Day 228 - Riding in the rain

After our usual start to the day we hopped on another motorbike and set off with Anja and Lars with the intention of seeing some of the specific sites that Ninh Binh is famous for. What we got to see, however, was more of the surrounding countryside in the rain! We were told by our hotel owner that the morning rain should ease by afternoon, so we set off for Kenga floating village first, leaving the best till last. The 5km off road journey along the riverside was really enjoyable, despite the consistent drizzle, and by cruising along at 30km / h we really got to see river life and we often stopped to watch as the pointy hatted farmers did their work. Here are some of the everyday scenes we passed on the way: After missing the turn off to the village, we finally arrived at the bridge at the entrance of the village, only to be met by a group of locals waiting to scam us for some money to enter. We usually don't mind paying entrance fees, when it is official and we know who the money is benefiting, but when a few individuals decide to rip off tourists just because they can, we get a little annoyed. They even tried to make it look like the locals also paid an entrance fee, but we saw the "gate keeper" immediately return the money behind his back!!! So we jumped back on our bikes and headed for the back roads to destination number 2: Hoa Lu, one of the many ancient capitals of Vietnam. This second part of our journey left as cold and saturated as the rain became heavier - even worse for the guys driving as the girls on the back could shelter from the rain and wind!

Driving down one particular stretch of road we noticed that Lars and Anja were no longer following, and we backtracked to find them walking their bike with a local to a repair man down the road - flat tyres suck, especially in the rain! After a quick repair job, we all set off down the road in the direction of Hoa Lu (which also happened to be the direction of home that was looking more and more attractive by the minute)!

We made it back to the hotel and basically spent the rest of the day trying to get warm, drying our clothes, and getting ready for our overnight bus trip. Luckily we had great company in our travel buddies who we have been hanging with for the last week, so we managed to spend the afternoon and evening chatting and eating before saying our goodbyes and clambering on our overnight bus to Dong Hoi.

Adlibing it to nowhere!