16/10/09 Nihn Bihn (Friday)

Another rainy day in Hanoi. We collected all our luggage together for a trip to Nihn Bihn follwed by a night bus through to Hue further down south. The day trip was on the route so we were being dropped off after at a hotel to wait for the bus. A tiny bus arrived to collect us and the guide looked a bit shocked as there was nowhere to put it all. He said he knew all about our arrangements for later but we were doubtful. Most of the bags got wedged in behind the back seats but Lizzies rucksack ended up being put into the aisle.At the next pick up a group of Australians got onto the bus and one of them was really obnoxious. he rudely said "whos is that bag, its in the way then said to a poor Vietnamese guy at the back "just move that out the way so I can get to the seat". Liz said "PLEASE!!!" and he responded with "sorry I didn't realise I was with Europeans". Cheeky arse !! He hadn't endeared himself to Liz and Phil was pretty unimpressed too as it wasn't our fault the bags were there. He said later can't you put that bag behind the seat so theres more room as if we hadn't already thought of that. Phil ended up swapping seats with him to keep him happy. The two Aussies travelling with him were quite a laugh. They were all pretty wealthy and didn't do much for work. One of them had a Ting Tong in tow who he had been showering with gifts apparently despite the fact she couldn't speak a word of English. Presumably there isn't much need for conversation !! Our first stop was at Hoa Lu, an old citadel with a collection of royal tombs from the Bihn (968-80) and Le (980-1009) dynasties. It was the 3km square capital of Vietnam during that era but most of it has been destroyed. Some of the tombs and the surrounding shrines and brickwork remains for visitors to see so we spent a while looking round. We drove on through some impressive limestone scenery to the town of Tam oc where we sat and ate lunch. After lunch we went by row boat to visit the three grottoes on the Ngo Dong River. They are really low caves and you have to duck for a lot of it. Once through the final grotto there were several floating shops selling refreshments. We bought two drinks and were pretty much forced to buy drinks for the two rowers in our boat. We started back down the river and once back through the last cave the sales pitch began. Trapped in the tiny row boat we couldn't escape the handicraft sales of the woman on our boat. All the boats were the same and crys of "no thankyou"could be heard all around !! We declined to buy any of her wares as we had no use for a knicker bag made from an old sheet !! Once back to Tam Coc we were about to get off the boat and give over a tip when she said "you give tip ". it has been pretty irritating to be hassled for tips as we would gladly give one anyway without the need to be asked. While waiting for everyone to return we all said how we'd been hassled to buy stuff, it hadn't worked as noone had bought anything. We left Tam Coc and drove to Ninh Bihn town and we were dropped to wait for the bus at Thanh Thuy hotel. It was a bit bizarre but the lady at the hotel had obviously seen it all before. We dropped our bags off and went out to find an internet cafe to use our time as it was a few hours before the bus went. We eventually found one full of teenagers playing games and stayed a while adding to the blog. All the internet caes are full of teenagers banging really hard on the keyboards and smoking whiich is lovely to sit in. We went backto the hotel to wait for the bus and an hour went by the departure time. We weren't too worried as in Vietnam you live by "same, same but different" and have to accept that whatever happens happens. We had no room and it was about 9.30 pm. At 10.20 about two hours late the bus arrived at last. We clambered aboard the sleeper bus and jumped onto the really spacious back row which was like a wide double bed. We were very pleased with ourselves to have bagged such a comfy spot but should have wondered why noone else had gone for it. After about 5 minutes a Vietnamese couple squeezed next to us and unfortunately for Phil she had no idea of personal space. Her arms and legs were all over him and she spread herself out over a few spaces. 10 minutes we stopped at a rest stop for 40 mins...bizarre. After the meal stop we tried to settle in for the night but soon realised we had made a big mistake as the back of the bus was so lumpy and bumpy over the bad roads we had very little chance of a nights sleep...especially Phil and the octopus next to him.