This time when the alarm went off at 6:15 I got up. Jono was a bit slower so I went on deck to find the Tai Chi class. Edwina also came and one other lady. We were a very small group as we worked through the movements and the sun rose over the karsts.
At the end of the class I found Jono was behind me, he thought he'd caught most of the class. It was fun doing tai chi, a gentle way of getting moving in the morning. The class guide had very expressive hands and it was obviously important which way fingers and palms were pointing and that all movements were fluid. The slow movements meant we could follow him really easily although I'm sure we didn't look as graceful!
Breakfast was a buffet of croissants, cereal, fruit, fruit juices or coffee, more of a quick bite before we left at 7:30 on the tender to visit the floating fishing village. Not everyone who had arrived the previous day on the one night trip chose to come which I thought was surprising but Maggie, Ben, Edwina, Simon, Jono and I were all present.
The Treasure Junk, seen from the tender
The tender took us across a short distance to where a floating pearl farm was. We then got into small boats, rowed in the forward style we have seen throughout Vietnam, by a woman. The 6 of us got in one boat and then we set off through the karsts.
It felt very Harry Potter ish, as the rower was behind us it seemed the boats moved through the water by magic. It was very quiet, we could hear the birds on the karsts and the occasional splash of water.
The rowers, predominantly female, took us through a floating fishing village, lots of the houses had dogs and interestingly the houses weren't all together. Rather small groups of houses were together separated from another small group. A bit like having different streets. This village used to have a primary school until 2014. Duy had told us that families in villages had hard choices to make. The schools were on the mainland. If they stayed in the village, their children couldn't be educated. If they moved to the mainland they had no way of earning a living. The government gave free housing to families who stayed on the mainland for 5 years to allow their children to go to school but many families didn't stay. The way of life is too alien for them.
Back at the pearl farm we were shown different types of oyster, told about how they are farmed and watched an oyster being seeded so it will produce a pearl. 50% of oysters die after this and another 30% don't produce a pearl. In all only 10% give a reasonable pearl. We were then shown a tank with closed oysters in, I was asked to pick one and it was opened, this one contained a pearl and I was told we were lucky. The whole of the oyster is used, the meat is eaten and the shell made into jewellery or used as inlay.
Opening the oyster I had chosen
the pearl farm
being shown different types of oyster
seeding an oyster
finding a pearl
Next door was a large pearl shop with pearls of all shapes, sizes and colours strung as necklaces and earrings. Edwina was looking for earrings to match a necklace she already had. In one corner I found a few necklaces and earrings made from the shells and as all the sellers were intent on people looking at pearls I was able to browse in peace!
We were the last people back on the tender after buying the oyster shell jewellery.
Back on the treasure junk we were asked to pack and check out of our cabin so the crew could prepare them for the people who would get on as soon as we got off. The treasure junk began to sail back to port and we were served a buffet brunch, another amazing meal where I finally got to have pho, along with several other dishes.
Pho is delicious, its a fish stock based soup served at breakfast and can contain meat or fish as well as vegetables
The tender had to make 2 journeys into the port to get us all off Treasure Junk, our group of 6 were on the second journey so we said our goodbyes as we waited.
Back on the mainland we walked to the same cafe we had stopped in on the way out to wait while the bus to take everyone back to Hanoi arrived. We picked up a couple of snickers bars as we knew dinner would not be until after 8 that evening and we had eaten our brunch about 10am! Duy was really good, when we told him we were heading off to Ninh Binh he phoned up our company for us, found our driver and made sure we were handed over before he left.
Our private tour guide, booked through Asiatica travel, was called Nam. He introduced our driver as Mr So although I am still not sure whether that was one word or two or indeed how it is spelt.
It's a 4 to 5 hour journey to Ninh Binh, often known as Halong Bay inland as it has the same karst landscapes but they rise out of paddy fields instead of the sea. I'd put a lot of planning into the next two days and sent a detailed itinerary to the tour company as there were specific things we wanted to get to. Nam had the itinerary and he checked things with me. One of the things on it was mass. I had found a Catholic church in Ninh Binh with mass at 19:00 but he thought there were lots of churches and he wanted to know if it had to be that particular church. I said I didn't mind which church as long as it was Catholic and it had a mass on. I knew Ninh Binh was a big Catholic area with a cathedral in a nearby town and over 140000 Catholics in the area. He then rang a friend of his, checked the internet and told me my choice of masses was indeed 19:00 on Saturday or 05:00am on Sunday morning. I think we all agreed the Sat evening was a better choice.
Nam was talkative and the first part of the journey went fairly quickly. We stopped at the Vietnamese equivalent of a motorway service station to give the driver a break after a few hours.
