Wednesday 13th May

After being brave the night before and deciding to risk are lives on the roads of Vietnam on the back of a motorbike (with helmets don't panic mum!!) we set off to Tam Coc. Tam Coc is known as "Halong Bay on the rice paddies" for it's huge rock formations jutting out of the vibrant green rice paddies Tam Coc definately gives Halong Bay a run for it's money!! We hired a rowing boat to take us around the caves for two hours, rowed by two ladies. We thought we were safely away from people trying to sell us things, but we thought wrong the second lady seemed to produce craft work out from no where and try to sell us it!! Then at the end they had no embrassment in asking directly for tip, we didn't buy any craft work but we did tip as it was very hot and look like very hard work. Tam Coc was absolutly stunning we were very pleased we had decided to stop in Ninh Binh for 2 nights on the way to Hue.

After Tam Coc we got back on the motorbikes and they took us to a small temple which was very cute, the buddist leader gave us banana's (a bit soft for my liking!) and tea and then he proceeded to smoke a bong (not what I expect from a man of relgion lol). From here we were taken to a Pagoda which was built into the caves, which was interesting.

We went to a local resturant for lunch, we tried goat here it seemed to be there speciality it was actually much nicer than we expected it to be!! After lunch we were then taken to another pagoda on a hill. At this point one of the driver told us to look at how far up it was before we paid as he was worried we were tired (we had to explain we weren't tired just very hot and sweaty but we'd be fine to walk up). It was a very hard climb up but was really worth it when we reached the top the views were fantastic lots of stunning pictures!!

The last stop of the day was Hoa Lu, Hoa lu was the capital of Vietnam under the Dinh dynasty and the Le Dynasties. Most of the ancient citadel of Hoa Lu has been destroyed, but there was of course a temple to visit so we had a quick look around (were a little templed out!!) before heading back to the hotel.

Thursday 14th May

Today was the second day of our motorbike tour today's destination was Cuc Phuong National Park which is 45km away from Ninh Binh so we had a long ride to get there which was a bit hairy at times!! Once we arrived it was again a beautiful place to be and I have never seen as many butterflies in my life it was a truly lovely sight to see. First stop was to see a temple in the cave. We then got back on the motorbikes and then we stopped where we were told "we walk now" so that was fine, so we started the trek which was very steep we were glad we put are trainers on, after an hour we were still walking and didn't really know what we were going to see (the drivers english wasn't as good as the man's the previous day) after another half an hour of walking he suddenly turned to me and said "look the thousand year old tree" so we'd walked all that way to see a bloody tree!! The walk down was quiet wet and steep and poor Suzie managed to slip, so not only was she very sweaty as I was, but she also now had a muddy bum that tree has alot to answer for!! (Total walk 8km).

After lunch we were then taken to see a village called Kenh Gad which is a village on water, it felt like seeing the real vietnam here all the locals were busy working, washing themselves and there clothes in the river it a was a real busy little village very enjoyable driving up and down the small roads seeing the local life.

We then returned to the hotel had some dinner and showered ready for are overnight sleeper bus to Hue which left at 21.30.