Thursday, February 20, 2025

We slept quite well in Le Clos du Fil Hotel in Ninh Bình. We didn't expect that but the room has a very pleasant temperature and the hotel is very quiet. And, when we look outside, it is not raining.
The breakfast is also good, better than in the previous hotel, the Mai Chau Ecolodge.

We have a quiet day today, we are not picked up until 10 am and then we go for a bike ride. Fortunately, they are somewhat better bikes than in Mai Chao, now we have a bike with 8 gears (hub) and with rim brakes and a coaster brake.
After leaving Ninh Binh we take a dirt road that runs past all kinds of restaurants. You can look out over the rice fields on a terrace, and you can learn how to farm in a mountainous area. The surroundings are beautiful, unfortunately it starts to rain, and the road is muddy, but cycling is easy, partly due to the gears. We come back to a paved road and we look at a small temple in honor of a general who defeated the Mongols a long time ago.
We continue, and come to a Buddhist temple, Tam Cốc – Bích Động, at the foot of a mountain, but with a pagoda, which is divided over three floors with the last one at the top of the mountain. Pia goes up with the guide, Tom stays downstairs because of his knee.
Then we cycle through the area a bit more, it is a beautiful area, but the weather makes cycling difficult. We go back to the hotel, on the way the guide loses one of the pedals, he tries to have the bike repaired and comes after us a bit later. Tomorrow at 8 o'clock we will be picked up, the rest of the afternoon we are free.

First we take a hot shower and wash our hair (was on the program for tomorrow but now we have more time).
We go looking for a special deodorant (alum) that we forgot in Mai Chao, but it is nowhere to be found, so we just buy regular Nivea.
And then we go buy socks, we only brought a few pairs from the Netherlands, because we did not expect that we would need socks.
Then we go for a bite to eat, Tom wants baah mi (baguette with filling), Pia takes beef in some kind of leaf. It is a bit disappointing, and the staff is asleep.
There are many massages on offer here in Ninh Binh, we also want a massage. We walk in somewhere at random, friendly people, and they seem to know their trade, not as well as sometimes in Thailand, but good enough.
Across the street is Linh Chi Craft Beer Pub, a specialty beer cafe. The types of beer they have mean nothing to us (the type of beer, but not where it is brewed), so we limit ourselves to a glass of wine and Ha Noi beer. We have the idea that we were cheated with a money-swap trick when paying, but we are not sure; that does not give a good feeling.

Tom wants to eat Italian, because there are two Italian restaurants in Ninh Binh. The first one doesn't look like anything to us, the second one seems better, but the menu is exactly the same as the first one. Pia orders a Vietnamese dish, a kind of yam, and Tom wants to order steak first but decides for Spaghetti Carbonara. The food tastes reasonable.

Finally, just like yesterday, we have a drink at Madam Mai.

Written on: 2025-02-21

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