Ninh Binh, Vietnam

We spent 4.5 hours on the bus returning from Halong Bay to Hanoi. We stopped off at a tourist pit stop; a place where many tourist products are on show. There is also a sculpture park with prices of how much it costs to ship the scupptures to your home town....worldwide. 28 days, $45 to send one to Brisbane.
We arrived back at our Hanoi hotel and immediately we were taken to a waiting spot for out bus bound for Ninh Binh. We all crammed into a minibus - not enough seats for the number of passengers but we all chatted about travel routes and trips to our fellow passengers. We arrived at the bus travel office and were ushered onto an amazing lying down bus. The 'Camel coach' company had clearly oversold its tickets. We waved at some of our minibus mates as we drove off. The bus was going as far south as Hue - 15 hours or so. We were to be off the bus in just 2 hours. The tv screens in the bus were showing a strange musical show with singing and dancing.
We predicted that the bus would dump us out on the street and we would have to search for a taxi to our hotel, but as we arrived there was a car waiting. Our lucky travels continue!
We arrived at our amazing hotel: Ngoc Ann 2 hotel. The owner could not be more helpful. He talked us through our options for a one day tour..we paid $25 each for a car and guide for th day.



        One day tour - Ninh Binh
Our first stop was the boat trip up the river at Tam Coc..as we arrived, we were greeted by a sea of school children. They were thrilled to see us and to practise their 'Hello, how ar you?' English.
We were in the boats for over a hour, snaking our way through rice paddy lined bends in the river..we were surrounded by looming limestone pillars, mountain goats climbing the cliffs. Such a beautiful place. The boat drivers were using their feet to power the oars, various techniques were witnessed. We skimmed under low caves that were pitch black before being guided out into the sunlight. The rice paddies were so green, a perfect time to see them so luscious.
There  were photographers on the river who take your picture. They then run off, print and laminate them befor tacking you down further into your day tour to sell you them at an inflated tourist price. We later saw a laminator machine built into the back of a motorbike....but of course!