Interminable waiting for bus to Hoi An. Time seems to drag. It's 7.45 and the bus supposedly picks us up at 8.30, but no doubt it'll be late. (If we'd known what was going to happen at the end of that bus journey, we wouldn't have been so keen to embark on it.)
Have had a good stay at Ninh Binh. Quite spectacular, but the town itself has nothing to offer the tourist.
Booked
a tour today around a few local attractions. They take us to see more
bleeding pagodas but we're more interested in watching a man and his
wife with a buffalo, ploughing a field in a rudimentary three field
system way. Loved the goats in the mountains and the occasional herd of
buffalo crossing the road.
Apart
from that, it's all good. Vietnam makes me appreciate what I take for
granted at home - like not having to work 29 days out of 30; being
allowed an education, despite being female. Living in a comparatively
pristine environment.
Young woman
today rowed us around the caves. She's 28 and very pregnant with her
third child. She did five years of schooling but wasn't allowed to
continue, despite her obvious intelligence and facility with several
different languages. She had to row the tourists around the caves.
When she's not doing that, she's embroidering - much of which she tried
to hawk to me, when I was captive on her little boat. Felt rotten for
not buying, but we'd already been scammed into buying her and her
husband - rowing with his feet - soft drinks and snacks. BTW, Al and I
shared the rowing to assuage the guilt of being rowed around by someone
ready to give birth any minute.
The Chilean chardonnay is going down well and we're looking forward to
warmer weather in Hoi An. And more of a night life. Here, there is the
hotel and not much else. The streets are for the locals and not really
tourist friendly. Perhaps that will change, as long as people want to
see monolithic mountains and glide through river caves - an almost
spiritual experience.
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