We let our senses wake to our surroundings with homemade pancakes and some delicious coffee prepared by our host family. We discussed the plan for this day's trek with Toan. Rob then let us know that he had ripped one of his hiking sandals apart the previous day when trying to free the car from the mud. His only shoes, he asked Toan if there was a village shop where he could purchase any sort of shoe, even a flip-flop. This is when we found ourselves learning something about the vietnamese mindset for resilience. Toan and his driver immediately set about determined to repair the sandal. They tried various engineering methods of putting it back together. Finally, they created thread from nature and a big fat sewing needle from bent metal. Now, this hiking sandal was of heavy-duty materials not easily penetrated. Do you think they succeeded? Yes, of course they did!
We said our goodbyes to our home stay and left the rice terraces climbing upwards into the mountain.
Soon, we were full-on IN THE THICK OF JUNGLE! We felt like A+ explorers of the nth degree. To ourselves, we wondered when Toan had last been out here - hahahaha. Who needs a path? We shall forge our own.
We emerged periodically to open space to find ourselves kissed on all sides by the clouds. Wow. So freaking awesome.
Funny thing, we didn't notice any bugs or wild critters. We were probably scaring them off. We came back down the muddy (boy, did we need those walking sticks) mountain to the splendor of stunning rice paddy terraces.
As long as I did not let my imagination wander (snakes), it was all good. In the below pic, I was convinced that Toan was checking his GPS to figure out directions and made all sorts of jokes at his expense (all in good fun). Well, joke was on me.
Are we lost? Checking GPS :) |
Vietnamese umbrella |
We were directed to our thatched roof bungalow and giggled in delight upon entering.
We sure did work up an appetite for lunch! By the way, we had access to plenty of beer :)
Toan had told us ahead of time that our 2nd home stay is near a famous waterfall. A welcomed treat and located just uphill from the village, we headed over following the easy path and had a blast having the falls all to ourselves.
Afterwards, we changed into dry clothes and each of us just kind of did our own thing of settling into our surroundings. It was such a relaxing setting.
So anyways, Toan informed us that he had to leave, but his friend would be taking over and would accompany us the next day for our final day trekking and the drive back to Ninh Binh. Whatever, it was fine. We said our goodbyes to Toan, which might have been a little awkward since we were still on our "tour". Everything should be fine, right? It's not like he left us completely on our own. Moving on...
We were very humbled and thankful to be welcomed into our host family's home and OHMYGAWD at the most delicious traditional sit-down dinner with them. We sat on floor mats (us, our host family, our driver and Toan's friend) at a low communal table for the feast (and lots of home-brewed rice wine for the adults). FULL bellies and LOTS of laughs (aided by several shots of the rice wine) later, we retreated to our stilted bungalow for restful sleep as we reflected on our good luck of finding these life-cherishing experiences.
Can you see yourself here? I'll bring you next time.
Up Next: Trekking Day 3: Emerging From The Wild
Up Next: Trekking Day 3: Emerging From The Wild
How did you find the bungalows for comfort?
ReplyDeleteAs you toured mid-year with hot weather, was there any breeze, either natural of a fan? (assuming there was power)
There was electrical for fans (and charging devices). We stupidly made the mistake of closing all our shutters tight in the first home stay. I guess we were worried about rice paddy monsters coming in to eat us in the middle of the night. We didn't make the same mistake twice. It was cooler the second day/night after the rainstorm. Both bungalows were comfortable. Loved the decks!
Deleteexcellent!
ReplyDelete