Foreign exchange costs

First on the agenda here in Hua Hin was to get some more Thai baht cash. We had made an agreement with our host here to pay him for our accommodation in cash, and in exchange we got a healthy discount. But that discount is partially offset by the fact that it actually cost us money to get that cash.

Almost all Thai banks charge a fee of 220 baht ($6.20 USD, $8.40 CAD) for the privilege of using their ATM.

This will do for a couple of weeks!

It was a nice little guesthouse we stayed at near Bangkok's DMK airport. Really nice friendly people, and we've booked another night in there when we return to that airport to fly to Maldives on March 22nd.

Also, it's located a 15 minute walk from the terminal itself, and the commuter rail line to Bangkok's main train station. So it's really convenient as well.

Moving day today!

Didn't do anything yesterday! We were tired, and it was baking hot out, so other than getting out for some food, all we did for exercise was to walk with all of our worldly belongings from one cheap hotel room to another one.

But, we did a lot of internet research sitting in our air conditioned room, and got our condo and train tickets booked for our trip to Hua Hin today.

Change of plans!

We would have preferred to remain in Vietnam until March 22, but because of the screw up with the dates on our Vietnam visa, we had to leave the country by March 7th. Yes, we could have gone through the hassle and expense of getting an extension, but we didn't think it was worth it. In hindsight, maybe we should have, but of course hindsight is never useful, except as a learning experience!

Then we thought about going into Laos for a couple of weeks, but that was also going to involve visas, and the flights weren't cheap, and the route over land wasn't easy. 

Exploring Hanoi, Vietnam

On Monday, we spent a few hours wandering around Hanoi. Our hotel is located right in the center of the old quarter, and there is enough to see just walking about watching daily life that we didn't need to go very far. Still, we put on a lot of steps!

It is most fascinating watching the traffic. I took a couple of videos for you further down.

Out for a bike ride, then off to the big city of Hanoi

On Monday, our train to Hanoi didn't leave until just after 4:00pm, so we had most of the day to do some more exploring.

We rented a couple of bicycles and decided to ride up to the tourist boat port of Trang An just to see some different scenery and check out the area.

The right place, at the right time!

The highlight of the Ninh Binh area are the various boat tours that take you through the scenery and caves. There are quite a few options to sort through, and various routes to choose from. 

I did a lot of research, and we had made our choice and planned on doing a boat tour on Monday morning when it would be less busy. But it didn't turn out that way, and we're glad that we were in the right place at the right time to do things a little differently!

There's a reason it's busy here

There's not much to see in the actual town of Ninh Binh itself. But that's what people use as the transportation hub. Most of the hotels and restaurants are in the popular area at the town of Tam Coc, about 6 kms (3.7 miles) away.

And the reason Tam Coc is popular is because of the scenic geography with small rives flowing through three cave systems. The big attraction is a boat trip through the caves, although we are saving that for Monday when it will be less busy.

We found all the tourists!

And they are here in Ninh Binh. Every last one of them, apparently!

We woke up to another drizzly day in Vinh. You could tell it had rained quite a lot overnight, but fortunately we missed that and it was just drizzling a bit when we left for the train station.

February Expenses

Our expenses did pretty well in February, all things considered.

We had a budget of $2,385 CAD, and we spent $2,457 CAD ($1,810 USD) for the month. And the extra was solely related to our decision to fly from Da Lat to Vinh instead of taking buses. Without that, we actually would have been under budget. So we're really pleased with that.

One of the best meals we've had in Vietnam!

On Thursday, we took the minivan back to the city of Vinh. We simply went and stood on the main street. We were actually waiting for the number 31 bus that runs between Con Cuong and Vinh, but there are also the same system of minivans that we took to get to Con Cuong in the first place. And we were only at the stop for five minutes before one came along, so we hopped in it.

It was quite a bit quicker going back. We must have got in the "express" van, because it didn't make nearly as many stops as the one we took going up, and it was a little more expensive, at 120,000 dong ($4.90 USD, $6.60 CAD) per person for the two hour and twenty minute ride.

Last day in Con Cuong, Vietnam

Well, we haven't seen another westerner for five days... since we left the airport in Da Lat. 

And we also haven't seen any sunshine, at all! It hasn't really rained, it's just been foggy and overcast, with some occasional drizzle. Temperatures have been nice though, with highs around 20C (68F). 

We had the waterfall all to ourselves!

We did a little better for our included breakfast, as they brought us a big plate of chicken and egg fried rice and vegetables. Not fantastic, but at least we started the day with full stomachs!

Once again, the sun never made an appearance. The temperature is fine, nice and cool with a high of about 20C, but it drizzled with rain on and off. Not enough to stop us from going out exploring on our rented scooter!

Beautiful scenery in this rarely visited part of Vietnam

Our fancy hotel room is supposed to be "breakfast included". But of course nowhere does it say exactly what you'll get for breakfast. 

There were no guests in the dining room when we went down about 8:30am. As I mentioned yesterday, the place is very quiet. But there are a lot of staff around, and they are all very pleasant and cheerful.

If you are going to splurge, it's best to do so in a cheap country!

We had arranged with a "limousine service" to take us from Vinh to Con Cuong. I already knew that the word limousine here in Vietnam doesn't describe the same type of vehicle that we might envision in North America. Here, it is simply a minibus. 

We had been told to phone in at 8:00am, to confirm pickup at 8:30am right at our hotel. Which we did, but then it didn't show up until almost 9:00am, which didn't surprise us.