Ninh Binh - Halong bay on Land

Travel

Getting to Ninh Binh was relatively easy,  we took bus no.8 out of the centre of Hanoi,  which takes you to the larger bus station at Giap Baht, from here there were many buses to Ninh Binh.  One pulled up, we got on with our bags and were on our way for only 65,000 vnd.  2 hours later we were at Ninh Binh station.

We were collected by our hotel in a 60 year old Jeep called a Uaut!  The man collecting us spoke no English but seemed very pleasant,  although an element of trust was involved as he took us off the main road down unmade roads for a few kilometres.

We arrived at our hotel and we were greeted by some exceptional staff, they took care of us from start to finish, helped us hire a motorbike and gave us maps and directions. We stayed at a hotel called Nguyen Shack in Bamboo huts. The restaurant at the hotel cooked fantastic Vietnamese food, we ate here for breakfast and dinner for 3 days and it was some of the best food we have had in Vietnam! The hotel also tries to help the local community by teaching the local children English, we lent a hand trying to talk to the children, although most were very shy some really enjoyed it, and the hotel staff teaching were great with the kids which was nice to see.

The area surrounding Ninh Binh is known as Halong Bay on land, and they have lots of huge Limestone cliffs and rising up from the rice paddies! We spent most of our time riding around and checking out the ancient capital as well as looking at little temples hidden behind cliffs or cut into caves.  The weather was pretty grey but the scenery more than made up for this.  Our hotel was lovely, the area was stunning...so overall a nice 2 night stay.

A temple hidden between two limestone cliffs!

Our secluded bamboo shacks hidden behind the cliffs!

The stunning scenery around Ninh Binh

Halong Bay, Sensational Scenery when the skies are clear

Halong Bay

In every tour agency, in every street in Hanoi, you will find some place trying to sell you a Halong bay tour. We went to A Travelmate...the place that booked us our Sapa bus and had given us lots of information about Hanoi during our stay there. We went for a 1 night 2 day tour in Halong bay (although in reality its barely 24hrs). Being on a budget we went for a nice boat but with no extra frills. All of the tours are basically the same but the main difference is the boat you end up on. Ours was with APT travel and was supposed to the the golden dragon Junk boat which cost us $95pp. However, on arrival in Halong bay we were upgraded to their mid-range boat which had a free cabin... (which we had been offered at $145 but decided not to go for) so we were pretty happy!

So to get to Halong Bay you take a 4 hour bus with a halfway stop to some crappy crafts place that sells rubbish overpriced coffee. You are all crammed into buses/minivans and there are lots taking the same journey from Hanoi.

So on arrival in Halong Bay you await to board your ship(which again takes time) we were taken by a smaller boat to our ship which was offshore.

As mentioned before the boat we ended up staying on was the Viet beauty by ATP tours. It wasn't too bad, we got a nice double room.

Obviously the one thing we have no control over is the weather and on arrival in Halong bay there was a terrible fog. You could barely see 2 metres in front of yourself let alone any of the infamous rock formations in the sea! 

After a speedy hot shower we settled down to lunch which was actually delicious. We were given the run down on the activities for the next 2 days and told to return to that area in 15 mins if we wanted to go the the beach and do some kayaking. This wasn't quite as expected although not through fault of the tour but because of the poor weather.  We tried to make the most of it and enjoyed kayaking around the immediate islands following the tour guide as he showed us some of the rocks.

Back on the beach we chilled out for a bit and a big group of people played volleyball and after a little time enjoying the beach and chatting with others, we were taken back to the boat for a shower and dinner. The food was pretty good, and we were able to try squid fishing off the side of the boat, as well as being taught to make Spring rolls. We also had the option of Karaoke, but most on the boat decided to pass on this, we retired off to our cabin for a nice comfy sleep on very still seas. 

The next morning we were greeted by a relatively bland breakfast of toast, eggs, and jam. Then it was time to set sail to the Pearl farm where you are shown how pearls are created. Obviously this then leads you into a shop selling the Pearls they are farming. They did show us how they collect the pearls from the Oyster and we were lucky enough to find one even though they only get a return of about 30% of what they farm, and even less are of a saleable standard. 

