It began with a bus, or rather a bus station. We all arrive at different times and play a game of "spot the white people" to find one another. Turns out the bus station was not where we needed to be. We needed to be outside the tall building next door where apparently "the bus driver will find you" . . . there are literally (no joke) 50 people standing on this corner area but that's what the bus company hotline said when we called for the 3rd time and finally got someone who spoke English. Some Grab drivers, taxi drivers, other people waiting for their bus to find them, and one random guy who tried really hard to help us figure out what was going on even though he didn't really speak English. A bus pulls up and drives to the side of the building (not the corner we're on) and we think this is us. A nice Vietnamese couple was standing near us and was also going to Ninh Binh, they helped us confirm that this was indeed our bus . . . We later figured out that it was not their bus . . . they got left on the side of some road on the outskirts of Hanoi. But I digress . . . this bus (9 passenger van) was the bomb. Bench seat in the back and 4 large cushy seats that were facing one another. Little table between the front two cushy seats. It was very spacious and quite a nice ride to Ninh Binh. After a quick joy ride around the block, we return to our pick up spot (very confused) and pick up another person. We ride around the building and pick up 3 more people . . . we weren't the only ones confused about how the whole bus thing works (thank goodness!). Then finally we were on our way. After a nice lunch in town, we decide to find motorbikes on our way back to the homestay. We found a place with a sign by the road (totally legit) and rent 2 bikes for 2 days for a total of $26. Since we had both bicycles and motorbikes, the owners of the bikes were nice enough to drive them to our homestay for us (amazing hospitality!). We pack a bag to go to Trang An Grottos and are off on a motorbike adventure. Trang An - boat tour through a mountainous area, caves, and stopping at various temples/pagodas ... as well as the film set for Kong: Skull Island. It was quite hot but our rower made us wear our life jackets. No one spoke enough of the other's language to indicate that we could swim or that it didn't matter if we could swim. So we wore our life jackets. After the first stop at a temple, we bought him some ice cream when we got some for ourselves and he was a bit more lenient later in our tour. Dinner was at Chookie's Beer Garden (recommended by my roommate) where I had a fabulous roasted pumpkin pizza. Mua Caves - contrary to what you may think, Mua Caves, had one tiny cave at the start (just peek your head in and say "huh, cool.") then a BUNCH of stairs. Like so many stairs. Fitbit claimed 140 ish staircases by the time we came back down. At the top of the first peak was a dragon statue that ran across the ridge. Justin, Liz, and I climbed across to the tail of the dragon where we were featured in at least a couple dozen Asian selfies. Seriously, everyone wanted pictures with us. We're probably on so many random Instagram pages now. Cuc Phuong National Park - About an hour drive to get there from Mua Caves and we made some very interesting discoveries on the way: how to get gas when there are no gas stations, ordering random items at a random village bia hoi is not the best idea, hills are hard on a motorbike. Once we got there, we stocked up on snacks since the bia hoi food was ... well... we didn't eat much of it. We hiked to the Cave of Prehistoric Man and tried to hike to the Thousand Year Old Tree before heading back to our homestay. . . . And then we crash a motorbike. Rewind a minute, we've left Cuc Phuong and are headed back to our homestay in Tam Coc. Google says 1.5 hr drive and the sun is starting to go down. We end up on a back woods road. No street lights and one house maybe once every kilometer (yes, I'm starting to measure in kilometers ... sorry America). Justin and Liz's bike is almost out of gas but we haven't passed any "gas stations" in awhile. Google maps brings us to an intersection and tells us to go straight. Catherine and I are like ... does this even go straight and so we stop. Justin and Liz have never seen fireflies and are apparently looking at those before they get their eyes back to the road and see we've stopped ... too late. They skid out while breaking and are now both on the ground with their motorbike. Luckily, no large amounts of blood and no broken bones, just a chunk or two of Justin's elbow and lots of road rash. A motorbike comes to the intersection and stops to help make sure we're okay. We get the motorbike upright in case it's leaking gas. After assuring the guy that we're okay, he heads off. A second motorbike approaches and it's a local cop. He assesses the damage, tries to touch Justin and Liz's injuries (Jeez dude, don't touch that!!), and helps us get the bike started. It's possibly out of gas but we get it running after a couple minutes and are back on the road. He followed us for about 5km until we hit the main road and an actual gas station. After cleaning up and dressing wounds at the homestay we head to dinner. Justin's sporting a nice hematoma above his knee (legit looked like a dislocated knee cap when it first happened) but insists he's good to drive and what not. . . IDK how he did it. We made sure to get some more legit medical supplies at the pharmacy in town. Last day, Bich Dong Pagoda - there was a pagoda just down the street from our homestay so the next morning we head to go see it before we leave town. We pack up and return our motorbikes. When we ask if they can help us call a taxi after lunch, they're like "we can drive you for 200" (200,000 VND aka $8.60) "Oh and you can leave you bags here while you go to lunch, they look heavy." Amazing hospitality.
After lunch, we get our ride to the pick up point for our bus. Our bus this time turns out to be an 8 passenger SUV . . . which 10 people got crammed into. Luckily 2 of them were kid who sat on their parents' laps. But yea, we were super cozy on the way back to Hanoi. Overall fantastic weekend with great friends! 3 out of 3, would do again :)
2 Comments
Christina McCartha
9/9/2018 03:28:56 pm
Sounds like an awesome weekend! Love the blog! Have a great week!
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Clara Mimbs
2/10/2018 08:07:02 pm
Great pictures!! Sounds like you enjoyed the outing. Hugs and thinking of you..
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ShannonMath Teacher living and working in Hanoi, Vietnam Archives
February 2022
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