Category: Ninh Binh

Have to say goodbye to my wheels today, it has wobbly steering, no gears, dodgy brakes and rattles a lot. But I will miss it, it took me a lot of miles over the last few days.

Few more snaps, this is the entrance to Linh Coc pagoda. I thought it was someone’s house and had just stopped for a swig of water. A couple of locals were coming out and told me there is a cave that I can visit. Went in and a nun there gave me a banana and then charged me 20000 dong to go and visit the cave. About 60 p or so.

The entrance was up a steep flight of steps cut into the side of the mountain. The nun was tiny and raced up like a greyhound with me huffing and puffing behind. Inside the cave itself it was very slippy underfoot and on the walls from rain water seeping down. The nun was zipping about gabbling away in Vietnamese trying to explain what i was looking at. Meanwhile I had no idea what was going on and was continually banging my head and falling down.In a few places had to get on my hands and knees to get through while she was just bending over slightly. Every time i tried to take a photo she would shine her torch on the statue and the bounce back from my flash would obscure the features. So cannot actually describe what the pictures are !!

Would like to say it was fun but it wasn’t, it was an experience though. Mainly a place for locals with very few western tourists visiting here.

Spat me out at the other side of the mountain with a few bumps and grazes while the nun went back to the pagoda through the caves.

At the airport now waiting my ride to the next stop, Hoi An.

Sorry, just could not resist. A few snaps of the days wander.

Goat is popular around here and tends to be the most expensive item on the menu. They have varied and interesting ways to spell goat, seen it as goad, goar and roat like this one. 80,000 is about £2.58. Most dishes go for between 97p and £1.29. Bottle of Hanoi beer for 65p.

Had some fresh spring rolls at lunch, these are so good. Noodles, lettuce, cucumber, mixed herbs, peppers and prawns. This is actually a starter portion and was too filling but only a quid.

Baby sitter has got it together.

Boat ride goes along the river and then through the caves in the mountains. Takes 2-3 hours but didn’t fancy being stuck on the boat that long so gave it a miss. They row the boat with their feet to save energy.

Finally got a new hat.

Mango and passion fruit smoothie to cool down.