We spent a lovely chilled evening playing cards and chatting in the garden. It is beautiful here. Quiet (apart from those bloody frogs) and peaceful. There are no other properties close by so it is very relaxing. It certainly makes a nice change after the chaos of the cities.
Woke this morning to the sound of the local cockerels. Dozens of the feathered little beggars all announcing at the top of their voices that morning had arrived. It was loud. Very loud. Showered breakfast and out. We had arranged for a car and driver for the day to see as much of Nimh binh as possible. Public transport here is very limited so you have to rely on taxis which are expensive or the host finding you a driver for the day. There is a lot to see here but as we are only here for a full day before moving off you have to be selective. We have opted to visit the pagoda, the ancient capital and the boat tour along the river. That should fill the day and prevent Crispy and LynNZ getting bored and wandering off to find a pub. As we are only here a short time and I don’t want to be spending all day trawling the local rice wine bars trying to find them. I have taken the precaution of attaching labels to each of them in the event that they do stray off.
Bai Dinh pagoda was the first site of the day. A massive Buddhist temple complex housing the tallest pagoda in Vietnam. It is a popular pilgrimage site for Vietnamese from all over the country and as it is Tet, the start of the lunar new year, we expected it to be busy. We were lucky and arrived here early so we had the complex virtually to ourselves. An amazing array of new temples built on and around an ancient Buddhist site. It was amazing to see. A couple of hours was enough as it was very hot today and the girls were getting a bit sticky what with all the steps and pathways. The temples are a good way from the entrance and it is possible to hire an electric car to take you most of the way. I thought this a little excessive so thought it better I get them moving and walk. The girls are getting on a bit and it’s a fine line between exercise and life limiting trauma. God forbid they should pop a hip as the medical bills would be exorbitant. After the temples we made our way to Hua Lu. The ancient capital of Vietnam. Before 936 the country was divided into 13 provinces under the control of different warlords. The guy here took them all on and created the Vietnamese empire with its first capital here in Nimh Bin. Originally the site was huge but now only a small temple complex remains so it was easy to get about. Off for some lunch and then the highlight of the day. Trang An. A three hour boat ride up the river and through caves and valleys. The boats are flat bottomed and small rowed by a single little Vietnamese guy. As we strode to the boat station where all the little boats were moored you could sense the fear in the boatmens eyes. The girls are not big by any stretch of the imagination but the two of them and me in a small boat with single man power put the fear of god in the poor guys eyes. You could see them saying to themselves “ not me, please not me”.
The girls fixed their eyes on one guy and you could see his heart sink. Resigned to his fate he feigned a smile and helped us on board. Trying to get on board gracefully was abandoned in a nano second and after a whooping a flailing of arms the girls were seated. He pushed off and began his three hour trial of rowing the three of us up the river against the current. We had opted for the longest route around the caves and temples but after ten minutes the guy, sweating, tapped me on my shoulder and said in Vietnamese “ feck this mate, were taking some short cuts”. Understanding his pain I smiled and politely agreed.
It was a glorious trip. Gliding through a Jurassic landscape and through incredible small caves. The skill of the boatman in negotiating the small cramped cave network was astounding. The roof was low and uneven so at every turn he had to spin and steer the craft to avoid the many outcrops and stalactites that threatened to cause blunt head trauma.
After stopping at several temples we headed back to the boat station. Our oarsman was flagging so I instructed the girls to take up the spare oars and assist with the rowing. They took to it with ease. In order to keep time we sang sea shanty’s as there was only LynNZ familiar with Maori war canoe songs. The homeward voyage was without incident. If the girls could master their IEG then we could have put them in the back of the boat with their arses in the water and hydroplanes back to the moorings. Alas it was not to be.
Back the the car and off to our last destination which I thought the driver had said was a market. On arrival it was obvious that it wasn’t a market but the base of a flight of stairs that ascended a mountain, many hundreds of meters high, to yet another temple. To my surprise the girls had set their sights on a shopping trip and nothing was going to make them climb the 3000 steps up the mountain.
Not perturbed we set off back to the house and had dinner. A few drinks and a bottle of red Vietnamese wine over a game of cards saw us safety ensconced in our beds. The wine was a rare treat and felt naughty. I like to travel frugally and a bottle of wine is an expensive treat. It was the equivalent of £5 but felt like we were buying champagne in a top end restaurant.
Tomorrow we set off again. This time a bus and speedboat to Cat ba island. It’s our last stop before heading back to Hanoi........
Bare Crispy and LynNZ
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