Nimh Binh

A cheap flight from Danang saved us another sleepless night on a bus, some precious time and got us up to Hanoi in little over an hour. From the airport, after much hassle and a scam of a taxi ride, we finally got to a bus station where we haggled our way onto a local bus heading for Nimh Binh. Nimh Binh itself is a nondescript industrial town with only a few guesthouses and even less restaurants but what lies outside of town is what we’d come to see! Having arrived early evening it was already dark but you got the sense that the weather wasn’t that good, visibility was poor and there was rain in the air – not spelling good things for tomorrow! Nice and early the following morning (to beat the day trippers from Hanoi) we jumped out of bed to be greeted by dull weather, the first time since leaving Nepal 3 months or so ago that we had to get out the rain jackets! But like the true hardy adventurers we are we set off on the mopeds through stunning rice paddies and limestone karst scenery to the small village of Tam Coc, from here we hired small boats along with a pushy saleswomen of a rower to take us on a boat trip through the karsts. The river wound its way through the karsts deep into the countryside, it was beautiful, until you reached a turning point where you were greeted by several local women in boats trying to sell drinks and food etc who actually get a bit arsey when you turn down their offers! Having refused all goods so far the boat owner then tried her hand at flogging you some knitwear or hand sewn goods, now turning down the women who is responsible for getting you back is harder work – Shona rather graciously just said no she wasn’t allowed to buy anything because I wouldn’t let her, then just kept pointing at me and shrugging her shoulders with a slightly woe is me look on her face!! After a little bit of non rowing and her own woe looks our rower finally got back to her job in hand and rowed us the rest of the way – all the time trying her hardest to look more tired and rejected – still didn’t work, I don’t crack that easy!! The weather still hadn’t improved that much but at least the rain held off even if visibility still wasn’t great but we jumped back on the bikes and explored the surrounds, more paddies, more karsts, a trek up 450 steps to a temple and so on – was a cool day.