Scooting through Ninh Binh

After a brief night in Hanoi a couple days ago, we had time to wander around the Old Quarter before our shuttle picked us up to take us to Ninh Binh.  We had our first banh mi, our first Vietnamese egg coffee, and our first near miss of getting hit by a motorbike.  :)  We also had some delicious buns filled with chocolate, coffee, or vanilla.

Flowers hanging in the Intercontinental Westlake.

Gavin enjoying his first egg coffee in Hanoi's Old Quarter.

Me in Old Quarter.

In my favorite art shop - Buddha Gallery! We have
bought something here every time we come to Hanoi!

At a coffee shop.

First banh mi!

We arrived at the Reed Hotel in Ninh Binh yesterday afternoon, and we quickly discovered that the hotel is really in the middle of nowhere.  We had to walk a half hour to get dinner!  Ninh Binh the city also doesn’t have much to offer, other than a landing platform for exploring the countryside, which is what we did today!

One of Gavin’s colleagues didn’t have to work today, so we plus her husband rented motorbikes for the day to drive around and see the sights.  Once we got out of Ninh Binh, the karsts rose majestically out of the earth all around us, and we twisted and turned through them on our motorbikes.

Ready to ride!

Our first stop was Trang An, a rowboat tour through the karsts on a large lake that seems more like a river than a lake.  Unlike my Tam Coc rowboat tour a few years ago, these rowers rowed with their hands instead of their feet, were all dressed in uniform, and didn’t harass us for tips, which was nice.  :)  This lake wasn’t surrounded by rice paddies like the Tam Coc boat trip, so we were closer to the karsts, and also were able to take a boat through some of the caves and grottoes inside the karsts.  One cave took us around 20-30 minutes to get all the way through, ducking our heads under stalactites for most of it, but sometimes it opened up into huge, tall caverns.  We also stopped at a few temples that were in the lake on little islands.

Trang An boat tour through the karsts.

Boat selfie! 

Into the cave...

Inside the cave - we were rowing through the cave for around 20-30 minutes!!!

More scenery.

A temple on an island in the lake.

Our rower took several photos of us along the way.  Literally ALL
of them had his thumb over the lens partway. This is the only
one I was able to crop it out!

A temple in the lake. 

At one of the stops there was a little snack stand
with ice cream, which sounded amazing on this
sweltering hot day. This is a "selfie ice cream
sandwich," so of course I had to take a selfie
with it.  :)

After the boat tour we went to Hoa Lu, the old capital of Vietnam.  I had been there on the last trip, and we just walked through quickly as there isn’t that much to see there, a couple temples and just ruins.

The back entrance to Hoa Lu.

After a quick lunch outside Hoa Lu, we continued on to the Chua Bai Dinh.  This huge Buddhist complex was actually finished in 2010, so it is a new place, which we didn’t realize as we were walking through it; I happened to bring a page from Lonely Planet that informed us.  We walked up steps past 500 statues of enlightened Buddhists, and thousands of 15 inch tall golden Buddhas set into the walls.  Toward the top was the main attraction, a 13 story pagoda, the biggest in Southeast Asia, where we could ride an elevator to the top and have a beautiful view over the Chua Bai Dinh and surrounding countryside.  We also got to see the Bell Tower with a 36 ton bell hanging from the ceiling and a 70 ton drum sitting on the floor.

The 500 arhat statues (enlightened Buddhists.) That little brighter gold spot
is the end, up several stairs.

Inside the complex.

13 story pagoda!

Inside the pagoda.

View from the top of the pagoda!

At the top of the pagoda. 

The 36 ton bell with its ringer log to the right.
Unfortunately, the log was locked down, so I didn't get
to ring it.  :)

The sun was just starting to set, so we decided to head back to the hotel.  It was about a 40 minute ride back, and maybe 5 minutes into our ride when twilight set in we were absolutely PELTED with bugs.   I rode the whole way back with my eyes squeezed to slits and my mouth pressed closed.  Gross!

Since several of our friends attending the conference were wanting something different than Asian food already, we went to a burger place called Chookies.  I was starving, so I ordered the Chookies Special, which was a giant burger with a fried egg and bacon on top.  After taking a couple bites, Gavin said, “Why do I always insist on ordering a burger in foreign countries?  It’s never good.” The meat of the burger was impressively tasteless.

After that we crashed into bed early, as we are still a bit jet lagged and catching up.  Tomorrow I’ll take the motorbike out again and explore some more!

Mot, hai ba yo!

A REALLY funny warning sign in the hospital bathroom where Gavin
taught his workshop.

Today we woke up to monsoon season in Hanoi – pouring rain and a little chilly.  Of course, today we have a walking street food tour scheduled.  After (stupidly) eating buffet breakfast at our hotel, we grabbed our umbrellas and rain gear and took our taxi to Awesome Tours in the old quarter to start our tour.

Our balcony overlooking Westlake.  I call this my "Hanoi hair;" it gets
ridiculously curly in the humid, misty Hanoi weather.  :)

Mopeds lined up on the street with a ton of beer bars.

