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12 July: Ninh Binh

We ate breakfast and headed to the beach just after 07h00 to miss the burn of the sun. Lucky for us it wasn't a particularly hot day and the sun spared us from its devastating scorn, due to our overly sensitive Doxcyclin skin. We swam for about an hour before returning to the beach, sitting back to back on the only towel we had, both reading our books. No westerners were anywhere to be seen, only some locals came to enjoy a refreshing early morning swim, before heading to work. The water was completely flat and crystal clear, without even hints of waves. After about 2 &frac12; hours at the beach we headed back to the guest house to start packing. John came by with a map of New Zealand and continued to tell us of places to go and routes to take, he even advised we purchase a station wagon and just sleep on a mattress in the back.

After chatting with them for a while we said our goodbyes and started the walk to the market, where they had eaten the morning and advised we go. Only problem was their distance estimation was a bit off and we ended up walking almost 4 km with all our bags to get to the market. Which unfortunately for us was a morning market and had closed down for noon. We continued up to the main road, hoping to find restaurants there where we could dine, before having to find a motorcycle taxi to take us to the railway station.

We found one, but again English wasn't their strong point and Leanne and I both visited their small kitchen to look at what they wanted to serve us. In the end we ascertained it would be rice with chicken, beef, fish and vegetables, what a mix! The dish came and it was one large hump of rice, atop of which was a chicken drumstick, a 2 by 5 cm piece of beef or the fat thereof and a 5 cm fish. At least its head and tail had been cut off, but I tasted quite a few scales,not to mention the small bones, the vegetables were a bunch of spinach leaves. I wouldn't say it was the tastiest meal we have had, but at least there was enough protein in it.

After lunch we walked further down the road, now looking for a taxi to take us the 3km to the railway station. The first group wouldn't reduce their rates, so we walked on to the next two. They weren't interested in 10 000, but would go for 15 000 each so we settled and they took us. At the railway station we yet again had to try and figure out which train was ours and when we needed to get on, inevitably you ask about 10 people before you have a sense of certainty.

We waited another 40 minutes before the train arrived running to get on. We had bought hard seats, which were the equivalent of wooden park benches, we were still contemplating whether this had been wise for a 9 hour journey. Our luck was in, we didn't have soft seats, but at least they had a measure of padding for the bottom and the back and sat quite comfortably. The train pulled away and we were off, having taken almost 10 minutes to find a space to fit the bags in. The ride was yet again a scenic one for large parts of it, however after watching the valleys, rice paddies and mountains for about 2 hours, we both settled into our books hoping the 9 hours would pass faster, they didn't.

During the drive we had 3 different passengers sitting across from us, the first were two young male students, who got off after about 4 hours. They were replaced by an elderly woman, her daughter and 3 month old granddaughter, whom she breastfed an hour into the journey, she was sitting across from me at the time. After another 2 hours they got off and were replaced by a man who lay across the two chairs.

The train ride was actually quite entertaining, our coach was filled with students who were either chatting loudly away, playing cards or singing songs while one of them was leading them with his guitar. At one stage an officer came past and started shouting at the woman next to us with a polystyrene take away box placed on the side of her chair containing food she had not yet finished, the next minute she threw the box and food out the window and the officer continued on. Few things stay on trains, most are thrown to the fields beyond...

Our 9 hour journey changed to 10 hours and we arrived just after 01h45 in the morning. We headed for the station, where I quickly ran for a toilet not having gone on the train, at least I didn't drink to much water. It had been raining incessantly the whole journey and Ninh Binh was no exception, except it seemed to be more severe in this city. We had only one choice, it was pointless going out both of us with all our bags to look for accommodation and both getting soaked. We had only one umbrella, so Leanne remained with the bags and I started off into the dark streets with minimum lights to find one.

The first one was the closest and the one we wanted to stay in, we had even called them from our accommodation in Dong Hoi to book, seeing as we knew we would be coming late and didn't want to look around. Unfortunately for us the number didn't work, I knocked on the door, to wake the owner who was sleeping on the floor a few meters away. He opened, still very asleep and informed me they were full, but we could come back the next day for a room. I don't think I would have been as appreciative as he was having been woken up 2h00 in the morning.

From there I went to 4 more, all of which were full, by now I had turned into another street and saw only one hotel. I hoped for the best, knocking at the door, once again waking the man sleeping on the floor and asked for a room. He showed me to one and another and after haggling on the price, seeing as he wanted the same rate for 8 hours as that of a full day, we agreed. I returned to Leanne, the rain had been so intense that the streets were flooded, I had tried to jump form side to side to miss the puddles, but in the end just walked ankle deep through them all. Leanne had been waiting alone at the train station, which I hadn't expected seeing as there were about 30 people there when I left. We picked up our bags, pulled over our poncho's covering us, the large bags on our back and the smaller one's in front and walked briskly to the guest house through the flooded streets - quite a funny sight, exept no-one was awake at that hour. We settled in and took 20 minutes before we were asleep.