Good bye Ha Noi - Hello Nimh Binh

Saturday - 20 April 2013

Hello everyone reading our blog.  Today was our last day in Hanoi and the day we start heading south.  We were awake early and are sad to leave Hanoi as we are sure there is so  much more to see and do and we are sure we will return again one day to Vietnam and explore some more.  We checked out of our guesthouse and caught the taxi to the station for our 2 1/2 hour train ride to Ninh Binh. 

The train was a scream, packed with people (vietnamese, of course) and not the cleanest but comfortable enough for the short trip.  The train ride actually went pretty quick and we arrived in Ninh Binh at 12.30 lunchtime.  A pick up was there to meet us and put us in a taxi and 10 minutes later arrived at our hotel.  Well I have to say its the best accommodation we have had so far.  We are staying at the Ngoc Anh Hotel 2 its a new hotel and the rooms are huge and very palatial ($40 a night)  The shower you could fit an elephant in its so big and the room so clean its amazing.   We checked in, and parked our arses on the bed and watched the AFL footy all arvo, or at least Rick did, I fell asleep.  Its nice to just relax knowing we have nearly 3 days here to do so.   Early in the evening we went to the chicken place across the road to eat (similar to KFC) and went for a long walk as there were night markets on down the road.  Ninh Binh is a big city and its a lot cleaner and the people friendlier than Hanoi.  Not many tourists here as they mostly do the day trips from Hanoi because its so close. 

The hotel is in a perfect location to walk and explore.  The owner of the hotel and staff are great and very helpful.  We gave him a bag of washing which we needed doing and he will have it ready by tomorrow.  He also gave us a local map to find our way around, tomorrow he has booked us a driver for the day to take us to Tam croc so we can go along the river and see the National park and a few temples and other places of interest.  So am looking forward to the day out exploring.  We also asked him if we could pay a bit extra and stay in our room until 8pm on Tuesday as our overnight train to Hue doesn't leave until 9.30pm.  We told him we would pay the extra as it saves us having to check out of the hotel at lunchtime and having to hang around the town waiting hours before we leave.  He was great and said no trouble.  No photos for a couple of days as we have a computer supplied in the room and I can't pick up the wi fi but when we get to Hue will put heaps more photos on the blog.

Anyway time for sleep again, will catch up again tomorrow.

Hope everyone is well back home. Until tomorrow.  C Ya!