Ninh Binh & Hue
- mollyben98
- Feb 19, 2018
- 3 min read
Arrived at Ninh Binh train station around 9.30 and packed six of us (and bags) into a four person taxi to Xuan Lai Right View Homestay. Like packing a clown car!
The next day we had breakfast and rented mopeds from the homestay (100,000D pd). Tried to book train tickets to Hue but all full so booked an 11 hour bus for 550,000 each, stopped off at a roadside restaurant for lunch and then went to the Hang Mua Caves - where we climbed 450 steps to the top of the mountain where this incredible dragon statue lies across the top of the ledge. I’d love to have seen how they built it given the sheer drop on either side!
Following the caves we drove through town to Big C supermarket to fill up on snacks for the bus. When we got back to the homestay the owner Xuan Lai (pronounced Sun Li) has a load of friends (who turned out to be police officers) over for dinner and was handing out free shots of rice wine so we had a couple of those (vile) then headed out for dinner at Sunflower restaurant - where we were given more rice wine.
The next day we headed out on the bikes to Trang An caves and took a 3 hour rowing boat around the caves and cliffs, which were rather stunning! For dinner Xuan Lai made us a huge hot pot, where we cooked our own meats in a big stock soup - it was great and cost less than £2 each.
A taxi picked us up from the homestay at 7.30, tried to drop us off at the train station - on which we profusely refused to get out, finally dropping us off at the bus station. Thinking that was our final stop we were then picked up by some random bloke in a 4x4 and taken to a cafe where we waited for an hour and a half before our sleeper bus arrived. Harvey, Daisy and I got the back row with the better leg room with Molly, Joe and Amy just in front. We popped sleeping pills at around 11 and woke up again at 8.30 in Hue. Arriving in Hue we walked round to Nook cafe which was recommended by Harvey’s brother for a nice, big breakfast then got an Uber (17,000D) to Charming Riverside Hotel (£8 pn). I spotted a set of scales in the lobby so weighed myself assuming I’d lost a little weight, turns out I’ve lost nearly two stone in three months! Not the news I was hoping for! We were given welcome drinks and fruit from the reception staff before being shown our rooms.
(My granola at Nook)
In the early afternoon we booked mopeds and baggage transport for the journey across the infamous Hai Van Pass from Hue to Hoi An. We paid 350,000D per bike, including two helmets and two baggage transfers to our hotel in Hoi An. I can’t remember the name of the travel company but it was next door to DMZ bar & hostel if anyone is looking for bikes. We all chilled in the rooms for the majority of the afternoon before dinner at a really nice and cheap Italian restaurant called Risotto, then a few drinks at DMZ bar (Demilitarised Zone) - I won a game of killer pool again. We had to drop the bags off at the bike rental place before 8.15am so we were up early again the next morning. The weather wasn’t looking too promising so we were going to ask about getting a private car instead but it was too late as the bikes had already been bought to the shop. Thank god we didn’t change because the drive was amazing! A light dousing of rain but other than that and a little mist in the mountains, we had relatively clear skies to enjoy the bends and views of the Hai Van Pass - which was heavily featured on the Top Gear Vietnam special.
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