Hue and Ninh Binh - less culture and more Jenga, please

 01/04/10 - 04/04/10

Hue was an interesting place to visit, but its built-up city centre was a slight let-down after the postcard-perfect appearance of Hoi An. On our first full day in the city we visited the Citadel - the Emperor's palace, built in the 19th C. It is dominated by a massive Vietnamese flag and surrounded by whizzing motorbikes, which look surreal against the backdrop of its ancient walls and moat. The interior is a combination of the grandiose, the sublime and the derelict - chaotic building work alongside stunning pagodas, crumbling ruins beside ponds covered in lotus flowers, tiled plazas, purple columns, peaceful gardens and exhibitions of Ming china.

Somehow the entire day was consumed by the walk there and back and wandering in the gardens, and at some point we came to the decision to boycott the (expensive) trip to Hue's royal tombs we had planned to do the next day. There are really only so many beautiful ancient ruins you can gaze at before deciding that real backpackers absorb the true essence of the city by osmosis, while drinking in a cafe. Or something... We also impulsively decided to get the dreaded night bus to Ninh Binh the next day. (3rd of April)

The rest of Hue passed in a succession of bars and restaurants, where we had an extended games tournament. We competed in the fields of pool, draughts, chess, dominoes and finally, Jenga. The progression from games of skill to those of luck was far from accidental, but rather designed in a futile attempt to reverse my fortunes. During the course of Games Day we encountered a lovely young Vietnamese waiter, who was fascinated by the elaborate cover of my journal. (A present from Emma H!) It has an old-school, days-of-Empire world map on the front and back, and he was completely nonplussed by the fact Vietnam appeared only as part of 'French Indochina'. This led to an awkward conversation in which I tried to explain that this was not in fact the everyday map we use in Britain, but an ironic nod to the past....I'm not sure how well that came across...



The night bus was, if possible, even less comfortable and more stressful than the one to Hoi An, as we had to ensure we woke up at 4am for the brief stop in Ninh Binh before the bus drove on to Hanoi. We disembarked in the pitch black, on a drizzly motorway. One solitary hotel owner was there to greet us, and lead us down a muddy track to his comfortable rooms where we crashed for a few hours. Later that day (4th April), we breakfasted on noodle soup before renting bikes and heading along Highway One to Tam Coc.

Tam Coc is often described as Halong Bay on the rice paddies. It is, apparently, the way now that Halong was hundreds of years ago. It is less impressive than its more famous counterpart, but still  a pretty magical place to visit. The journey on a long-tail boat through the site takes about two hours, and involves travelling through several eerie caves. The scenery is spectacular, and the mist on the day we were there only made the whole experience even more other-worldly. Unfortunately, the pressure from locals to buy souvenirs or give tips is quite insistent, but we resisted and didn't let it detract from the day.

We were back at our hotel by late afternoon, and as Ninh Binh itself was less than spectacular, we made the snap decision to take the local bus to Hanoi that night. It was a dark and stormy night when we arrived, and as a result we ended up in a hotel where the manager was intent on cheating us out of as much money as possible. Details of our thrilling escape to follow!