Today was our first of three days in Ninh Binh in the north of Vietnam and we went to see some Buddhist temples, but who cares. Over the last six weeks, the seventh Rugby World Cup has been taking place in New Zealand. Today was the final between the New Zealand All Blacks and France. New Zealand, despite being ranked number one in the world for most of the last few decades, has not won a World Cup since the very first one 24 years ago in 1987 (as it happens, that game was also against France, and also played in Auckland). Our hotel here has satellite TV and one of the sports channels was playing the game live, so this is how I got to see it - on our little 20" telly :)

The match turned out to be much tighter than expected given France had played like shit all tournament and were considered lucky to make the final. They certainly came to play though, and in fact were probably the better side on the night. However, when it came down to it, the AB's did enough and that's all that matters. After losing to France in the quarter finals of the last World Cup in a complete upset (our worst performance in any World Cup) the pressure was really on us all tournament and expectations were high. For those who maybe don't know what the big deal is, the Rugby World Cup is the third-largest sporting event in the world behind the Olympics and the FIFA World Cup, and rugby is New Zealand's national sport - we live and breathe it. The final score was a nail-biting 8-7, and even I wept like a little girl when the final whistle blew and the whole of New Zealand breathed a collective sigh of relief.

As for these Buddhist temples, they involved a 20km scooter ride through more stunning limestone karsts outside of Ninh Binh. Incidentally, there's nothing to do or see in Ninh Binh - it's merely a hub for various things located nearby.

During the bus ride here yesterday I noticed several chicks spreading seed or rice or something all over the road, I assume to dry in the sun? The thing is it's right in the middle of traffic which is forced to avoid this hehe.

This is Bai Dinh Temple, a complex of Buddhist temples in Bai Dinh Mountain. This multi-level complex consists of one old temple area and a new temple area, which is being constructed. This is considered the largest complex of Buddhist temples at completion in Vietnam, and is a popular site for Buddhist pilgrims across Vietnam.

The locals often leave gifts beneath the statues - this one got a bunch a chocolate biscuits. I'm sure it'll enjoy them.

Either side of the complex has a long covered walkway that climbs to the top of the hill. Along each of these walkways are 250 hand-carved marble Buddhist monks, each with their own name and character. Behind these statues are thousands of gold Buddha encased in glass frames built into the walls. Impressive stuff.

Dollar dollar bill yo! Actually, 200 Vietnam Dong is worth US$0.01.

This one has a peg-arm hehe.

Rock on!

Bai Dinh has three temples, each on their own level and each larger than the previous. The first temple has one Buddha, the second has two, and the third has... three, that's right, and is the largest of the buildings. Each temple is magnificently adorned with statues, Buddha, and random artefacts.

There are folk everywhere trying to sell drinks and random crap, but evidently they're not supposed to be there. This lot ran off into an adjacent field when they noticed a temple official coming the other way hehe.

Back on the scooter today and we went for a bit of an explore outside of Ninh Binh in the Vietnamese countryside. Normally I would have hired at least a few bicycles by now to do such things but based on the look of the bikes in these parts I don't think they'd make it through what I put 'em through hehe.

This is Tam Coc, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the area. Here you simply pay the nice ticket office some money, sit back, and be rowed along the Ngo Dong River by one or two locals (mostly women I noticed).

The river winds its way through an incredibly scenic landscape with rice paddies and massive limestone karst towers that gives Ha Long Bay a run for its money. Video here.

We certainly didn't have the river to ourselves. There were a few locals going about doing whatever it is they do but for the most part it was tourists. I always wonder how the locals feel about the constant flow of tourists impacting on their lives. I would ask, but English to them is like Vietnamese to you and me.

Speaking of Vietnamese, Tam Coc means Three Caves, and you do indeed pass through three caves during the two-hour round-trip, the longest of which is 125 metres and all of them with ceilings barely a couple metres above the water.

What is an absolute serene and scenic trip turns into a surreal sales experience at the point where you turn back. You get absolutely hounded by women on boats with drinks and nibbles and whatnot. If you refuse to buy, they then try to guilt you into buying a drink for your rower (the catch is the rower sells the drink back to the seller later for half the price, so they both make money and the drink gets resold later). Shortly thereafter your rower pulls over and forces t-shirts or in our case table cloths and the like on you! "You buy, you buy? Cheap cheap!" Our rowers were quite timid compared to some of the others so they didn't really force the issue - either that or they saw how I reacted to the sales mob and thought better of it.

We made it back without having thrown any of our money away and hung around for dinner in the village of Van Lam - another typical wee place, with scooters hooning through packed full with the usual array of shit.

We nearly made it a whole month without getting stuffed by the rain, but it had to happen eventually. We were going to spend the day out in Cuc Phuong National Park, but right after we filled the scooter with fuel the heavens opened. We're catching an overnight bus at 9pm down to our next destination of Hoi An on the Vietnam central coast, so we just need to kill the time until then.

