27.2.23
Another day a different motorbike as we didn’t want to use yesterdays again.
Yayy, we have one with good back brakes, a working horn, although no speedo or fuel guage working.

We had a large loop planned and hoped we would have time to do it all.

We planned to be up and on the road early, didn’t happen but earlier than yesterday.
I made sure I didn’t have the same helmet as yesterday as it had a tendency to trap my skin in the buckle and fall backwards all the time.

Our first stop Van Long was 35 minutes away, I’m definitely getting braver, felt a lot safer on this bike although I didn’t like the bit that said no entry, was very narrow and close to a herd of cows.

This road came to an abrupt end with a barrier and a JCB.
We went back the way we came, took photos and took a different road to our next stop, Kenh Ga floating village,12km away.

Van Long is stunning. Kong Skull Island was filmed here. It’s one of the largest wetlands in this area.

With a full itinerary we decided not to do a boat tour, there is a chance of seeing endangered monkeys but we still decided not to do it as many reviewers didn’t see any, or if they did they were very far away.

Kenh Ga next, it was an opportunity to see real village life. It was hard to work out which was the floating part as there were bridges joining sections of land and hard to get bearings.
Either way it was like a step back in time. Very friendly locals, everyone wanted to say hello. I loved the simplicity of life here.
We were offered yet another boat trip but otherwise there was no pushiness, no tourism, just sunshine and endless photo opportunities. And bridges to cross, on a motorbike!

Bai Dinh was our next stop 10km away.
Asias largest Pagoda.
The complex is massive. After parking we bought a ticket for 100k (£3.50) each that includes the electric transport vehicle and the elevator to the top of the Stupa.
We had read online about a ticket for 250k that makes you think you need it for everything, but the electric car and lift is all you need. To be fair they weren’t pushing the dearer ticket at all.
We were dropped by the electric car at the complex entrance.

From here are Buddhas galore small temples, convention centre, more temples and eventually we reached the stupa.
The views from the top were incredible.

Back down from the stupa we continued our route to various buildings. It was all a bit much after a while to be honest.

We ended up in an electric vehicle waiting point but didn’t have the right ticket, only valid from a point down the bottom end. The Brett Class one, not the 250,000 vnd one.
Down we went, passing hundreds of identical small gold buddas in glass, sponsored by various different countries, past the buildings we saw earlier and back to the electric vehicles.

Not one eatery in the whole complex sold coffee, everyone had exactly the same menu.

We collected the bike and a few meters away were 4 traditional menu eateries.
We opted for chicken noodle soup and pork and rice. Both pretty tasty and cooked in front of us, although not convinced that was a good thing.

Our next stop was 11km away, the Ancient City of Hoa Lu, only 20k each to go in and in many ways more enjoyable than the vast show off, not even old, Bai Dinh.

The first thing we saw was the most adorable water buffalo.
We’re both obsessed with these gorgeous beasts.
This one had a red coat and a pretty garland on its head.
Several photos later we tore ourselves away and enjoyed this area of small temples.
Afterwards back to the buffalo for a photo shoot.

It was 30 minutes back to the homestay.
We were zipping along quite happily when my helmet flew off.
John! Stop! I’ve lost my hat!!
John went off and rescued it.
I held onto the strap for the rest of the journey.

Somewhere between being a rigid lump of scaredness, like when I go horse riding, and whatever temple on day 2 I decided it might be a good idea to have a motorbike on the back of our motorhome.
I’ve even thought about what sort of hat I might choose.
Preferably one without a broken clip.

I was very behind with my blogging, I’ve managed to write yesterdays and todays since getting back because Johns tablet is driving him crazy, it keeps switching itself off everytime he tries to do anything.
He’s understandably infuriated, it’s been 2 hours now.
There’s not even any more beers in the fridge. He loves curry.
I might suggest we try the other curry place, strictly for research purposes of course.
First I’m going to look online in case there’s any tablet fixers here, although very unlikely.

There are no tablet fixers.

We decided to save curry for our last night as neither of us were very hungry after our large lunch. We ended up in a very busy little cafe and had banh mi.. French breads, chicken for me, beef for John.

When we got back John did further battle with his tablet.

A factory reset was going to be the solution we were sure. No way I’m staying awake for that.

What an otherwise fabulous day.

Night night 😍