New Friends in Ninh Binh

Arriving back in Hanoi late on Saturday 25th October, we had one night in Hanoi at the Astoria Hanoi Hotel & Travel to simply sleep, get our washing done and repack the bags! It is worth mentioning that it is so incredibly easy and cheap to get your laundry done. There was a washing shop almost next to our hotel and the washing (paid on a card, via ApplePay) was just a few pounds and came back dried and folded.

I should also probably say here that aside from the Ha Giang Loop trip I had made no plans for Vietnam and the rest of the trip was essentially generated through Chatgpt brainstorming on the fly! So on Sunday 26th October we took the train to Ninh Binh leaving at 12:50 and arriving at 14:50. I'd got our train tickets online via 12Go for 22 USD. We walked to the train station, ate street food before chilling out on the train. When we arrived, we tried for a Grab taxi (this is like Uber or Bolt in Vietnam), but couldn't get a car so ended up with a normal taxi to take us. to our hotel/homestay called Amy House which was £44 for 2 nights.

This really was simply the perfect place to stay as Tiger made firm friends with the little girl Amy, whose house it was! And her Mum also ran a kind of after school club at her house which Tiger could join in with.

On Monday 27th October we headed out for the day with our guide, Tong, who took us out on his motorbike! We had booked him for the whole day on Airbnb Experiences for £61. Our first stop was the Hang Mua viewpoint - lots of steps up but well worth it for the views!

Next stop was a boat ride at Tran An. This was super touristy, and quite long in the boat, but we made friends with our fellow boat tourists who were from India!

When we got off the boat, Tang was there with koi carp treats for Tiger to feed the fish!

We then jumped back on Tang's bike for a superb lunch spot with a view!

Our last stop was supposed to be to the Bich Dong Pagoda but instead we went to the Buffalo Caves which was completely amazing as we got to feed baby chicks, try fly fishing and go inside a little cave!

We saw the sunset with Tang before he took us back to Amy's House. Amy, sadly, wasn't there as she had a piano lesson so Tiger and I took a Grab taxi to the old town of Ninh Binh where we had some pasta for dinner.

On Tuesday 28th October, we had our train back to Hanoi at 13:41 once again booked with 12Go for 22 USD but there had been flooding elsewhere in Vietnam and as a result our train was canceled. This wasn't a problem though, as they laid on a car for us and we got a refund on the train ticket! What was rather heart-breaking was Tiger's emotional goodbye to Amy who had, in a mere 2 days, become her best friend!

By the evening we were back to Hanoi again for another rest, clothes wash and repack of the bags. Essentially almost everywhere in Vietnam we went with day packs leaving our big bag at the hotel in Hanoi so this worked out really well.