This is the city of Hue, home to about 350,000 and the former capital of Vietnam between 1802 and 1945 (after which a communist government was established in Hanoi). After catching an overnight bus from Ninh Binh last night we arrived here at 7:30am this morning to change buses on our way down to Hoi An, but the 8am bus had apparently broken down and so we were told to come back for the 1pm instead. Despite being a popular tourist destination, we hadn't intended to come here since we felt there are better spots to spend our time. Regardless we now had a few hours for a quick wander.

First stop, yet another pharmacy for Kristina hehe. However this time it wasn't for the burn on her leg from the scooter exhaust pipe in Luang Prabang, it was for her feet which are in something of a sorry state.

Another day in the life for the locals.

Waiting for love.

These things are akin to the cyclos in Hanoi, but much much pushier for business (except this guy obviously). You also get motorcycle-taxis constantly stopping and hounding you for business, and offering you overpriced tickets for various things including onward bus tickets. Pain in the ass.

Hue is mostly known for two things: cheap tailor-made suits...

...and its crumbling citadel - a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The moated Citadel occupies a large walled area, and its construction began in 1804 by the emperor of the day. Inside the Citadel was a forbidden city where only the emperors, concubines, and those close enough to them were granted access; the punishment for trespassing was death. Today, little of the forbidden city remains, though reconstruction efforts are in progress to maintain it as a historic tourist attraction.

Kristina's mates bombed the bejesus out of Hue in 1968 during the Vietnam War. These are a bunch of American vehicles that were captured in March 1975 - a month before the war ended.

Inside the Citadel is the Imperial City, a moated and walled fortress and palace (like a citadel within a citadel) where the emperor's official functions were carried out. The American bombing flattened most of it and only a few buildings survived.

We ended up resisting the 500 offers of cyclos and walked quite a ways. We chilled out at this cafe with a couple of cold ones while Kristina made a friend before heading for the bus. We're now in Hoi An for a couple days, and just went out for the biggest hamburger I think I've ever eaten. Honestly, there's only so much rice and noodles a westerner can tolerate!

This is the small city of Hoi An on Vietnam's central coast - another UNESCO World Heritage Site and home to 120,000 people who want your western money.

The biggest money-maker in town is custom-made clothing. There are dozens and dozens of stores all over town willing to size you up for shirts, jackets, shorts, dresses, shoes - you name it. Furthermore, it's cheap, and Kristina couldn't resist.

The Old Town with its myriad of cafes, restaurants, shops, and colonial-style buildings is a great place to meander around with various bits and pieces to see. However, excessive tourism has apparently had quite a negative impact on the city. According to the UNESCO Impact Report of 2008, "tourism has brought unacceptable changes", and the culture and heritage that UNESCO status was meant to preserve has been destroyed by tourism. The same could be said of many places in the world.

Along the waterfront is a typical market, but what's not so typical is the pushiness of the stall owners - it's something else. Virtually every single one of them yells at you as you pass by. "You buy something?!" "You come see my shop?!" "Special price for you!" And if you show the slightest bit of interest in anything they have for sale, it gets worse hehe. Kristina had one chick pulling her back by the arm and demanding she buy something hahaha!

Some folk were less pushy about it all though, and it was folk like this that ended up getting our money.

After the mayhem of the market, we enjoyed the mayhem of the street over a beer, and I found another crazy Hanoi-style intersection (though on a much smaller scale) where everybody simply charges on through and nobody yields to anybody hehe.

The day finished how it started, Kristina the white giant getting measured up by a much smaller local. "Fee-fi-fo-fum, me want a dress please."

Today we ventured deep into the Vietnamese jungle, into scenes reminiscent of Forrest Gump, to visit...

...the ruins of My Son, the most important remains of the ancient Champa empire and yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site. My Son is a cluster of abandoned and partially ruined Hindu temples constructed between the 4th and the 14th century by the kings of Champa. The temples are dedicated to the worship of the god Shiva.

In 1968 during the Vietnam War, the Americans bombed the bejesus out of My Son too, and left it in ruins. The centre shot above is a crater left by one of their many blasts. The Viet Cong (remember my history lesson here) apparently hid themselves throughout the jungle, and hid themselves well. As such the Americans had no specific targets to aim at from the air, and so instead bombed everything. Agent Orange, the codename for most famous herbicide and defoliant used by the US Military during the war, was also sprayed all over the show from the air in order to flush the Viet Cong out and deprive them of their jungle cover. Vietnam estimates 400,000 people being killed or maimed, and 500,000 children born with birth defects from the use of Agent Orange alone after 75 million litres of the shit were sprayed across a ten-year period between 1962 and 1971.

So that was a fun and educational trip.

Lieutenant Dan told us to "Git down, and shuddup!" So we did.

When we arrived back in Hoi An we chilled out with another $0.50 beer in front of the flooded river. We're catching another sleeper bus tonight, this time down to the city of Dalat in the Vietnam central highlands (far away from any flooding).