Back to the boat for lunch and a few last photos from the top deck before our bus takes us back to Hanoi.  

Our boat for Halong Bay the "Viet Beauty"

A pearl found in an Oyster at the Pearl Farm

The View from the top deck of Halong Bay

Nature creating a perfect frame for the photo

The bays can have a lot of Junk Boats sailing around, but still stunning

Rice Paddies in Sapa

We had heard a lot about the green trekking in Sapa and decided it was just what we needed after so much beach time in Thailand! We decided we would do a 2 night 3 day trip, booking a return night bus from hanoi.
The night bus was great. A lot nicer than the night buses in India, although they were mainly single and had a space to put your feet in, bar one triple at the back which had more leg room (best for those with long legs). On the way to Sapa we arrived early at 4am but were able to sleep in the bus until 6am, however on our way back to Hanoi we were kicked out of the bus as soon as it arrived in the city which happened to be early at 3.30am not great!

We were very lucky and having spoken to some fellow couch surfers in Hanoi we had got the contact details for a local tribe woman who was guiding round Sapa. She was available and only cost $15pp a day including accommodation, food and the guiding- a real steal!

She was amazing and had great insider information from the villages and was able to teach us about the different tribe people. She was from the black Hmong tribe one if the larger tribal groups. Most groups were distinguishable by their beautiful costumes which they make from scratch themselves and some take over a year to make! (They even make the thread from hemp to make the fabric).

While trekking we saw beautiful waterfalls and so many rice paddies which were so amazing to see. We stayed in 2 good homestay accommodations where we ate yummy food and drank lots of 'happy water' (local rice wine)! It was tiring spending our days walking so we slept well!

After finishing our trek we took a motorbike taxi back to Sapa which was pretty treacherous before having dinner and catching our night bus back!

The tiered Rice Paddies in the sunshine

Stunning views from the hillcountry

More from the Hilltop

Abi and I with our guide Sho

Hanoi, our second couchsurfing adventure

Travel

Our travel to Hanoi from Koh Phangan involved a busy day of boats, buses and planes, we booked a boat bus flight combo with Air Asia which although worked out a fraction more expensive than doing it on our own, it made life a lot easier as we were looked after very well and and our second ferry even waited just for us as our first ferry was delayed.

So one taxi, two ferries a minibus and a flight and we were back at Don Muang airport in Bangkok, where we collected our bags from the carousel and left the arrivals terminal and went to the other end of the terminal for departures. We flew from Bangkok to Hanoi with Nok Air, our flight left late but arrived on time around 8.10pm. We were quickly off the plane heading to the Visa on Arrival desk with our photographs and cash in GBP to pay for our one month Visa. This took around an hour and our Couchsurfing host was waiting for us.

Hanoi

Eventually through the airport we were met by our host and some of his tourism students, they helped us sort a Vietnamese sim card, we got some money from an ATM and were in a taxi with the Couchsurfing host and his students. Our Hosts name was Thanh and we stayed on the floor of a plane fuselage he had built in his café. He spoke very good English and often took tours of Vietnamese people all over the world. He was running support lessons in English for tourism students from all 3 universities in Hanoi. They would come and practice there English with us and talk  to us about Hanoi and the tourist attractions we could see.

Hanoians take great pride in their street food and we were always being asked what we had eaten that day. Their main food is Phó (noodle soup) which they can eat for breakfast, lunch or dinner. We had it a few times in Hanoi, and it varied sometimes it was very nice and full of flavour, other times a bit weak and boring. Another thing we quickly realised is that Vietnam loves it's coffee, and we quickly found out why, they make very very strong black coffee and then mix it with a good dollop of condensed milk, the result is a silky, sweet but strong hit of coffee. (I have found myself having this as my go to drink in Vietnam) Another type of coffee famous in Hanoi is egg coffee, they mix the coffee with the condensed milk and add whipped egg white, the result is delicious and we were pleasantly surprised. 

