North Vietnam 12D11N Day 9

 05/01/2025

Day had to start early.  The weather was cool, morning sun was warm, the kind of comfort which doesn't exist in Singapore.

We had the breakfast place all to ourselves (and 2 resident cats).

Lush of green tinted with gold, awwwwwww... sibei swee this resort.

Doing this blog is such a therapeutic recap before flying again May...

The cats were so skinny, they ate whatever we fed them.

We permitted it to do so, the bread served was too much for us.

But not the pho.

It was 8.30 or 9am, the bikes came to pick us up.  We explored Ninh Binh on bike (with drivers and tour guide).

Rural fresh air was very healing.  I was very fascinated by ducks.

We made memories (in case it doesn't happen any more).

"Fisherman" catching water snails.  Hoped he had good harvest.

Farmers at work.

Breath...

Tam Coc River.

There are 2 famous boat rides in Ninh Binh one is this, another one is Trang An, we took the later the next day.

There were more male boaters here and they rowed with their legs lolxx...

The river had water lilies floating, it was soooooooooo... beautiful, awwwww.....

Next stop was Bich Dong Pagoda and they had water lily bouquets for rent. It was less than S$1, so I went with it, no need to procrastinate.

It was such a big pretty bunch, my sistas weren't too interested though.

See!

My 2 sistas went along with the tour guide to explore further with climbing while I conserved energy.

I bought some keychains from one of the lady.  Probably not the cheapest, but I wouldn't be saving a mountain out of a mole, so yup.

Then... something not too nice happened.  The few older women came scolding the woman who sold me the keychains.  I couldn't understand the language but from the tone, was definitely not friendly nor nice.  Shortly, the poor woman had to leave the venue.  The rest then aimed to persuade me to buy from them too.  One of them tailed me so badly that I had to walk out to shake her off my ass.

But generally Vietnam are still friendly, this was just an incident which could happened any where in other countries.

Sistas and tour guide finally finished with their climb and we took these photos before leaving Bich Dong Pagoda.

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We took a break outside, sat by the pond.  Yes, it's a pond filled with water hyacinth, so it looked like a grass field.  Wonder if anybody fell into it, the thought of it was funny enough.

Should had took a close-up photo of the water hyacinth.

We ordered our drinks, lepak...

A female motorist drove by with a big basket of baguette, we bought one.  The cafe had kindly cut and smeared with condense milk, it was the best food in the world.

We also had some local mochi, not bad but not a fan.

We headed to a farm with a weird name where we had "cooking class".

Tried walking on the narrow bamboo bridge, was too scared to walk farther lolxx...

The cooking class was just wrapping up minced meat fillings (which was already prepared) with rice paper and leaves.  Wasn't fun to me, so I let my sistas did most of the job lolxx...

No idea what leave/veg this was but was delicious after deep frying.  Had the same in Da Nang before.

The kitchen wasn't in the most hygienic, low-key freaked out.

Anyway, lunch was good (and delicious actually), we stomach everything well.

Soaking in rural but maybe not for long term staying.

Duck feeding.  Imagine this was a daily routine for farmers but totally fascinating for us.

The local farmers must be thinking in their mind what's wrong with these tourists.  The duck was slipping off my hands by the way waahaahaa...

Sibei cute de.

We watched them marched in a straight line.

After that they gathered for a nap lolxx...

Pregnant buffalo was very agitated, we fed them only a bit and left quickly.

Next we went to a resident.  Rural was good but not when it's unkept.

We saw 6kg roosters as big as a piglet.

Rice wine making was eye-opening, but the surrounding cringed the hell out of us.

Cast iron pots on charcoal, boiling down for weeks to extract rice wine.

Next we went to see more buffalos and cows.  Was sunset before we left.

Running for my life when a calf walked towards me.  I was worried it might headbutt me lolxx...

😂😂😂

Turned out they were like puppies in bigger version.

Heehee...

Sunset of Ninh Binh, simple and beautiful.

We went back to the resort for dinner.

Norm noms.

Ate more stuffs we bought from the supermarket previously.

Yellow dragon fruit was very sweet and inexpensive.

Semi soupy brinjal + tofu.

Rice with stir fried goat meat.  The 3 of us were weight conscious, trying not to eat too much.

We had macadamia nuts which came with shells.  We tried to open them up with bare fingers, with spoon, with fork, with knife all silly... then we found a little heart shaped blunt blade in the can.

The best macadamia nuts we ever had in our lives.

Next day was, climbed till I vomit at Mua Caves, then we moved back to Hanoi.

Side track - 

After my Surabaya/Bali trip in May, my travels for the rest of 2025 will depend greatly on GD World Tour concerts, as in whichever cities I manage to grab hold of.  I am hoping to go for 2 (I know I shouldn't but I am obsessed, it's my new obsession since Nov 2024).  If pocket hurts too much, I may have to postpone our Christmas Lapland trip, haiz...

I need a printing machine to print notes heehee...