Stagg and I decided to get out of town for today so yesterday we signed up for a last minute 12 hour tour to Ninh Binh. This included visiting temples dedicated to royals during a time when the ancient capital was nestled among the limestone towering mountains. It also included a bike ride through part of the area, and a boat ride in which we were rowed through caves that created a passageway right through the mountain. Finally there was an opportunity to climb one of the mountains. Stagg did it, but I decided to protect my heel, which has some nagging tendonitis.

Every day dozens of busses leave Hanoi for Ninh Binh Province. On the river, boat after boat after boat conveys tourists through the caves. The presence of huge numbers of tourists is disconcerting at first, but once you are in the caves with your rower shouting head down head down.

Lunch at a restaurant offered a huge variety of foods to eat with rice as well as a wonderful seafood soup. The foods included mountan goat which was yummy if a little bony and chewy. I enjoyed it.

We learned a lot of history and our guide (there were 8 of us) was excellent. It was a fun but exhausting day.