By this point we have learnt how to cross the road in Hanoi,  we had heard of various people and our host had reminded us.  You see a small gap in the cars and go,  motorbikes will drive around you, DO NOT STOP! Once you are in the road keep walking. 

Okay so day one we mostly spent strolling around the old quarter, we went to Hoe La prison, where the French kept the Vietnamese in the early 1900's and where the Vietnamese kept American Pilots during the Vietnam war including previous Presidential Candidate John McCain. This was quite interesting, and there was lots of info in English which hasn't been the case at all museums or attractions I'm Vietnam. The flag tower was a big tower with a big Vietnamese flag on it, at the base of the tower they have planes and tanks that were donated by the Russians or captured from the Americans. We didn't get too long here as it was closing so couldn't tell you much about it.

We arrived back at our Couchsurfing café and were asked if we minded doing a quick 10 minute presentation on Britain and British culture,  so we popped to the shops and bought some biscuits and allowed the Vietnamese students to try English tea and biscuits which was well received.  In return two students gave us a presentation on Hanoi and it's history which was very interesting. 

Our final full day in Hanoi before leaving for a trek in Sapa we met up with an old friend for lunch,  we visited the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, the Presidential palace and the Temple of literature (the oldest university in Hanoi) . We didn't go into the Mausoleum because the queue was very very long. We also visited a water puppet show,  famous in Hanoi,  costing $3 each.  Thinking it would be pretty terrible it was actually very entertaining,  the puppets were amusing and the whole performance lasted around 1 hour. 

The next morning we got the bus into town early to meet our connection for 3 day trek in Sapa. 

The flag tower in Hanoi

The view from Coffee Club with the best egg coffee in Hanoi

The water puppet show near Hoan Kiem Lake

The Ho-Chi-Minh Mausoleum

The One Pillar Pagoda not far from the presidential palace

One more month on Koh Phangan

So after learning to become a yoga teacher I took the opportunity to take an intern-ship where I could get practice teaching & increase my confidence....

Lucky enough for Yoga on Secret Bottle Beach in Koh Phnagan

While the opportunity wasn't quite as expected it was a great month filled with lots of yoga, yummy food and beautiful beaches. Gary continued helping out with PACS as well as going to lots of rehab yoga for his back injury.

One of the little puppies Gary worked with at PACS

He also did a two day introduction to freediving which he enjoyed a lot. We trekked to 'secret' beaches, did paddle boarding and snorkeling as well as attending a local festival. On top of that we did a 1 day trip to Koh Tao to visit some friends and an overnight trip to Koh Samui, re-visiting our favourite restaurant "The Larder" and checking out some bits we missed on the Island before. Its been an interesting month getting a bit of routine back into our lives, living in a house and getting to cook some of our favourite foods (My bean chilli is awesome!) and chilling! Now we're ready to continue our travelling adventures..Starting with Vietnam! First stop Hanoi.

SUP'ping it up in the Sunset on Koh Phangan

Koh Phangan...One month & a yoga teacher qualification Later!

So the past month has been pretty hectic...Abi's schedule was crazy. 12 hour days 6 days a week and Sundays to recover in time for the next week. We didn't do a great deal other than eat, sleep, repeat!

I chose to volunteer some of my time at a local charity, PACS which helps treating injured stray dogs as well as vaccinate and neuture them.

 There were a few other guys that had accompanied their girlfriends who were on the the course with Abi and we spent time together by the pool and sea...

I also still had a pretty bad back so went for an assessment at a local yoga therapy centre which provided me with a daily rehab programme. 

Quite often on a Sunday we would rent a bike and drive around the island  Waterfall Hunting or visiting Beautiful Beaches.

Being a town full of yogis Srithanu was filled with many healthy vegan restaurants, juice bars and whole food markets as well as the usual Thai places.

What's our plan now?
Well we're staying here another month so that Abi can complete an internship with the school and get some practice being a yoga teacher before we move on. So I get to endure the hardship of the beaches and life here for 1 more month.