December 11, 2016
On the road again!: Ninh Binh
WE'RE back on the road!
We're delighted to have visited Hanoi but we're just as happy to leave. There's much to see but existence is a battle. It's not just the noise, the endless aggressive motorcyclists at all hours. It's the struggle just to walk down a street.
As an average, traffic here travels on the right. But that doesn't rule out travelling on the left. The rules say motocyclists must stay in lane to turn left. But they don't. And because there's no quarter given, to other motorcyclists and certainly not pedestrians, two-wheelers brush your arm as you walk.
Still odder are divided highways. Visualise two lanes of traffic on each side, with a wall beside them. Travel on the right, you'd guess, and overtake on the left. But no.
Heavy trucks drive in the fast lane, regardless of how slowly. Buses will be out there as well but, because they're faster, they overtake on the right, the inside. And the driver will jam his hand on the hooter and keep it there.
In Vietnam, therefore, all but the lightest vehicles travel on the right while driving on the left. Or on the right while being on the left.
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And there's something else. There's a concrete wall between the two sets of traffic. In Vietnam, that's not a bad idea. But the wall has gaps only every four or five kilometres. And do people drive that far?
No, they don't. People who live or work by the road just drive - or more usually ride a motorbike - the wrong way down the shoulder. Cyclists ride it in isolation only to face traffic coming the other way. And have a guess: on the shoulder, do you ride on the left or the right?
You don't need me to tell you, do you? You keep left.
It all works but surely it's not the easiest way to do it.
Anyway, we are back on the road. We wheeled our bikes two kilometres to the ga and they were being pushed down the platform when we arrived at Ninh Binh.
Today, we have been on a loop out to a network of flooded cave tunnels. It's why you come to Ninh Binh because there's nothing in the town. The caves are a tourist haunt, naturally, but they're worth it. And so is getting there on a bike.
Exploring for its own sake, we turned down a narrow road that became an unsurfaced path. We crossed a river where other tourists were being rowed through a strange landscape like the Li valley in China. We snapped the boat people and they snapped us.
The road ran out at a temple. I've no idea if it's in guide books but cars and certainly buses would have trouble getting there. The smug pleasure in finding something not of dazzling beauty and interest but that other tourists rarely saw is irresistible.
The water-filled caves of Trang An are just the opposite: tourists everywhere and we happily among them. Long thin boats waited for us, attended by women in blue uniforms and conical hats waiting to row us for two hours through surprisingly peaceful waterways and through metre-high caves.
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We loved it.
Today's ride: 23 km (14 miles)
Total: 390 km (242 miles)
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