Last day in Con Cuong, Vietnam

Well, we haven't seen another westerner for five days... since we left the airport in Da Lat. 

And we also haven't seen any sunshine, at all! It hasn't really rained, it's just been foggy and overcast, with some occasional drizzle. Temperatures have been nice though, with highs around 20C (68F). 

Why this area isn't frequented by western tourists, we have no idea. We were speaking to the girl at the reception desk yesterday (the only one here who speaks reasonable English) asking why the hotel is so quiet. She said that their busy time of year is summer when a lot of Vietnamese tourists from the cities come to the area to take river trips. Also, the hotel does a lot of banquets and conventions, and it's just not the season for it.

It's been really nice for us though. Yesterday, they must have had two or three other guests because they actually put the buffet on for breakfast. There was too much food, but I'm sure the staff must eat well on the leftovers.

We were waiting for the sunshine to appear, but it never did. Eventually, we took off on the rental scooter to do some more exploring.

View from our hotel window on the 8th floor.

Scenery along the way.

Rice fields.

Ruth took a video for you as we were going through a village...

Growing some kind of squash.

Looks like an oversized cucumber.

We were going to have to cross that bridge.

Weir at the Giang River.

We were trying to get to another indigenous village further into the mountains on the Giang River, but once we got across the bridge, the dirt road was in really bad shape, and there was a lot of mud. 

Ruth took a video of us going across the bridge... turn your volume up...

We only made it less than one km, when we had to turn around.

I never did take a photo of the muddy road!

The Giang River.

Scenery along the way.

We had done about 60 kms (36 miles) on some pretty bad roads, and my butt was done from sitting on the scooter. That's enough scootering for us!

We had dinner at the hotel. We went down at about 7:00pm, and kind of felt bad for the staff because they looked like they weren't planning on having guests. But they happily turned the lights on in the restaurant and made us some food. It feels so odd being in such a big hotel (171 rooms) and being pretty much the only guests. And it seems to be fully staffed, so they kind of hover around with a smile waiting to do something for you. 

We had decided that if we woke up to sunshine, we would stay yet another day. But unfortunately it's the exact same fog and mist that we've had since we arrived.

So we're heading back to Vinh on the bus this morning. We are trying to get to Ninh Binh, and there's a train at 11:30am, but I doubt we'll make it. So we'll probably stay overnight in Vinh, and take the train to Ninh Binh tomorrow.

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