Our enthusiastic guide Trang met us at our taxi, and right away we started traipsing through the mist and rain.  She first took us to a little restaurant to try Bun Cha, a pork and noodle dish with herbs and dipping sauce.  Then we wandered to a little place selling Bahn Cuon, a rice flower steamed pancake with little bits of pork inside.  The next restaurant we got to squat on the tiny little Vietnamese plastic stools and eat Nom Bo Kho, or green papaya salad that had a nice refreshing crunch.  After that we headed to yet another restaurant and sat on the balcony overlooking old quarter, only a foot away from the city’s power lines, which also incidentally held an empty metal bird cage.  This restaurant provided Banh Xeo – a crispy fried pancake filled with meat, which we then were supposed to wrap in dry rice paper with herbs and veggies and dip in sauce – it was a little messy.  We also had Cha ca, which was fried fish, and Nom Hoa Chuoi, which was banana flower salad, made from the blooms of banana trees.  Also at this restaurant we got to try shots of snake wine, a liquor sitting in a large glass jar with several dead snakes curled up in it, said to improve happiness in everybody and virility for men.  :)  Trang taught us the toast “Mot hai bay yo!” which means something like “One, two, three, cheers!”  I couldn’t taste anything “snakey” in it, it sort of tasted like grappa.  After that, we all (Gavin and I seriously regretting our buffet breakfast by this time…) went to another restaurant for Bun Bo, a south Vietnamese style noodles with pork that was sweeter than Pho.  Next was dessert at yet another restaurant, where we had Sua Chua Nep (black rice with yogurt) and Bahn Troi Tau (dumplings filled with black sesame seeds or green beans and coconut, floating in a delicious sweet ginger broth).  Our final stop was at a little coffee shop, which was the first coffee shop to make coffee with egg: coffee with whipped egg white custard on the top of the coffee.  I had hot chocolate with egg custard instead since I don’t drink coffee.  Both were incredibly rich; the Vietnamese are really adept at making coffee taste not like coffee.  :)  (another favorite in Vietnam is coffee with sweetened condensed milk, called “Vietnamese Coffee.”)

Sitting in the tiny little plastic chairs and tables,
trying out green papaya salad. Trang informed us that
at the end of the day the owners put the tables away
and sleep in this room where we were eating.

Sitting on the balcony right next to the power lines with a metal birdcage
hanging off of them behind Michele. Interesting decorating choice.

Trang shows us how to correctly eat the Banh Xeo.

Girl making Bahn Cuon.

Banana flower salad.

Delicious grilled fish.  (Trang called it grilled, but it definitely looked
fried to me!)

Snake wine.  Mmmm, looks tasty...

Mot Hai Ba Yo!!!  (notice I am the only one with any enthusiasm...  :D )

A man making Bun Bo.

Trang shows us how to correctly mix the Bun Bo.

Time for dessert! Sua Chua Nep on the left and Bahn Troi Tau on the right.

Gavin enjoys coffee with egg custard on the top.

The skinniest building in old quarter. You can see
how small it is by looking at the moped in front of it!

Finally, about 20 pounds heavier, we headed back to the hotel and laid around like blobs for a bit letting this ridiculous amount of food digest.  We planned to meet and go to the Night Market at 7:30pm, but the concierge told us that the Night Market is only open on the weekends.  So instead we went to plan B, which was yet more food.  

Since we were a little (or a lot...) Vietnamese-fooded-out, we chose a French restaurant called La Badiane.  We arrived and realized we were completely underdressed in our sneakers and jeans.  I was still completely stuffed, so just ordered an appetizer as my meal; smoked salmon with goat cheese, fig jam and assorted other tasty bits on the place.  All the food everybody had was delicious, enough that I wanted to share a dessert with Gavin, but he insisted that we each get our own.  The desserts ended up being 4 DELICIOUS small desserts apiece, so I left that restaurant yet again feeling sickly stuffed.  :)

My fancy smoked salmon appetizer.

Michele's delicious soup.

Dessert was almost too pretty to eat, but who am I
kidding?  I'll never shy away from chocolate.  :)

After dinner we took a taxi back to our hotel.  We had one more day in Hanoi, but we spent most of the day just relaxing, so this is the end of the "blog-worthy" part of our trip.  :)

Row, row, row your tourists...

Today we took a day trip outside Hanoi to Tam Coc and Hoa Lu, which is the old capital of Vietnam. After a 3 hour van ride (which stopped at yet ANOTHER "fleecing station..."), we arrived at Hoa Lu. Our guide Daniel warned us before we got out of the van that we should not buy ANYTHING from any of the people selling fruit, nor let anybody take photos of us. They said that a lot of those are people waiting to rob tourists as soon as they get their money out to pay. Nice place.

