9am - On the coach. Today started with a trip around Ha Noi following a man on a motor bike. I started on foot, got on the coach and then we followed him in the coach as it went around picking people up, often in the middle of a junction - I suppose there is more space there!!. I have obviously joined a tour which I am not doing! I will be jumping ship at Tam Coc - doing my own thing for a couple of days and then joining another tour back on Saturday. This is because I am getting lazy and couldn’t be bothered to arrange the walk to the train station, buy ticket to Ninh Binh, get train, get taxi to Tam Coc and find home stay. Doing that may have saved me about 50p so it didn’t take me long to decide to splash out and go with the tour coach. To be honest I had already arranged the coach before I looked into how much it would have coast the other way. I say arranged because if you use Lillies Travel (which I would recommend whole heartedly) you only get a piece of paper saying you have paid and telling you what to do and where to be!! Worked in Sapa so hopefully!!

Arrived by 12, had lunch, in my room by 1pm, hired bike, handed over laundry, left shoes outside (well you saw the state they were in) and left to explore by 1.30pm.

I spent an ideal afternoon on a sit up and beg bike - ie no gears and very dodgy brakes. Went to the bird valley which is part of an environmental area for which you pay the grand sum of 100,000d, just before a 10% hill (if I had known!!) Anyway I made it and the down hill was fun. I was then shouted at for the second time about where I was parking the bike. First time was so that I paid them to look after it - I ignored the second time as I thought he was up to the same trick. A lovely man came over and explained in fluent sign language that I didn’t have to park my bike, I could ride it in the valley. It was great - the photos are a disappointment they just do not show how special it was. I Ieft before I wanted to as I had that hill to go up. Good thing I did because once the hill was conquered I went down every path I could and the scenery just continued to astonish me.

I arrived back to the home stay as the sun was setting behind thick rather ominous clouds - It is more like a small hotel - and my laundry was done and you can see what happens to shoes left outside a Vietnamese home stay!!