From dreamy to dead cats

So far, we had only seen the pretty parts of Ninh Binh—and there was still more to come. But by the end of that day, I saw things I wish I hadn’t, and that will leave me genuinely traumatized for the next few days.
We woke up at 5:30 AM and rode our bikes for about 20 minutes to be the first ones on top of Mua Cave. And yes—it was totally worth it. We felt a bit like a couple in their 50s: going to bed super early to beat the tourist crowds in the morning, then spending the rest of the day reading, eating, and chilling at the hotel. Early retirement vibes. After breakfast, we headed to Dong Van Wetland Nature Reserve. While Trang An had been super busy and touristy, Dong Van was the complete opposite—run entirely by locals, barely any people around, pure quietness, and just idyllic nature. We could observe so many birds and floated peacefully through the wetlands in a little wooden boat with Louane, a local woman who rowed us around. I even spoke a little Vietnamese with her and told her the place was xinh đẹp, meaning beautiful. She smiled—either touched or just politely amused.
Then, somewhere in that calm and peaceful moment, my brain decided it was time to panic about the dog bites on my leg. I asked Jasper what he thought I should do, and that’s when the drama began. He started googling and asking ChatGPT everything about rabies—which, obviously, only made me more terrified. We read that dogs with rabies often have paralyzed back legs and—guess what—the neighbor’s dog? His back legs don’t work. I freaked out. I got really quiet and scared. When we got back, I lay by the pool, headphones in, listening to podcasts and trying to ignore the doom in my head, while Jasper went for a run.
At lunch, I finally asked the woman at the hotel what I should do. She just shrugged and said the puppy is too young to be vaccinated but that he always bites playfully and that nothing would happen. That was a huge relief. Like, instant pressure-off-my-chest kind of relief.
The afternoon plan was to head into Ninh Binh city to check out the walking street and get dinner. The walking street? Pretty touristy, kind of okay, but honestly, not something I’d go back for. Then I had the genius idea to visit a real local supermarket, and we found one on Google Maps. But on the way there, we passed a market near the stadium and decided to walk through it. It was wild. Super busy, super crowded, and honestly overwhelming. People were mostly on motorbikes, zig-zagging through the market like it was a drive-through. At first it was kind of fascinating—but it got denser and denser, and we could barely squeeze through the crowd. I started feeling a little dizzy and off.
And then I saw something that completely shook me: a table with the skinned head of a dead dog, its body laid out next to it, and—on top of it—two dead cats, eyes wide open and empty. I instantly put my hand over my mouth and speed-walked in the direction of what I hoped was the exit. As soon as we got out, the tears came. I just couldn’t help it.
To recover, we went to a normal supermarket, and I bought some VEGETARIAN yogurt for the next morning—because honestly, I had been craving yogurt with fruit like crazy. Also, emotional support yogurt. We grabbed two bottles of soju (rice wine) and, even though I wasn’t really hungry anymore, walked toward a restaurant we found on TripAdvisor (one of only three open). We sat down, quickly realized it wasn’t going to be good or safely gluten-free, and thankfully decided to call a Grab and head back to the hotel—for a very good last dinner and a few comforting rounds of Kniffel.Baca selengkapnya