The only ancient structures that remain standing are the two temples, the temple to Dien Tien Hoang, an emperor, and the temple of Le Dai Hanh, who succeeded Dien Tien Hoang. We walked to see both of them, but were not allowed to take pictures inside, as they are still used for active worship. They looked similar to the Temple of Literature from last week, complete with offerings of wrapped candies in artful arrangements, bottles of water and other foodstuffs. I asked our guide what happens to the food offerings, and he said they are left for a day or so, then given to local children.

Driving to Tam Coc through the rice paddies.

Outside the temple.

 

Entrance to the temple, reflected in the water.

 

The throne of the emperor.

 

Pond inside the temple.

 

Gardens inside the temple.

 

Offerings of fresh fruit outside the temple.

The festival grounds in the temple.

 

Festival grounds.

 

Michele paid a guy to sit on his cow for a photo. :)

Endless rice paddies!

After visiting the temples, we had lunch at an unimpressive restaurant, then boarded our rowboats to go down the Ngo Dong River through rice paddies and three caves. Gavin and I had our own boat driven by a mostly toothless Vietnamese man. There were hundreds of boats, and the rowers all used only their feet to row and steer the boat. The total boat trip took about 2 hours, with the rowers having row the entire time; there was no current that I could tell. I wonder how many trips they take each day, carting tourists to and from the caves.

Rowboats wait for their next passengers.

 

Rowboats on the river.

 

Woman rowing.

 

Our rower.

 

Jeff, Michele and Golien on their boat.

Here we go!

 

A couple were doing wedding photos on one boat.

 

Low bridge!

A shrine on the riverbank.

After about 20 minutes, we were surrounded by limestone mountain/cliffs and vibrant green rice paddies. The variation of absolutely flat rice paddies with the huge cliffs shooting out of the ground was really amazing to see.

A worker in the rice paddies.

 

 

River, rice paddies, cliffs and boats.

Entrance to the first cave.

Exiting the cave.

Exiting the cave.

Floating down the river.

 

A waypoint on the river.

 

On the other side of the last cave, a glut of ladies in boats full of food tried to see it to the tourists. When we said we weren't hungry, they tried to get us to buy food for the boat rower. We gave him a good tip at the end of the ride instead so he can buy his own food. :)

 

Our rower is adept with his feet!

 

Silhouette.

 

Cows along the river.

 

This guys and our rower chatted and laughed the whole way back. I joked that they maybe had half a set of teeth between them... :)

 

Mountains and ride paddies.

The rowers make it look easy. :)

After the boat ride, we picked up some bikes for a little bike ride through the rice paddies. The bikes had definitely seen better days; mine the breaks squealed so badly I almost wanted ear plugs, and the seats were the WORST bike seats I have ever been on! :) But the scenery was great!

 

 

Worker in the rice.

 

Moo :)

 

Biking in Tam Coc.

 

Biking with our guide Daniel.

 

Boats in the river.

 

Attempted dirt biking with road bike tires was a little scary. :)

 

Woman rowing.

 

Workers in the rice paddies.

Gavin and I in the rice paddies.

Biking in the rice paddies.

Wall between rice paddies.

Biking in the ride paddies.

After what felt like a very quick bike ride, we hopped in the van back to Hanoi. We arrived at the Intercontinental Westlake just in time for the tail end of our hoity-toity cocktail hour, so we took advantage of it. The head butler (as I'll call him :) ) took us to a seat and, "I sincerely apologize for last night, it was so crowded with people, I hope you can forgive us for this inconvenience..." This made us giggle after he left because WE were the ones who made it crowded by sneaking 3 people in! Ha! This head butler guy was really over the top. After our first trip to the tapas table, he cleared our plates and I told him, "Thank you."

His reply, as he picked up our dirty dishes :) "It is I who should be thanking you." Seriously. :)

After snooty cocktails and appetizers, we took at taxi into the French Quarter looking for the restaurant El Gaucho, an Argentine steakhouse, since we are a little Vietnamse fooded-out. :) We had forgotten to download a map of the area before going, so we wandered around the French Quarter looking for it for a while, then broke down and used some cellular data to look up the address. We caught a taxi, and after showing him the address he appeared to be taking us back to the hotel, whereas we had seen El Gaucho in the French Quarter. The driver didn't speak any english for us to explain the issue, but he dropped us at a SECOND El Gaucho within a few blocks of our hotel. :)

French Quarter shopping.

Bridge on the Hoan Kiem Lake.

At this El Gaucho location, we appeared to be almost the only people in this three-story restaurant. We were not expecting much from an Argentine steakhouse in Vietnam, but the steak, grilled veggies and sauteed mushrooms we had were surprisingly good! And we FINALLY found a place that did REAL desserts! I finally got to have some chocolate cake!!!

After dinner the Eastern European host brought up a bottle and poured us shots of carmel vodka. We reluctantly took them, and they were surprisingly good, probably because they had maybe a milliliter of vodka in them. :) Despite our protests, he poured us another round. If those had been real shots, I would have been on the floor within a few minutes. :)

We took a taxi back to our hotel to pack and sleep. Tomorrow we leave drizzly, foggy Hanoi for the sunny south of Vietnam.

 

Posted with Blogsy