Vietnam: Ninh Binh

We arrived back in Hanoi after our trip to Halong Bay, and stayed overnight before heading south to our next destination. Vietnam is long and thin, making our itinerary easy: south!

We decided to buy a prepaid book of minibus tickets all the way from Hanoi to Saigon/HCMC. Its a great system: you buy a book with tickets which allow you for ride to each town in between Hanoi and Saigon, and you can travel each stage on any day you like. This means you can stay in any location for as long as you like, and then just book to leave (24 hours notice) to get to the next stop.

Our first stop was Ninh Binh, a couple of hours south of Hanoi. We arrived early evening and found a hotel. As we came down for dinner, we bumped into the Dutchies. They were also traveling the same direction, and had picked the same hotel.

As we had dinner together, we discussed going for a scooter drive together the next day to visit a Primate Rehabilitation Center. For desert, the hotel owners introduced us to a Ninh Binh specialty known as "special water". It turned out to be a rice vodka similar to lao lao vodka - very strong!

The next morning, we hired some scooters and headed out of the city, dodging trucks, buses and other large vehicles. Note the interesting angle of the wing mirror in the picture above.



Soon enough we were cruising in the country, which was mainly farmlands.



Most of the Vietnamese ladies wear hats, gloves and face masks, to keep their skin as light as possible. Its funny how us whiteys want a tan, whereas they want to be as pale as possible.



The scenery was more karst landscape, similar to Laos and Halong bay. Still very intersting formations to look at.



Here we are taking photos of each other - camera nerds! Marloes used to be a postie, so she was driving for team Dutchie.



We headed to Cuc Phuong National Park , the home of the Primate Rehabilitation Center



We had a quick look in the visitor center, showing details of the park and its fauna and animal life. Look at that cute Loris, giving puppy-dog eyes from behind bars!



The Dutchies smiling as they enjoy the beautiful scenery.



Our first stop was a cave where prehistoric bones had been found. That caveman hairstyle on Toolman looks prehistoric, and Princess looks scared!



Looking down as we head up the steep stairs to the entrance.

Marloes inspects the entrance to the cave where lots of prehistoric finds have been discovered. Archeologists excavated the cave in 1966 and found human graves, and tools made from stone, bone and shells. These were found to date back around 7,500 years!



The cave had lots of small offshoots to explore in. Toolman ventured into lots of them, but the camera flash couldn't really do them justice. After a good explore, we headed back to our bikes.



We scooted through the park to the next stop ...



... the Primate Rehabilitation Center!



Both the NZ and Dutch embassy contributed to the upkeep for this facility. NZ vs Holland: 1 all..



They house lots of primates from around Vietnam. From the centres website:

Other than the captively bred primates, all of the animals at the EPRC are victims of poaching and the illegal animal trade. The animals are confiscated in cooperation with Vietnam’s forest protection authorities all over the country. Staff members often have to travel 1000 to 2000 km to pick up confiscated primates in remote areas in central or south Vietnam.

Of particular interest to us were the gibbons; our experiences from Thailand make us very fond of them.



How can you not find him cute?



After meeting the primates, we left the park and went cruising around the country seeing the sights.



Look at the grin on that guy! The 2 wheeled engine towing an improvised trailer is a common sight This trailer looks well built, unlike many others.

After a hard days scootering, we headed back to the hotel for the evening. the next day, The Dutchies continued south but we decided to stay and see some more sights.



That morning, we scootered out to Tam Coc (three caves), to go on a paddle cruise. The tour to the three caves is on small paddleboats operated by local women, as seen behind Princess here.



We jumped into a boat and headed out.



Somehow, we ended up with grandma, who must have been in her 70s! She was amazingly strong and fit, and had no problem navigating us along the waterways.



The river runs through some amazing scenery.



More karst landscape with lots of cliffs, overhangs and caves.



Up close, you can see how water, wind and time have eaten away at the limestone.



This is the entrance to one of the 3 caves.



We paddled downstream though all 3 caves, all cut by the flow of water.



As we floated down, there were locals paddling alongside trying to sell us the usual tourist snacks: Pringles, Coke and Oreo cookies.



It just seemed wrong to have an old grandma paddle us around, so Toolman took over on the way back.



Get back to rowing, big beard!



As we look back, there are lots of other tourists on the same route.



We also visited a nearby temple down this road, whose name we can't remember.



Outside they were laying both rice and grass out to dry in the sun - a common sight around the countryside of Vietnam. You can see it through the entrance arch.

Here is Princess with our guide, who we assumed was some kind of monk with the temple. He insisted on holding her hand for the picture.



Our guide showed us through the temple housing various deities, adorned with incense and ribbons. The temples' inscriptions look Chinese, not Vietnamese.





Toolman demonstrating what he thinks of the temple!



The bell tower on the right looked cool, so we had to climb up.



Princess showing her view of the temple. One of our guides' responsibilities was to ring the bell daily - preferably not when we are up there, as it was huge!

After an afternoon scootering around, we headed back and prepared to again travel south to our next destination: Hue.