NINH BINH

Being alone after having such an amazing group of people around felt foreign. I hopped on the bus backpack in hand. Me and one more girl were the only two people who were staying at Ninh binh, everyone else was on a day tour. I still don’t understand what people see in these tours.... everything is so rushed and you have a set amount of time allotted for each site, like you are in elementary school all over again.  It’s my biggest nightmare.

I got off the bus, and Stacy and I started walking. I wasn’t entirely sure where the hostel was but after asking some questions I got an idea of the general direction.  Stacy wasn’t staying for the night but I told her she could leave her backpack in my room for the day. She was an interesting character, a few years older than me and a bit eccentric with a touch of crazy party girl. When we were about to give up on walking (the backpack was getting pretty heavy) and asked a person for directions he told us to wait and made some phone calls. After a few minutes the owner of the hostel was there with us, he told us that his hostel was the one that we were looking for but that he had to change the name because so many people had copied it (it was on Lonely Planet). He pulled out his id along with a huge book with reviews from hundreds of backpackers. The hostel was down the street! It was really well kept and it had real toilets! I was sold. We got some bicycles and off we went to Tam Coc. The place was a few km out of town but we managed to find it. There were small canoes waiting at the foot of the river. We got our own canoe and away we went as the elder Vietnamese man proficiently rowed using only his feet. The scenery was unbelievable, the river winding around the rice patties decorated with limestone mountains.

The next morning I went on a biking trip by myself. I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone so I just took off... the first place I stopped at was one of the remainders of the old citadel, the only person there was a worker who was absorbed on fixing some pathway so I just snuck in. It was beautiful, with colorful flowers and an empirical air. A beautiful sound came from the main building; there were all of these birds singing. It was one of those moments were you wonder if you are in a dream. I decided it was time to get lots, so I put away the map and biked around the outskirts of town. Lotus fields, small Chinese temples, rice patties reflecting the sky, Buddhist temples hidden in between the limestone mountains. The only people I saw that entire day were those working on the fields and kids playing around.  Everywhere I went there was something to see and an air of wonder, mystery and adventure.