AspiringNomad

Turns out I can’t keep up to date with my blogs as well as I thought I could! Finding time to sit and write about the one million things that happen every day is so hard. But I find myself in Da Nang at midnight, in my cosy double bed (yes you heard that right, double bed) having some ‘time’ to recap on the past 6 days.

We arrived in the scruffy sea side town of Ha Long and gathered with fellow travellers at the port. Now, when booking this trip, I assumed from the photos we were going to be boarding some swanky looking cruise ship. However, it soon became apparent that these cruise ships were far from high end! As I look out from the port, it’s safe to say I was a little underwhelmed and we had clearly been very over sold!

A little concerned, we were called to board a small boat to take up to our vessel for the night. As we approached the boat, the shabby medium-sized boat looked like it was about to rot into the sea! But with a warm welcome from the staff on board, we were guided to the dining room and were served a delicious lunch! I got chatting to the others who were in our group and after seeing that our room was actually pretty decent, my worries about the quality of the ‘luxury cruise liner’ subsided. We spent the afternoon kayaking across Ha Long Bay taking in the breathtaking scenery and messed around on the water trampoline with a few beers. My group of about 40 strangers soon became friends and we laid in the sun on the trampoline chatting about our home lives and travel plans.

That evening we made the most of the ‘buy two cocktails and get a third one free’ and I spent the whole night triple parked with Singapore Slings. Another delicious meal was served and the drinks were flowing. Although there was some music on the boat and karaoke set up in the dining area, the WiFi was a bit hit and miss so after I butchered a couple of karaoke classics, I headed up to the top of the boat and spent the rest of the evening chatting with some of the others in the group before heading to bed.

The following morning we made our way to breakfast and had a short class on how to roll Vietnamese Summer Rolls. Safe to say at this point I won’t be taking on a career in Summer Roll making!

Once back to the port, Tom and I boarded the bus and headed on to our next stop, Ninh Binh.

We arrived at about 4pm and were dropped off outside our hostel. As we checked in, I was getting bad vibes from the whole place. It was quiet with a very basic foyer. As I opened the door to the room, I was less than amused with the cleanliness of the place. However, we didn’t have much choice and maybe it was a bonus that the shower was so close to the toilet you could get two jobs done in one. We decided that as it was only one night and admittedly only £3pp, we would put up with the mould and pray to god that the sheets had been cleaned!

Ninh Binh is a strange place, it wasn’t very touristy at all. The street we were on had supermarket’s, and clothes shops but in amongst that, there were foot spas and motor repair shops, phone shops and local restaurants. Some shop fronts had glass doors that led straight into people’s living rooms. Family were just enjoying their evening infront of the TV as the rest of the world went by the other side of the glass window. It was very strange.

We stumbled across a more picturesque area of the town by the river with two pagodas that lit up in the night and restaurants that had a bit more to offer.

At 8:15am I was more than ready to leave for our day trip around the Ninh Binh province. The sooner I was out of that bed the better! We were picked up and whisked off to the Ninh Binh country side to hike up a hill to a viewpoint at the top. I made my way up with a 60year old Japanese man who had just retired from his career in docuseries television. The views from the top were spectacular! Rice fields and a backdrop of mountains covered in jungle, slightly hazed by the humidity, it was really special to see the rural side of Vietnam for the first time.

Unfortunately the boiling heat made me retreat down to the bottom sooner than I would have liked and I cooled down infront of a fan with a bottle of water for a while before heading back onto our bus. A quick stop at a temple and lunch, then onto the Trang An river.

Tom and I had made friends with Toby who was English and Vandaan who was from LA. We boarded our little boat and the four of us chatted and laughed for two hours as we were taken around the limestone rock formations and little caves. It was so tranquil and peaceful. We took some photos and forced each other to help the poor woman who was at the back busily rowing away! I was queened the ‘Passenger Princess’, but in my defence, my shoulder was hurting from kayaking the day or two previous!

Once back at the hostel, we were allowed to freshen up in one of the empty rooms before catching our night bus to Phong Nha. We left Ninh Binh at 8:30pm and made myself cosy on the top bunk at the back of the bus. Not having been on a sleeper bus before, I wasn’t sure what to expect but I managed to read for a while and listen to some music before deciding to settle down to sleep.

Before long, a heard a curfuffle occurring next to my bed. It was the kind of noise that someone would make if they had a spider on them, so immediately alarmed, I opened my curtain and asked these two boys what was going on. In amongst some small talk, they told me that it was in fact a cockroach that ran over them in the bed. After further investigation, we discovered a whole family of cockroachers right behind my bed. Eventually I squished up and one of the boys sat at the foot of my bed while the other one piled their backpacks and made a bed on the floor. Not much sleep was had, partly due to the fact I was scrunched up but partly because I now knew I was on a cockroach infested bus!

A few hours passed, and we all eventually managed to get some sleep before 4:30am rolled around and as per every night bus, they drop you off and abandon you on the side of the road, left to your own devices with all your luggage.

I had pre arranged with the hostel owner than we would call him to pick us up. So, after a short phone call and a long 20min wait, we decided he must havegone back to sleep. We started our 1km walk to the hostel. On arrival I called him again and he apologised for not picking us up. He them proceeded to tell me that there were no free beds at the Inn, so we were to make use of the hammocks and loungers by the pool. I made myself quite comfortable in one of the hammocks and in the nighttime heat, I was plenty warm enough to drift off to sleep. At about 6am I decided that I wanted to lay on my other side, unfortunately, I forgot I was in a hammock and before I knew it, I had flipped myself out of it and onto the floor below! Rather confused, amused and slightly bruised I brushed myself off and got back in for a few more minutes sleep. After speaking to Bavo who was in our dorm later on, he admitted that he had witnessed my fall and in his Belgian accent said ‘that’s one way to make an entrance!’. We freshened up and at 8:30am were picked up for our Phong Nha day trip. To be continued…