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I was meant to start my voluntary work at Peace Village day care centre on Monday. However, the manager of the centre was on holiday until Wednesday, meaning the necessary paperwork could not be completed- there's a surprising amount of bureaucracy in Vietnam, considering how laid back they generally are (e.g standard 3 hr lunch break!).
As Alice and I had two days off (Emily is at a different project), we took the opportunity to take a day trip to Ninh Binh, a small town south of Hanoi. We took the train from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, a two and half hour journey. The train was about 30 carriages long- nothing like the trains from Barnstaple! The journey was a bit uncomfy as we had hard wooden seats and there was no air conditioning, but we were sat opposite two lovely vietnamese teenagers who kept us entertained, using alice's vietnamese phrasebook to ask us lots of questions.
On arriving in Ninh Binh, we had lunch at Xuan Hoa Hotel, highly praised in our guidebook for its food. We were not disappointed; we ordered the set lunch which included rice (no surprises there!), spring rolls, veg, and barbecued beef. To our astonishment, the marinated meat was brought out raw, and we were giving a mini stove to barbecue the beef ourselves, with metal chopsticks!!! It was a lot of fun, and the meal was delicious.
We then hired some bicycles from the hotel and cycled to the main attraction of Ninh Binh: Tam Coc. To get there, part of the journey was on the highway, which was similar toa British dual carriage way, but without lanes or any concept of the highway code!! We cycled as far right as we could but we still had lorries charging past us at very close proximity, blaring their deafening horns at us. There was also some motorbikes driving on the wrong side of the road, so it was rather a stressful experience! However, once we got off the highway, we cyclyed down down much quieter road through the rice paddies, the scenery was lovely.
Once we arrived, alive (!), we boarded a small wooden boat to journey up the Ngo Dong River. It was an amazing experience; the rower controlled the oars with her feet, which was cool to watch, and the landscape was beautiful. The river flows between huge limestone outcrops, looming ominously under the dark clouds. At one point the route took us through one of the mountains into a cave- for a few minutes we were in utter darkness before emerging out the other side- It was a little bit scary as I kept thinking that this would be the perfect time for a murderer to strike!! Totally irrational, I know! I blame mum and dad for making me watch so many crime dramas!
After the boat trip we cycled along a quiet road to a nearby temple. Riding through the peaceful farmland was lovely after the chaos of Hanoi. We saw some mountain goats on the way!
Back in Ninh Binh, we had dinner at a 'posh' two star hotel called Ngoc Anh. I'm afraid we weren't very good ambassadors for the UK! We showed up all dirty and sweaty from our cycle, ordered chips and salad for dinner (the only non-Vietnamese option on the menu!), I split my drink and then had a very long and rather loud episode of hiccups! Oh well!
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