Vũ Lâm

It’s been a mixed kind of a week.

Seven days after the joy of Cat Ba and we have travelled 600 kilometres south to firstly, Ninh Binh and now, Phong Nha. Both destinations are very much on the classic Vietnam backpackers/must do tourist kind of route and it turns out, we have been following in Richard’s footsteps from his trip to these areas of Vietnam in 2017. His insights and experiences were no doubt different to ours and undoubtedly we are pacing ourselves rather more than he did.

Some of the slowing down has been enforced as, after a dodgy dinner on Tuesday evening, Carole had a day on the sidelines. That left me to mooch around Ninh Binh on my own. Borrowing a scooter from our hotel, I found our first large Vietnamese supermarket. Hotel breakfasts have become samey and we don’t actually need pancakes or omelettes 6 times a week. My return from WinMart, therefore, was a triumphant one with, amongst the 19p beers and snacks, was a bag of museli and a pint of fresh milk. The poorly patient was very grateful.

A quieter day was also the chance to pop into a local barber. At home, this is, obviously, a swift affair. Not here though. A cut, a second cut, a cheek(!) and forehead shave with a cut throat razor and then a hair wash meant my £3.96 experience had taken almost 50 minutes.

My outings at least took me away from our hotel which, sadly, was one of the least pleasant we have stayed in. We were initially given a room overlooking the rear of the kitchen resulting in the pool view that we had booked being, literally, a stretch. A polite complaint led to a room change the next day but the sad, grey bedding, unclean corners and the slightly musty aroma were the same. This was not a great place for Carole to have to spend 36 hours in bed.

As we are now on hotel thirty something in 63 days, it is no surprise that we have had a couple of unpleasant experiences. We are keeping a record of each hotel and assigning them our own ratings score. Thus far, we have had 3 superbs, 3 oh dears and whole bunch in between! Aside from the week in Zanzibar, the longest we have stayed in the same room has been 3 nights and we are now rather adept at unpacking, arranging charging cables, plugging in travel kettles (oh yes, 1 each), mastering shower controls and assessing our accommodation.

These assessments have ceased to cause surprise in the bathrooms where shower curtains just don’t exist, bare wiring is the norm and of course, the sign saying do not flush paper down the loo. Given these signs, it does seem strange that the bin that that we are required to use, is often out of arm’s reach.

On the plus side, each hotel seems obsessed with providing toothbrushes, combs and earbuds. Our washbags are now nicely stocked with tiny tubes of Colgate that we have felt obliged to pinch, for the unlikely event of us running out of toothpaste.

The weather in Ninh Binh once again, did us no favours and having climbed 500 steps to see a mountain top pagoda and clamber along a stone dragon, we were quite underwhelmed with this stop. We enjoyed tootling along on our scooter amongst the limestone karsts (land based ones this time) but having chosen not to do a boat trip through the caves, we didn’t find a great deal in Ninh Binh to write a footprint about.

An early morning departure south to Phong Nha and an 8 hour experience on a lying down bus, was much more fun. We keep mentioning prices in Vietnam and it is astonishing that the price of this journey was about £12. With only 22 berths on the bus, it is a mystery how these services can turn a profit. Charging points, reclining seat controls, disco lights in the ceiling, a TV screen, privacy curtains and A/C controls (and a re-run of the cup final) made the time fly by.

Our hotel in Phong Nha was again called a homestay which are really just small hotels and this one provided more, unique experiences. Run by a French Canadian chap and his Vietnamese wife, Nyguen Shack Resort was not only special but with the couple’s 2 children being very much part of the hotel’s activities and atmosphere, it was reminiscent of our time at the campsite in France. Mr and Mrs Front of House were full of recommendations for activities, scooter driving directions and advice on where to go next. They were always on hand to make bookings and to simply chat.

They had a menagerie of goats, ducks, dogs (with puppies) and cats and their fenced off garden area had a huge pig snorting his way through the day and night, called Bacon. His younger and smaller companion, Sausage (honestly), roamed the hotel grounds and open air dining room and clearly thought he was one of the dogs. The puppies and Sausage cuddled up together each evening around on open fire, right in the middle of the restaurant.

Their children, Kim, 9 and Anne 5, were also always in the dining area either being home schooled, talking to guests, or in our case, being on hand to give us both advice on our nightly games of Rumikub (currently 6-5 to Carole, if you are interested).

Kim also conducted 2 hour jungle walks at the request of hotel guests so, last Saturday, whilst Carole joined the free, early morning yoga class, a Canadian lady and I set off with our 9 year old tour guide. Admittedly, I had pretty low expectations.

How wrong I was! Kim’s home schooling was obviously wide ranging, as she so eloquently explained the flora and fauna of the jungle behind the hotel, the reason why the streams were red, the geological formations of the rocks and then led us on a crystal hunting mission. Kim told us all about the ethnic minority people who live in the forests and about the farming and harvesting of the acacia tree plantations covering the surrounding hillsides. With the languages of her parents being her natural tongues, all of this was conducted in English, her 3rd language. Nine, for goodness sake!

The joy of this homestay was also our room. All of the rooms here were individual bungalows or 2 storey buildings constructed at an angle so that each room faced the lake in front without overlooking the next building. The floor to ceiling window walls therefore, created a glass box in which we lived and slept without the curtains drawn for four days and four nights.

Waking early on Sunday morning to an orangey red sun peeping over the hills behind the lake was pretty special. Our photography of this moment leaves a lot to be desired but extending our stay at Nyguen for another night seemed the ideal way to end a funny old week.

Wonderful, wonderful Phong Nha itself deserves its own footprint.Read more