Ninh Binh
Days, nights, rain, sun.
Two weeks pass...
Boats, bikes, cliffs and rice patties.
Whole roasted goats for sale.
Double biking.
Terrifying hair cuts
Returning to running.
Extended pool games after breakfast
The days all blend together.
I mentioned to Isabelle, “I feel like we didn’t do a lot there, what do I write?” She looked at me inquisitive and said, “really, I feel like we did a bunch.” “Don’t you remember double biking, dogs in dog cages, the really bad breakfast, the good pizza place, motorcycle adventures, and more biking” she said. “How about the sound of a dying pig, playing with baby kittens, dancing water plants, abandoned theme parks with dried out lakes and marooned swan boats and some more playing on bikes with Lily”. “The homestay owner calling Dad ‘the most important person’ every morning and arriving supper sleeping after a night bus from Sapa with disco lights and people tucked into every corner.” “The epic bike trip, when we first learned to bike two on the bike on the really rough path and we were always falling or how about walking in the heat through rice patties with our backpacks to our new hotel”.
So I guess there was a lot, but it has just become our norm. The kids crawl into a sleeper bus with seat belt straps chewed apart and disco lights and kids on the floor and say, “well i guess this is where we sleep tonight.”
After leaving Sapa we settled into a routine in this Halong Bay of the land, Ninh Binh and the surrounding towns, quietly balancing traditional life with the growth of tourism and we struggled to find our balance between our minds wondering home and being present for the now.
“What do you want your morning routine to look like for school next year?” Lily asks Isabelle as we pass through a cave on a small boat under a towering cliff this world UNESCO site.
Life has it’s own new norm as we find ways to take what we have learned from this year and put them together into tangible things we can take home. Double biking is clearly one of them.
Life is more fun with two. Even when we had access to another bike, this was their prefered way of travel, a moving mass of giggles that seemed to test gravity at every turn.
We biked about 35 Km the first day to this pagoda and back. We got there, it was hot, we were tired and decided to not go in. That has been one the blessings of this year, the ability to get the door of an opportunity and chose to not go through to keep in check with our larger values and goals
Biking home along the lake looking back at the pagoda
Harvest time
Our first place we stayed was a homestay near these cliffs, this was a view from the breakfast window.
And more double biking
Lily definitely would get her workouts, loving to bike Isabelle as Isabelle worked as automatic trainer wheels and extra power if needed.
The limestone formations here are amazing. The first boat tour we did was three spectacular hours of being paddled along the rivers at the base of these cliffs and then through narrow caves that connected otherworldly valleys. It reminded me a lot of the dramatic lush landscape of Hawaii and was where the newest King Kong was filmed, it also happens to be where school schedules were planned for the following year.
Ever the entrepreneurs, this makeshift market at the end of this boat ride where small market boats would approach and hand you and your drivers handfuls of food and drink for “very good price”. It was entertaining watching a world of different cultures deal with the forced negotiation with their own cultural bias.
Traditionally many of these boats are paddled by foot, freeing the hands for selfies, snacks, umbrellas or any other need of the day.
Boats line up waiting for the next bus load of tourist
Empty boats going to park after they have delivered their guest
Just another day at the job. The hip flexibility of the Vietnamese is impressive.
One of the rides was only two at time, and we have become much more comfortable with letting them head out on their own.
Everywhere we went we saw water buffalo. The streets, outside the cafe, cooling off in the ditch.
A day exploring on motorbikes to see what we missed when we were limited to our own power.
Exploring a beautiful temple tucked in the mountains and caves.
These two, off exploring the world
Again, so grateful for our small bags as we walk from one home to the next in the heat and humidity along the rice patties.
Harvesting the never ending aray of water plant for dinner later.
Up high you could get a better lay of the land, the river basin cultivated at the base of these limestone cliffs growing rice.
I can’t get enough of the asian selfie. One moment you will be a at a place, on your own and then a bus will unload, women and men dressed to the nines each angling for their own shot. I often sit back and wonder what it would look like if I could see at once the digital uploads we now create every second, me adding to the pile of the pictures of the selfie.
Morning work
Biking again ;-) By the end of our two weeks we felt like we know most every path in this area.
As tourist bike past, life goes on.
Our second hotel had a pool table which the girls enjoyed learning the rules of the game and the time to play outside a smoky bar.