Out for a bike ride, then off to the big city of Hanoi

On Monday, our train to Hanoi didn't leave until just after 4:00pm, so we had most of the day to do some more exploring.

We rented a couple of bicycles and decided to ride up to the tourist boat port of Trang An just to see some different scenery and check out the area.

The right place, at the right time!

The highlight of the Ninh Binh area are the various boat tours that take you through the scenery and caves. There are quite a few options to sort through, and various routes to choose from. 

I did a lot of research, and we had made our choice and planned on doing a boat tour on Monday morning when it would be less busy. But it didn't turn out that way, and we're glad that we were in the right place at the right time to do things a little differently!

There's a reason it's busy here

There's not much to see in the actual town of Ninh Binh itself. But that's what people use as the transportation hub. Most of the hotels and restaurants are in the popular area at the town of Tam Coc, about 6 kms (3.7 miles) away.

And the reason Tam Coc is popular is because of the scenic geography with small rives flowing through three cave systems. The big attraction is a boat trip through the caves, although we are saving that for Monday when it will be less busy.

We found all the tourists!

And they are here in Ninh Binh. Every last one of them, apparently!

We woke up to another drizzly day in Vinh. You could tell it had rained quite a lot overnight, but fortunately we missed that and it was just drizzling a bit when we left for the train station.

February Expenses

Our expenses did pretty well in February, all things considered.

We had a budget of $2,385 CAD, and we spent $2,457 CAD ($1,810 USD) for the month. And the extra was solely related to our decision to fly from Da Lat to Vinh instead of taking buses. Without that, we actually would have been under budget. So we're really pleased with that.

One of the best meals we've had in Vietnam!

On Thursday, we took the minivan back to the city of Vinh. We simply went and stood on the main street. We were actually waiting for the number 31 bus that runs between Con Cuong and Vinh, but there are also the same system of minivans that we took to get to Con Cuong in the first place. And we were only at the stop for five minutes before one came along, so we hopped in it.

It was quite a bit quicker going back. We must have got in the "express" van, because it didn't make nearly as many stops as the one we took going up, and it was a little more expensive, at 120,000 dong ($4.90 USD, $6.60 CAD) per person for the two hour and twenty minute ride.

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). 

We had the waterfall all to ourselves!

We did a little better for our included breakfast, as they brought us a big plate of chicken and egg fried rice and vegetables. Not fantastic, but at least we started the day with full stomachs!

Once again, the sun never made an appearance. The temperature is fine, nice and cool with a high of about 20C, but it drizzled with rain on and off. Not enough to stop us from going out exploring on our rented scooter!

Beautiful scenery in this rarely visited part of Vietnam

Our fancy hotel room is supposed to be "breakfast included". But of course nowhere does it say exactly what you'll get for breakfast. 

There were no guests in the dining room when we went down about 8:30am. As I mentioned yesterday, the place is very quiet. But there are a lot of staff around, and they are all very pleasant and cheerful.

If you are going to splurge, it's best to do so in a cheap country!

We had arranged with a "limousine service" to take us from Vinh to Con Cuong. I already knew that the word limousine here in Vietnam doesn't describe the same type of vehicle that we might envision in North America. Here, it is simply a minibus. 

We had been told to phone in at 8:00am, to confirm pickup at 8:30am right at our hotel. Which we did, but then it didn't show up until almost 9:00am, which didn't surprise us.

We've been on the move, so just playing catch up with you a little bit...

Writing this from our very basic, but relatively clean, 287,000 dong ($11.75 USD, $15.75 CAD) per night hotel room near the Vinh Airport which we flew into this (Saturday) morning.

We had to leave the hotel in Da Lat early this morning, and I had no time to write a blog post. So I'll update you on the past two days, because I'm not sure when you'll hear from us again!

Playing tourist in Da Lat, Vietnam

We hopped in a Grab taxi again on Thursday. A little further this time, as our drop off point was the Da Lat Cable Car. We had met a guy during our hike the day before who suggested this outing... the Da Lat Cable Car, followed by the Datanla Waterfall.

Cable Car rides are always fun, but we find them way overpriced in most situations. This one was not bad, at 120,000 dong ($4.95 USD, $6.60 CAD) each for the round trip ride.

We are overdue for an adventure!

On Wednesday, we hopped in another Grab taxi, this time to the center of the city. We really hadn't seen the city, other than driving by the outskirts on our way to our guesthouse the other day, so we figured we had better go check it out since many comments have been from people saying how much they like Da Lat. 

It cost about 80,000 dong ($3.25 USD, $4.40 CAD) for the 6.5 km (4 mile) one way trip.

Finally made it out for a hike... temperatures are perfect!

My original thinking was to rent a scooter here in Da Lat, which many tourists do, even though it's technically illegal in Vietnam unless you go through a local licensing procedure which most do not. But it's not the illegality that stops me... I'm just not that comfortable with the crazy traffic, even though it's far less busy here than it was in the big city.

So we are relegated to using Grab taxis, which are not as convenient, and slightly more expensive depending on where we want to go. But that's our choice, so we'll make it work.

Mixed first impressions of Da Lat area

We had arrived at Da Lat airport after dark on Sunday night, so we didn't get any idea of what our hotel or  the surrounding area looked like until we woke up Monday morning.

And we were pleasantly surprised!