The City of Ninh Binh lies south of Hanoi and has something special to offer, however most tourist take the bus and travel straight though to Hue. People who have some interest in Vietnam know the area of Halong Bay with its 100's of lime stone islands rising up out of the bay. The area around Ninh Binh is often referred to as "Halong Bay on land". The Karsts Mountains and rocks rise from the land and the roads wind around them. Amongst this runs a slow running narrow river through rice fields and through caves. Nearby, journeys are offered in rowing boats with women operating the oars with their feet, They take tourist along the river and through the caves and make their living that way.

As we had planned (which was cancelled) to ride via Laos go we decided the Paul & Paul would enjoy the boats today while I stayed behind to write a new travel plan; (I took the ride in the boats in 2013)

From Ninh Binh the road heads south to Vinh and a nearby smaller town right at the beach where we decided stay for the night.

Vinh itself was totally destroyed during the Vietnam War and rebuild with the help of East Germany; you can imagine the style of some of the buildings which are spread around town.

During the day the temperature soared to 38 degrees making riding very uncomfortable; due to the amount of road works with gravel tracks and dust it would be unwise to ride in a T shirt. From Vinh the main road leads to Dong Hoi which is the last bigger city in the old North Vietnam and was head quarters of the Viet Cong during the big push south. Not far from there is the old demilitarised zone with a river marking the old division between north and South Vietnam (not unlike the DMZ of North and South Korea

On the southern side one reaches the city of Dong Ha; once the head quarters of the US and South Vietnamese armies. This area had been a battle zone for many years. Nearby is the US base Khe Sahn, and Hamburger Hill. Just north of the dividing line, right on the coast is a village called Vinh Moc, now famous for its tunnels; entire population lived underground for weeks on end. Even babies were born there, 18 meters below the surface. Living areas we created measuring 1.5 by 2 meters. Very claustrophobic. Above ground there area is still littered with bomb craters; it must have been a very scary time for them

While pulling up in a service station to get some fuel we met 4 guys from the UK; three riding bikes identical to ours and one a scooter. It was very obvious that they didn’t know anything about bikes. We pointed out some very dangerous anomalies on their bikes which they should get seen to immediately. Later in the day we saw them again and they had followed up on our advise. On one bike the chain could easily have jumped the sprocket and jammed the rear wheel, imagine if that happens while overtaking a large truck!

Meanwhile we had arrived at the old north-south border and had a look at the original bridge, the two war memorials. From there it was another 20 km over gravel, potholes, dust ,mud and playing dodgem cars with trucks, cars and other riders. All this is blistering heat of 38 degrees and a closed helmet to keep the dust out. Another great day in Vietnam. (Love it)