We arrived in Ninh Binh at 4am, crawled to the nearest hotel, and slept off the ride. Waking up and walking around, we found that the town didn't seem to be affected by the rampant tourism we've seen everywhere else in Vietnam - this meant we weren't constantly made to feel like walking wallets, which was refreshing after our last few experiences.

We hired a moped, and set off for the afternoon into rice paddy country. Daniel drove amazingly well, though if Celia's hair hadn't been bleached already it would have turned white. We met swimming boys, a herd of ducks, water buffalo and a whole lot of water. The weather turned about an hour into the trip, and we had to shelter in a small hut with a man who had been kind enough to tell us we were lost, and then offer us some tea. The ride back in the heavy rain was pretty exhilarating/ hair-whitening.

The following morning we went to the main attraction of the local area - Tam Coc. You get taken on a little boat through swampy rivers and lakes, between enormous outcrops of rock as high as hills. Then travel underneath some of them in the caves cut by the river, only a metre or 2 high: not for the claustrophobic. Truly an out-of-this-world experience, and we're sure the photos don't do it any justice at all...

Ninh Binh has some interesting local food specialities, and we're not likely to forget either of the ones we tried. The first was com chay, crispy rice cakes eaten with HEART broth! Daniel was doing okay at this, until he found his first chunk of aorta, then went a bit green and quiet. In the south, "com chay" means vegetarian rice and there may be an accent different somewhere, but still, an unfortunate similarity. The other speciality, recomended to us by Monika (thanks Monika!) was Mr Xuan's homemade rice spirit. Mr Xuan introduced himself to us by pulling Daniel's arm hair and saying "you look like a monkey". He made it all better by providing large quantities of free moonshine of the sort that makes your eyes water.