goat breeding – I though I contribute a bit to the reduction of the population and had grilled goat for dinner – a Ninh Binh speciality – bit chewy but tasty.

As mentioned before I will be without wifi for the next two or three days – I may stay one day longer in the mountains – not decided yet so don`t expect a new entry before Saturday or Sunday evening – Tae care- Markus