Down South- Nihn Binh

On the national holiday, Kings' Commemoration Day, I went down to Ninh Binh. It's located two hours south of Hanoi and is known for its many rivers and small mountains. I left at 6:15 in the morning to drive down with Thang and a couple from the church. It was a beautiful drive down even though it was cloudy and rainy. When we arrived we went to the woman's home; this is her home town. Then we went out to breakfast to have bun cha, my favorite! They told me that this is better than the bun cha in Hanoi and they were right! It was so good but did taste different than what I have had before.

Thang and I then were able to take her bike to go out to the mountains and rivers! IT WAS BEAUTIFUL. The pictures I took don't even do the place justice at all; it was magnificent! The ride out there was amazing with many mountains and farms.

We went on a three-hour boat ride through the beautiful scenery. We went to one of the main tourist places where you can go on boat rides in this area. There was a huge line of boats along the side of the island of men and women waiting to take people out on the tour. This company has over two thousand boats that they use. During the slow time of the week these men and women will get one ride every five days, maybe, if they are lucky. They do not get paid that much from each ride that they take people on, but they do have to stand in line everyday. They might stand in line all day for nothing because of how many boats they have working.

The man who was rowing our boat was super nice and friendly. He was struggling to row us the whole three hours because he was tired and hungry. The boats were lined with bamboo and were pretty flat.Along the way we were able to stop many times at different temples for many different people like army generals. It was beautiful to see all the old buildings. At one stop we hiked up many stairs up part of the mountain to the other side that had another temple and a person's home. It was very humid and hot to be hiking but was totally worth it! One man from somewhere in Europe looked up the stairs and was like ohh sh**! Haha! I thought it was the funniest thing because I'm sure everyone felt the same way. There was a woman living there with her cute dog!

This sign says no peeing.

We went through more than ten caves, all very different from each other. It was so cool! Some of the caves had low ceilings so we had to crouch down to get through. If you have ever been on the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' ride in Disneyland, then  you know what it felt like to be in those caves. They had lights strung throughout; it made it even better!

I even got to row the boat by myself! They make it look so easy but it was so difficult! I couldn't even row in a straight line and might of ran into some of the grass growing on the side of the river. I did try though!

It was so much fun to just be in this amazing country and to visit the beautiful scenery. As we were floating along the river I started talking picture of the many boats coming from the other direction and this is the result!

After our ride we drove over about thirty minutes to a park to go hiking. The ride was amazing as were right next to the mountains. On the way there closer to the main town area there were many stands that were selling goat. Now you will have to see the picture below to understand why I was in shock. So many stands has goat hanging from their throats, it was interesting! The also sell the blood of the animals in a mater bottle, it was gross. The women didn't want us stopping to take a picture but I got one anyways.

I love being on a back of a motor bike to just see all the life that is going on around me and to be a part of it. I absolutely love it!

The park was big and we had a lot of fun hiking around. At first we went into Mermaid Cave, to get to the entrance you had to hike up then go a little hill then go down into what looked like a hole in the earth. I was a mermaid for a few minutes while walking along a bamboo sticks. They had multi colored lights along the entire cave, again I felt like I was at Disneyland.

We then walked around most of the park going through the orchards and by the resort they have in the park. Because we said we weren't going to use a map we ended up walking the same path almost three times. Karaoke is a pretty big deal here. There were groups of people who were hulling around speakers to project their singing voices for everyone to hear. There was one family that gave the mic to their little son who I swear loved to hear his own voice. You don't see that ever in America, group karaoke while hiking.

Nihn Binh is where King Cong was filmed and I did see it the weekend before. It was cool to see it on the screen and in real life.

We then hiked up to a look out place to see the many birds they have in the park. It was very crowded with kids on a field trip but it was beautiful to see the river from higher up. I'm very grateful that I was able to go and see this beautiful place.

We were then able to eat dinner at the women's families home where we had a lot of good food! I got to try a few new things also, like pig intestines and duck! I do have to say that I didn't really love the intestines but the duck was pretty good. I'm so grateful for my friends that took me and for the amazing experience I had!