Day 65

Trang An & Tam Coc > Hanoi

After obligatory morning routine (breakfast + checkout) I headed over to the departure area for the boat tours, parked up and headed to the ticket office. Along with the Mua Cave thing I did yesterday, this boat tour is one of the must do's around Ninh Binh. There were the choice of 4 routes of varying length and sites but after some online research I went for the most popular route - route number 3.

The boats were for people of groups of 4 so I had to wait a little bit to get paired with a group and I ended up being grouped with the 3 Californians who were behind me in the queue. I think they were all about 30 and working all over - and I was glad to be on the same boat as them especially as one of them spoke Vietnamese so they could easily talk with our boat guide.

We cruised along the river on our hand rowed boat (which is so much more relaxing than the deafening rumble of a diesel engine) through the beautiful landscapes. We had a few different stops along the way including a few temples and a few caves. The "highlight" would have been the 1km long narrow cave where we had to dodge stalactites as we slowly meandered through. We fed some fish as well which they went absolutely crazy for and also passed through the 'famous' set of Kong Skull Island where Kong left a bloody handprint (I've not seen it so I wouldn't know).

After the great trip I headed back into town to grab some lunch and quite last minute book my ticket to Hanoi. The guy at the hotel was a bit annoyed at me for not booking my bus ticket through him but to be honest he was a bit confusing with the language barrier so I went with old trusty 12Go. I said goodbye to Alfie and Daisy as they were staying another night and went to the pickup point for my journey to Hanoi. The journey was fine but I ended up changing bus twice for a grand total of 3 busses in only a 3 hour journey.

When I arrived in Hanoi I checked into my 16 bed dorm (quite a step down from the previous 2 nights), then went out for a wander and some food. It was quite easy to get a feel for the old quarter especially as I was right in the centre of the touristy zone and that feel was busy and hectic. I end up using Michellin Guide to find somewhere to eat but in an embarrassing turn of events I accidently end up eating opposite where I had aimed to, in a slightly dodgy looking place. Feeling like an idiot I prepared to eat a mediocre meal. In reality I ended up having a super yummy Bun Cha (a grilled pork soup with a side of noodles for dipping) and have absolutely no regrets about my fuck up.

On my wander back I grabbed some water and got offered a scooter taxi, a shoe shine, marijuana, and a prostitute in that order all within 30 seconds. I opted for some cheap cookies from the local shop instead and went back to my hostel to snack before bed.Read more