Paul was equipped with his headphones and music for the "sleeper" bus to Ninh Binh, but I only had earplugs. So, when the toilet door started banging and the toilet kept flushing every two minutes by itself I couldn't get back to sleep. We were dropped off at 5am outside town, a taxi driver offered to drop us off at our hotel for 50,000 VND (£1.45), which was a bargain - not sure I would get up in the middle of a drizzly night for £1.45. On arriving at our hotel Canh Dieu, I wasn't too optimistic that it would be open and it had started to rain. We were in luck, not only did the concierge let us in, but he also made us hot ginger tea. He said that the hotel was full, but he would have a room for us at 08:30 - brilliant! We had breakfast while they prepared a room for us and then we went for a sleep to catch up. Ninh Binh town is not at all geared up for westerners, at least we got a sense of an unspoilt, authentic Vietnamese town. In the afternoon, we wandered around for an hour trying to find somewhere to eat, either the restaurants didn't have a menu or they specialised in one thing that we didn't fancy. We ate at the hotel in the end and would have to look for somewhere decent on Tripadvisor. Paul got us a room upgrade as our original room backed on to the railway and was a bit noisy and the extractor fan wasn't working so the bathroom and the room were a bit damp. Our new room was lovely and bright and quiet and dry. The weather was a bit drizzly, but we were going to get out anyway. On day 2, we hired bikes - $5USD for two (not free this time!). We headed out to a place called Mua Cave - dancing cave - only about 35 minutes cycling away. The cave wasn't too exciting, but there was a lovely lake with a bridge over it and the setting was picturesque. There was a walkway up a hill to a buddhist shrine with some stunning views. The hilltop gave us a view of limestone karsts straddling green plains with a river snaking through the middle (see photos). The view we had was over Tam Coc, which we would later do as a boat trip. We discovered that the number one restaurant in Ninh Binh, Trung Tuyet was opposite the railway station behind our hotel - a 5 min walk. It is a bit basic, but is run by two lovely young girls who wait on while their parents cook. It had various portion sizes for each meal - small was more than enough for one person. They served you with free sweet snacks before your meal and with free orange segments at the end. I had a Ninh Binh speciality Com Chay (plain rice crispy cakes) served with a warming sweet tomato and chicken soup - weird and lovely. Paul had sweet and sour pork with very lean and tender pork. Other delights were beef in tonnes of ginger, meat spring rolls and banana pancakes - we ate here every night. The next day we cycled 8kms to Trang An - number one attraction on Tripadvisor - We went to look at it the previous day and it was rammed with Hanoi tourists at midday. We went early and shared a boat with three Vietnamese tourists. It was 150,000 VND (£4.34 each) for the boat trip. The trip was three hours long and took us on a wooden rowing boat through around 6 or 7 river caves under the Karsts. The misty weather added to the atmosphere, the rower rowed with her hands then deftly switched to rowing with her feet when she got tired. There were two stops at buddhist temples. The boat trip was so relaxing and gave us great views of the karsts. We tipped the rower, but the Vietnamese didn't. The next day we decided to cycle 20kms out of town to a towering pagoda, Bai Dinh. Unfortunately, my research was not thorough enough. Temples are usually free, but this one had been turned into a real tacky tourist trap. They built a huge wall around the complex and there was no entrance unless you used their golf buggies at 30,000 VND each plus a charge for parking the bikes. As the pagoda was looking less than attractive, we decided against going in - we just enjoyed the rest of our countryside cycling. By the end of the day, I was a little bit saddle sore with some nasty blisters - the 40km cycle ride had taken its toll. We would have to walk on our final day. We walked for an hour and a half into the countryside to do the Tam Coc boat trip. This had been slated on Tripadvisor for being a real hassle with photographers trying to sell photos of you on the boats, drink sellers trying to get you to buy drinks for your rower and boat rowers touting their own wares. We went early to avoid the crowds and hopefully the hassle. At 10.30 the place was empty, we got tickets at 180,000 VND £5.22 each. The ticket booth had a sign saying "No more than 2 westerner tourists per boat". We had a boat to ourselves with a lady rower, she thought we were french and kept talking in french to us. There was only one photographer out on the water and so we politely said no - no further hassle there! The boat took us on a 6km round trip - 3kms along the river and through 3 caves and back again. The views were more spectacular than Trang An as the waterway was wide with rice paddies at the edges of the river. Sheer karsts lined the river all the way along. We saw mountain goats clambering up the karsts, we also saw eagles and kingfishers as well as the plentiful white egrets and ducks. At the half way point the boat reached the notorious drink sellers. "Would you like coffee?", "no Thanks" "Madam would you like beer?", "No thanks" This went on until she had gone through her whole range. Then she asked if we would buy a drink for the driver as 6kms was a long way and she would be tired and thirsty. We said we would be giving her a tip instead. The drink seller pulled a face and told the driver about the tip. Apparently, the deal is that they sell the stuff to you then the rower hands the stuff back, unused, to sell again and gets a cut. We carried on back the way we came. So peaceful with the river practically to ourselves. Our rower then tried to sell us her wares. I said "No thank-you", so that was the end of the hassle. Not a problem really. The driver asked us for the tip 20 metres before the shore-line - thankfully, I had 50,000 VND ready. Not sure we would ever have reached shore if We had gone back on our promise! The hour and a half long ride was great and made for some great photos. We carried an along the road a further 3kms to Bich Dong temple (sort of pronounced Bit Dom). It was a series of temples at several levels on the side of a hill. A ground level temple, then steps up to another temple, then steps through caves to another level. The last level was a climb up sharp, slippy and on this day, muddy rocks to the top. Paul made a start and deemed it too dangerous to continue. After a few photos we headed back, in the rain for the two hour walk home. On our last evening at Trung Tuyet restaurant, they gave us ginger flavoured boiled sweets and a powdery sesame sweet (a bit like halvah) for our bus journey the next day - very generous. The next day the bus broke down after 300m, a quick repair job to the clutch had us on our way again. Paul fought off almost amorous advances and attempts at arm wrestling from the friendly male bus conductor. The sweets were a hit with our fellow Spanish and Russian passengers on the way to Cat Ba island - the biggest island in Ha Long bay, our next stop.