EC-Rider Travels

Some of the boys headed off for an early cycle ride with Mr Nga’s son, but us gals and John chose a quiet morning by the pool. It was sadly another overcast day, but we headed down there all the same to find a nice man cleaning it. Yesterday when we swam, we thought it was a green lined pool, but no ….. after cleaning it was blue! There was also a nice man soldering the gate, so it was only quite peaceful.

I went for a walk up the road, which is full of little restaurants and souvenirs shops, keen for your custom. There is rather an amazing temple just next to the hotel which I had a quick look at, but sadly no information was in English. I kept walking, I am sure in places I was not supposed to be, but greatly enjoyed the stunning countryside of rice fields meandering through these extraordinary limestone mountains. It is very beautiful and must be even more so in the sunshine.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Thung Nham Bird Park, about ten minutes from the hotel. This relatively new park is an ecosystem of caves, rivers and tropical forest spread over an area of more than 300 hectares. It is home to about 40,000 birds belonging to 46 species, including a number on the endangered list. We were again rowed in long flat-bottomed boats, arriving at the perfect time to see hundreds of egrets and Asian Open Bill Storks returning to their nests.

The latter are rare and endangered and it was amazing to see them in such abundance. There were also a number of different herons including the rather striking Black Crowned Night Heron which I had not seen before. Sadly too far away to photograph.

The Park has the most amazing flower garden full of soon to be sunflowers, begonias, roses and others, which must be completely stunning during the summer. There is also a very remarkable Banyan tree which is said to be 1,000 years old. There are a number of hotels within the park, most under development and of course there are costumes to hire to have your photo taken!

In the evening, we hit down-town Nimh Binh and went to a very nice restaurant managed by one of Ha’s friends who looked after us beautifully and we had a delicious supper.