We rode the bus for around 2 hours to get from Hanoi to Ninh Binh. Once we got off the bus, we were positively accosted by a few guys wanting us to stay at their hotel. We already had a booking with a guest house, so we hoped they would leave us alone once they got the news. They kept telling us how great their hotel was and that we should have a look.

Seeing as 1) no one from our other hotel was present, 2) we were standing on the side of a highway with nothing else but someone's home in site, 3) it was dark, and 4) we didn't have a map, we decided to go with these guys to their hotel, which was just down the road. Shortly after, the guy from our hotel, Hang, stopped in to get us. After a quick conversation in Vietnamese, our captors let us go with Hang. Now, we could just load up the taxi and head out to the hotel.

Except...the taxi isn't a taxi. It's a motor bike. Hang brought his bike along with a buddy and his bike to take us to the hotel. We jumped on with our gear, and within about half a mile we're at the hotel.

The next day, we rented a motor bike and headed out to Tam Coc National Park. We took a scenic 5km ride out to the park, paid the entry fee, and then got mildly scammed. According to the park "rangers", there is supposedly a "parking area" for bikes. We couldn't find a specific area, but these two sketchy looking dudes (aka Cheech and Chong) had set up a tarp and poles where supposedly I HAD to park, for a fee of course, thank you very much. I tried to park elsewhere but these guys were all over me and for the little bit of cash they wanted, it was worth paying them just to end the confusion. I paid them, parked the bike, and tried to leave the helmets. They wanted to charge me to leave them, at which time I told them to give me a break. They insisted, so I just took the helmets with me.

Seriously, these guys were straight out of a sit com. Laughing and holding out their hands every 30 seconds for one form of payment or another. To help make sure the bike was still there when we got back, I used our luggage cable lock around the rear wheel.

Anyway, we got into a paddle boat rowed by a solid Vietnamese lady and had a very enjoyable ride down a river, through rice paddies, past karsts, and through a few caves. The scenery was magnificent, and it was nice to be able to compare the formations in Tam Coc with those we saw in Halong Bay.

There was one oddity that had us transfixed for a good chunk of the ride. The people row with their feet. They lean back on their hands, grab on with their feet, and, well, row. It sort of looks almost like a cycling motion, but they pop their knees out a little further to the side than in cycling. Check out the photo album.

So, this was pretty cool all the way around, and after returning from the boat ride, I went to get our bike. Cheech and Chong were all over me when I showed up, asking me for my ticket. Are you kidding me? I looked at them and said that I'm the guy from two hours ago, and there are only 10 bikes under their tarp (read: 10 suckers, including yours truly). They insisted, so I dug out my ticket and handed it to them.

They smiled, and then they stood over me as I tried to undo the padlock. That's when I noticed some cable lock bits. Apparently, they whiled away the time while we were gone by trying to hack at the padlock. I undid it, looking forward to bidding good riddance to Messieurs Cheech and Chong.

So, just as I went to mount the bike, they asked for a tip. I cracked up. Cheech and Chong were priceless. I should have gotten a pic, but I just wanted to get out. Plus, they would have asked for money if I took a picture or maybe a camera fee. Every once in a while we get reminded that we will have even more fun if we just grin and bear it and go with the flow. After all, what's a few thousand duong when you get to interact with nuts like Cheech and Chong?

After our ride through Tam Coc, we were hungry, but Ninh Binh in general has very few restaurants. We found a Pho place on the side of the road and downed a bowl of cheap Pho (under one dollar). We finished up, and then we tried to find the back roads to a national park we heard great things about. We didn't end up where we thought we would, but it was good fun nonetheless. We passed through some great small villages that backed right up to rice paddies, and we were accompanied by choruses of "hello…hellooooo" from the local kiddies. Good stuff.

It was getting late, so we maneuvered back out of the villages and worked our way back to Ninh Binh proper. We ended up in a cool market area and explored the back streets around the market. We met some more kids, and it was a very cool experience. Ninh Binh isn't really a major tourist destination, and those that do come to the town mostly do it via day trips from Hanoi, and they only hit the tourist stops. These kids just had not seen many westerners. In fact, for the first time in southeast asia, we attempted to high five the kids, but they didn't know what to do. We loved it.

After Bev dragged me away from the kids, who followed us in the street for a while, we peeked into homes, watched men play a Vietnamese version of chess, and sauntered through the market.

We debated staying another day, but we figured we should mosey on, so we grabbed a bite, and later that night, we got on the overnight bus to go to Hue.