Another Amazing Weekend

First things first, I wanted to update everyone that Jim and I have decided to head home a month earlier. The volunteer program isn't giving us the experience that we had hoped to get so instead of doing the full two months we will cut it to 4 weeks (two more to go) then travel for two weeks like we had originally planed to do after our program. We plan to visit Sapa and the rice fields in Northern Vietnam and perhaps hike Mount Fansipan-tallest mountain in SouthEast Asia, (if my health is doing good) then fly from Hanoi to Bangkok and find a nice island in Thailand to relax at for a few days then fly back on June 26th then work for the rest of the summer and make back the money we've spent on this trip hahaha. 

On a happier note, we had an amazing trip this weekend to Ninh Binh. We got a private tour guide who was really nice and knew a lot about the history of the region so he taught us a lot. We went with two other volunteers; Megan and Emily. On the first day we did a two hour boat ride and on the ride we must have gone through a dozen caves. The first one was half a kilometre long and super narrow but it was probably one of the coolest things we've experienced on this trip thus far. We were some of the only foreigners doing the boat tour. All the other locals would pass our boat and take photos of us, wave hello and yell "người nước ngoài" which means foreigner. Afterwards we were all super hungry and stocked for lunch which was a traditional Vietnamese meal. 

After lunch, Anh- our tour guide took us to two temples then drove us to the biggest Pagoda in Vietnam. 

Here is the Pagoda. 

13 stories high! 

Finally we went to our hotel/eco lodge in the small town. It down poorer rain, kinda perfect timing since it was nice weather all day during our excursions. In fact nice weather is not really the proper term, it was over 40 degrees and I was dripping sweat so the rain was a blessing and cooled everything down. Our hotel felt like luxury- comfy bed, amazing view of the limestone mountains out our window, air conditioning....We had dinner and then slept for 10 hours straight. The next morning we woke up extra early to go for a bike ride around the rice farms. It was a lot of fun! 

This is where we were staying-so beautiful! 

Anh showed us another hidden Pagoda that was built off of the caves in this mountain. You could hike up the stairs to the top. We got about ⅔ of the way but because it had just rained it was kinda slippery and so Anh didn't think it was a good idea to continue. 

Next we did another boat ride. The lady paddling our boat spoke a bit of English and told us this is where they filmed King Kong. Had lunch and drove back to Hanoi. 

Such an awesome weekend! I enjoyed this area lot more than Ha Long Bay because it was much less touristy and just as beautiful. Here is the link to the tour we did for more information:
http://www.ninhbinhtours.com/ninhbinh-2-days-tours/123-baidinh-pagoda-trangan-tamcoc-bichdong-pagoda-hoalu-temple-2days-tour.html