This was like a large shop with some toilets at the rear. In the ladies there were 4 open squatting stalls that used to have screens at some point in the past but these were all broken and useless now. To the side were two normal toilets but the door lock on at least one of them didn't work. It wasn't the best set of loos! Nam and our driver had disappeared so we looked around the shop to stretch our legs.
The shop sold all sorts of foods, sweets, carved wooden objects, sunglasses and toys. Most of the foods we couldn't tell if they were raw or cooked, savoury or sweet or what they contained. Luckily we weren't that hungry still so just picked up some ice cream and a packet of dried mango. These things we were sure of!
There was a large number of Vietnamese around when we arrived but all of a sudden they boarded their bus and the place was empty. Immediately the lights in the shop were turned off as they waited for the next bus to arrive.
We had a 30 minute break and then were off again. Nam and Jono both had a little sleep.
Overladen motorbikes are common sights
When we got to Ninh Binh Nam and our driver drove to the church first, stopping to ask directions from some men playing a boardgame on the pavement. Nam wanted to be sure we had the right place and time. Funny enough it was the church I'd researched online from the UK.
Our bed for the night at Tam Coc Rice fields lodge resort was just 15 minutes away and we stopped there to check in and unload our bags. The rooms were made of bamboo, closed with a padlock and had plenty of gaps around the edges. Sound proof they weren't. Luckily the beds had mosquito nets around them although later on we did find two small holes in ours!
padlock to close doors
beautiful wood table
Bathroom with a large glass wall
huge walk in shower
outside our accomodation
We had just 20 minutes before we were back in the car to go to Thung nham bird park. This wasn't far away, Nam dealt with getting the tickets and our driver dropped us at the entrance. This is a lovely park and lots of Vietnamese were out strolling through it. Nam set quite a pace and took us quickly through to where the boat rides to see the birds set out. We passed a few couples having wedding photographs and he explained this wasn't their wedding day, it is the custom to have the photos done the month before the wedding so they don't interfere with the day and the photos are used as part of the day.
Celebrating international women's day
photos taken before the wedding day
We got in the boat, again rowed forwards by a woman, along with some young children and their mothers and rowed towards where the herons and cranes came flying back to their nests in the evening. It was quite a sight seeing the waves of birds fly in and settle in the trees.
Jono and Nam
Our rower
After the boat ride Nam walked us quickly out to the exit again. I asked him about seeing the mermaid cave we had passed on the way in but he dismissed it and didn't seem to know what I was talking about. I wish I'd insisted a bit harder, when I had the chance to reconnect to the internet it was one of the places I had read about and wanted to see. Nam instead took us to Bich Dong Pagoda ( on our itinerary for Sunday) which was stunning. Its a three tier pagoda with the middle tier in a cave and was around 400 years old. Nam explained the difference between temples and pagodas, how he worshipped, about the money left in the boxes and the burial rituals of the country. Bodies are buried for 3 years and then dug up, the bones cleaned and burnt and then reburied above water in raised shrines. He had helped a friend dig up his uncles body the previous week and particularly mentioned the smell.
Gateway
Lower pagoda
Tombs
After the pagoda we went back to Ninh Binh to the church. The 3 men dropped me off and went to a bar until mass had finished. Nam insisted on buying the drinks. The church stood in open grounds with a grotto to Mary on one side. All the trees were lit up and there was a lovely big statue just outside the main doors. There weren't many people inside so I slipped into a pew and waited. Vietnamese is such a tonal language that the mass sounded almost as if the priest and people were singing it to each other, and when they were actually singing it was extremely beautiful. It wasn't until communion that I realised that the women were sat on the left hand side of the church and the men were on the right. I was sat on the men's side. I'd never been in a segregated church before!
Afterwards Jono met me and we started to walk across the open space in front of the church when lots and lots of motorbikes and cars came hurtling around from the back of the church to go out the front gates. We were caught in the middle of them.
Safely back at the car, Nam explained there was no room for him where we were staying so he was being dropped off in town, our driver would take us to the lodge and pick us up at 8:30 the next morning and bring us to him for our bike ride. Back at the lodge we went for our dinner at the restaurant.they were basically finished for the evening, with the only other customers leaving as we arrived. Our first choices they couldn't do as they had run out of ingredients but they made pho for Jono and spring rolls for me. Inexplicably a big bowl of steamed rice also appeared but then the Vietnamese do think rice belongs in at least one meal every day.
After dinner we wrapped our bed with the mosquito net and ,as the night was surprisingly cool ( and the duvet quite small), grabbed another duvet to keep us warm. Due to the gaps in the bamboo we also got to listen to the other guests arriving back to their rooms but it all quietened down quite quickly.
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