Not a face I wanted to wake up to
Tu had originally said we’d get up at 5 or 6am to see the local market. However, for whatever reason, we didn’t wake up until 7:15am, with him knocking on the door. We begrudgingly got up and ready to go out. Both Mat and I had planned to go to Ninh Binh by train to day, so were counting down until we had to leave. Once we were out, it was fine. We went to the local market at around 8am, but it was pretty much finished, just the last few people packing away.
He took us to a nearby place for breakfast, this was basically in their house. It was quite fascinating to see about 10 people at this very small ‘bar’ behind which a lady cooked breakfast. Breakfast consisted of water and flour heated on a small stove, and then some fried onions sprinkled on top. It certainly wasn’t filling, but we had quite a lot of them to make up for this fact. I’m not complaining, it was a great little experience into the locals’ lives.
After breakfast, we returned to his apartment. He had to study, so he left us alone for a couple of hours. When the time to leave was upon us, we said our goodbyes, and made our way to the train station. It was baking hot outside, so it was a hot and sweaty walk to the station.
Two hotels, one name
We didn’t have to wait long for the train, nor was the train ride very long at all. Before we knew it, we were in Ninh Binh already. Once we’d arrived, we took a taxi to our hostel. It’s nice to have an air conditioned taxi once in a while. We say back and enjoyed the ride. That was, until we were checking in to our hostel and they said it’s one with the same name on the other side of the river. So we had to walk for about half an hour, with big backpacks on, to get to the other hostel. Again, the temperature was high and dry, so frustration began to set in. Especially when we got to the alleged location of the hostel. This took another few minutes to actually find.
When we finally got to the hotel, we were overcome with relief. Our place was called Nam Khanh Coffee and Hostel, check it out here. More of a hotel than hostel, but the rooms and amenities were nice, and staff were friendly. The one we’d gone to before by mistake was Nam Khanh Coffee and Homestay…easy mistake to make. Anyway, at least we got to see a small amount of Ninh Binh, after we had no choice.
Reunited
We had been speaking to Qian, our Chinese friend from Hue, who was in the area at Tam Coc. Tam Coc was a tourist magnet in the Ninh Binh area, so plenty of travellers there. We took a quick taxi to Tam Coc, and then had a relaxing walk around the vicinity. There were indeed a lot of backpackers and tourists. The lake and surround mountains were a nice sight to behold. We went for some dinner at a hostel nearby which consisted of goat. It was okay, just quite chewy to be honest. As Qian was still resting and getting ready, we headed to her hostel and chilled there.
Mat and I got talking to a kiwi girl (New Zealand) called Nani. We talked for a couple of hours as Qian was taking the mick. She was pretty cool to talk to, and had some good stories. Eventually, her friend, who had been voice calling his girlfriend for hours, joined us and we had a bit of a laugh together. After a long time, Qian finally emerged from her room. It appeared that she’d suffered from a bad case of bed bugs, she was absolutely covered with them. We said goodbye to Nani and her friend, and the 3 of us took a taxi back to the hotel.
I called Elva for a couple of hours which was very enjoyable as always. Qian got settled into her room, which was just across from us, then we all turned in for the night.
