The Life of Brad

In this part of the trip I left Da Nang for a stop in Hue on the way North to Ninh Binh a tranquil, but touristy spot with a lot to see. After that it was off to Cat Ba the new alternative to Ha Long Bay which apparently has lost its luster. Both of these stops are only hours from Hanoi the capital of Vietnam located in the North section of the country.

Day 23-25. Ninh Binh, which I took a midday train to Hue to have a look around for 4 hours before catching an overnight train to my destination. I decided to do it this way as the 2.5 hr coastal train from Da Nang to Hue is very good and Hue itself is supposed to be a good stop.

Goodbye Da Nang

This guy's moving out too

Central Station where I arrived.

Going to be a long day

Looks like a biker gang

Linh Ung Pagoda in distance

Train tunnel

Near the Hue station along the water

Walking along the banks of the Perfume River in Hue.

Flag of the Royal Palace in the distance

Carrying all my stuff 2 km to the Palace

Royal Palace

Not getting in with all my gear

Beautiful tourist shot with my gear in photo

Grabbed dinner nearby so I could see the lights

Lovely walk back to the night in route

All playing "de Cau" a shuttlecock Hacky Sack

Odd to have this kinda party area near the train station. Not sure if this guy was high or drunk, but he probably shouldn't be on a motorbike! Clearly Vietnamese driving under influence rules are still a little loose.

Back on the train for a relaxing nights sleep ... NOT! My roommate was the worst snorer I have slept near including Luz, haha. The old death snore every 1 to 3 minutes with out rhythm.

Can't sleep with this snoring. I actually yelled at this guy at 3am where he tried to give me his headphones. Poor fellow knew he had an issue which I can understand, but the fact that he had to sleep 12 hrs I can't understand! Come on man, give me a few hours of quiet.

This is the higher end train in Vietnam.

Bad events make for great travel stories...If the snoring was consistent no problem, but it was like every 45 seconds or 2 minutes it was like he was snore / choking / coughing...worst I have ever heard.

It was comfy enough

Ninh Binh for the next few days to explore what all the excitement is about as every traveller said I had to go here.

Central Station Ninh Binh

My daddy rents scooters

3rd one is a charm

Left Ninh Binh

For Tam Coc 6km Southwest

Tam Coc is a better base closer to mountains

The mountains

$12 a night, comfy. Garden Sun Homestay

Good local recommendation "Bamhmi Minhkhoi"

Always a lake with boats to rent

Road out of town

Nice to be exploring on 2 wheels

Tourist time, Trang An River boat tour to check out some caves which I would later realise Cat Ba had also. "Same same, but different". So yeah for $15 it was not incredible value, but hey the lady paddled us the whole way!

Without smiles we still had fun, haha

Temple stop for 10 minutes on the tour

Low light shooting not so good

One kilometre cave with low headroom

A few photos from the drive back

A little karaoke run by the enthusiastic owner. Funny though they added 10% to everyone's bill for the show/machine...Percent charging seems very odd. Imagine if you came for dinner and a bunch of drinks and I only came for a few drinks. Your karaoke would cost like $15 to my $2. Punished for drinking and eating at the establishment.

A quick rip around before checking in to my other hotel a little more central. Had the opportunity to help out a few Dutch girls. First time riding 3 up on a scooter!!!

Unfortunately I was wearing the left side...

You're welcome

View from common balcony at new hotel.
Not very accommodating nor welcoming place.
Vi Hotel...not recommended

Like a rat in a cage

All checked in so took my motorbike for a rip Northwest to check out a floating village Kenh Ga and anything else I could simply enjoy free of charge. Awesome 5 hour riding afternoon.

Bring some popcorn of course

Not sure why I got so excited about my first tunnel on a scooter.

Those rim and string sunnies

Decent size boats on the river

Large bridge out of nowhere

Now we are getting somewhere!

Afternoon traffic

Cool little floating village and no tourists!

double bridge, one for heavier traffic?

Why not more duck in Canada?

Just a great afternoon!

Bai Dinh Pagoda

Got close, but ran out of daylight

Not really cold, maybe 23C

So many odd contrasts

Tam Coc is just over there

Going the back way hoping to get home

yikes...

Dinner reward, yes

Had to have duck even after
I already had the vermicelli

Day 26-29. Off to Cat Ba for some beach time...? since it is on the coast up near South China should be beautiful blue water, hahaha. I should have known there would be a lot of industry near by.

included breaky was good

As I mentioned, lots of rules type hotel

load'r up

Motorbike returned, on to bus

comfy, but no toilet again

It's really not that cold

industry

big business

According to google we are driving on water

Huge gondola for what I'm not sure.

For wind or not enough people the gondola
didn't seem to be moving

Let me see, what is this place...where is the touristy spot?

tight parking on ferry

Stocked cantina on the boat

Two different colour seas?? Likely from dredging

Shipping tanker struggling to
fit in the port area!

Should be the end of the industrial area

I stand corrected. Booked beach front Mqnh Vuong hotel to find this. Building up the beach area
to put more hotels and restaurants which completely screws the groups with beachfront...???

I really need to push for better views...

What this would have been a few years back...

Cat Ba "Full Moon Party Tour" company - This is absolutely a Great value!! It was $30 for the whole day, lunch, kayaking, swimming, fishery tour, monkeys and secret swimming holes. Don't forget starting the day off right with a huge slide in to the sea. By sunset we were all spent!

Lots of groups from everywhere.

Cat Ba Archipelago

Nice big boat with incredible bathrooms

fish farmers

I make weird sounds

Jump right in to unknown waters

A bunch of us swam over to this secret spot

On the other side away from the boats

Great tour already

I had the only camera and shared to dropbox.

200 m swims to start the day

We were not the only ones

Next up...Kayaking

Nice spot, but loaded up with boats and tourists.

These two Scotties were hilarious

My Dutch boat buddy

Fantastic lunch!

Fish farm tour

Donnie is so cute!

Why would they farm piranhas?

Grouper?

Might be Donnie's favourite part of the day!

How no one falls in I have no idea

making pearls, etc

On to Monkey Island

They are actually a little aggressive

As high as I could go with out footwear

Others went all the way

Another good size swim, but at the end...uff

Someone got bit by a monkey, shit!

What an amazing day!

Manti shrimp and clams and home made wine

Mantis the before photo

The Bigman Bar

Only show in town

Kiwi Mia

Kiwi Carter

Balloon fun on Carter!

No idea???

Moved to another hotel for the final night or two chilling before going to Hanoi, my final stop. Cat Ba was incredibly affordable for a touristy spot especially when looking at Hanoi prices coming up...

The Grand Budapest, $11

With a mountain view, haha

Finally rented a motorbike for a rip around the main island ($4)...They always come empty and you of course need to make a gas calculation. 2 litres for the day should do it, like 55km.