Well cold might be a bit of a stretch, it was cool and cloudy with drizzle, something more similar to a typical English summer day than what we had become accustomed to over the last month. Just to be clear, we are still talking shorts weather, and not just for those who hail from north of Newcastle. The countryside surrounding Ninh Binh has spectacular scenery and is often referred to as Ha Long Bay on land which would make more sense if we had covered Ha Long Bay first.
The scenery was amazing. Sheer limestone formations rising out of the otherwise flat landscape like sails, amid a lush green landscape of rice paddies, lakes and rivers.
We spent most of our time exploring by bicycle, though after the a first day of enthusiastically exploring the backroads, we woke up extremely saddle-sore and decided to stick to the main and well maintained roads and stop treating our rattling hired bicycles like mountain bikes. Dan embraces the local fashion That said, we did take a ride out of town to visit the interestingly named Bich Dong Pagoda.
The self-appointed Vietnamese parking attendants really seem to have got the hang of taking advantage of the British desire not to break rules one woman even had a whistle — very official. Despite their dire warnings, we parked our bikes at the viewpoint entrance for no extra cost. In a bid to deal with the smell we included them with the load of laundry we got done at our guesthouse and, though they came back relatively stench-free, they also shrunk in the wash.
Dan attempted to kid himself that he could still wear them, but gave up short of a whole day of cramming his feet into shoes which are definitely now a size too small, like something out of Cinderella. Day 36 — Hanoi Back to the hustle and bustle and the enlivening possibility of being flattened by cars, motorbikes, cyclos or carts at every turn we were back in a big city. With very little time to explore Hanoi we decided to do a Free walking tour in the old city, which was a great way to get a bit of insight into places we probably would have walked past ourselves.
