We had an early wake up this morning with alarms going off at 6:30 so that we could be ready to be picked up at 7:20. We booked a tour for the next couple of days to squeeze in as much as possible. As I always say, we are not tour people! Yet it’s nice to be taken from point A to point B without needing to think much. After picking up the rest of the passengers, we drove about 2 hours to Nanh Binh. The drive was interesting and took us through rural Vietnam.

Other than no appetite and an embarrassingly intense coughing fit I had on the bus, I felt much better today. Thank god because it was a very full day!

Our first stop was a bike ride around Hoa Lu Ancient Capital, which was the capital of Vietnam in the year 1000. I love traveling by bike and every time we do it I think “we should do more bike tourism”.

The temple itself was beautiful, but packed. That was kind of the theme of the day.

After this we had a mediocre buffet lunch and then got back into the bus for our next stop, boating around Trang An. Each boat was rowed for two hours by small but mighty women. I can’t imagine a rougher job, especially in the heat of the summer. We helped paddle and agree that we’ll be sore from it tomorrow.

The route took us through caves, around pagodas, and past “Kong Island” where King Kong was filmed. Millie got bored at the end but we loved it.

We got back on the bus for our final stop, a hike up to the top of a mountain to see the sunset. I had originally planned to sit this one out but I was feeling well enough to do it. It was packed and especially gridlock-y when everyone stopped for photo ops. But it was worth the walk. Millie did great all day, I was proud of our little traveler.

Back on the bus for a final time and we were dropped off at our hotel for the night. We walked next door to a banh mi cart. This was the moment my appetite magically came back and I housed the whole sandwich in about 5 minutes. It was so, so good.

The area we are staying in is surrounded by backpackers, mostly Australians. It is funny to feel like a backpacker, and then also very much not like a backpacker.

We have an another early start tomorrow, so we’re all in bed at 8PM.