Day 16 - 22/04/2018 - Ninh Binh

Today we travelled to the province of Ninh Binh, known as the Halong Bay on land due to the large limestone formations that rise up from the ground in this area. We met our guide for today Toan and began the 2.5 hour drive to Ninh Binh. It didn't take long to realise we had definitely done the right  thing asking for a different guide. Toan was fantastic.

We stopped part way for a coffee/bathroom break and there was also a store selling these amazing images, on the wall they look like paintings but on closer inspection they are actually made with thread. The job of making these artworks is give to handicapped people who sit in the store making these incredible pieces of art.

I really liked them and decided to purchase one. 

There are many cement factories and you could see the side of many mountains where they mine the cement

These are the houses of the owner of the largest cement company in this area, they actually look more like palaces than houses. The two at the front are for each of his sons and he is now building himself an even bigger house behind.

Many of the houses around Hanoi are very narrow and multiple stories high, the land is expensive so people buy narrow blocks and build up higher.

I have left these photos smaller as you probably don't want to look too closely but the signs for each type of wine indicate what has been added to the rice wine. Yes they actually do drink these, our guide said they have a slightly fishy taste, I will take his word for it and steer clear of any infused wines and stick to wine made from grapes!!!

 We picked up bikes and rode with a local farmer to her farm as well as a plot of rice she had a veggie garden, fish pond and chickens.

Playing a game with a weed flower, the aim is to hit the other persons flower bud off first, Malayah was the overall winner.

A bit hard to see but the chickens are in  here

 

We then rode to Linh the farmers house where she prepared lunch for us. The kids were given some hot chips which they ate with the chopsticks. Of course our kids enjoyed the chips but were more interested in eating the other food.

We then rode to Van Long, the area of Ninh Binh where large limestone formations rise up out of the land. We were paddled around on boats, hard work for the people rowing. The scenery was spectacular.

The tide was low so we were able to row inside a cave.

The guy rowing our boat kept saying what sounded like 'elephant', we were a bit confused until Sam finally spotted the rock that was shaped like an elephant.

Trying to help the lady by using the umbrellas as sails

 

Heading back to Hanoi after an amazing day.

Grab is like an Uber, there were a lot of these near the bus station in Hanoi.

While Vietnamese food is delicious we all really needed some western food, Sam and Malayah discovered a Steakhouse near our hotel, we had a really enjoyable meal, just what we all needed.