Being incredibly simple minded we had booked for another trip, our thinking being that we would need to rest on Sunday as we had to be up very early on Monday to catch our flight back to Singapore.
So we were up early again and this time were not picked up until gone eight thirty being the penultimate passengers to be picked up. This meant we had to sit on the back seat of the coach.
The journey to the Hoa Lu temple took two and a half hours and the Japanese woman sitting next to me made a very concerted effort to fall asleep on my shoulder, much to the amusement of the tour director.
The temple was the original capital of an independent Vietnam in the tenth century, before the King moved the capital to Hanoi, it filled a huge site surrounded by limestone karst and it was very impressive. We spent about an hour with our guide explaining to us the history of the site and the significance of the temples.
After the temple visit it was off for lunch at Tam Coc, the meal was the worst Vietnamese food we have been offered since we have been here, but we were hungry and it was edible. Lunch was shared with two Swiss boys who had just finished their A Level equivalents and were travelling for a little while before returning to Switzerland for compulsory military service. After lunch we were off in a sampan for an hour's trip down the Ngo Dong river. Our paddler, another woman, called the tour director, "Mummy" and off we went. The river went through three caves all of which were very low and this meant I had to bend down in the boat. However, the scenery was fantastic.
After a little while rowing with her hands our paddler like all the others used a cycling motion using her feet and legs to paddle our boat for what must have been three or four kilometres, it was amazing to watch.
Back to the wharf we picked up our bikes for a fifty minute bike ride along quiet country roads to Bich Dong. The tour director hadn't ridden a bike in twenty years but she soon picked it up and I rode shotgun just behind her to her right. The ride took us through paddy fields and small villages and it was interesting as well as being totally flat, we really enjoyed it. If cycling was that easy at home we would do it, there were no hills..
The cycling over it was back on the bus for the return journey to Hanoi after an excellent and interesting day. There is no such thing as health and safety here, we were not offered life jackets on the river trip and we were not offered helmets for the bike ride, but having said that we still enjoyed ourselves.