Up in time for some breakfast just before 9:30am; it’s a set menu set up so we order and it’s brought fresh

A mango and chocolate pancake for Dave and a banana and honey pancake for Daisy

After, we go back to the room to have a coffee with some more of the Waterworld film before showering and being ready for the day

Our hotel offers motorbike rental, for very cheap, and we figure we might as well give it a go; a short lesson into the basics later, and we’re ready to go!

We have a quick stop at the local petrol station and then wizz off North

Not having the best idea which is the best route, we sorta get lost and it’s lots of fun

The first place we visit is Hospital Cave: quite literally a hospital in a cave

It’s a concrete structure that was built between the years 1963 – 1965 and used during the US war to hide from the bombings

Vietnamese soldiers also lived here and you can see that in the various rooms here with 14 alone on the first floor, the meeting room being the largest

There are several floors that are built with the concrete but part of it actually uses the natural cave and you can see the structure of the building

The place is a maze but we eventually make it out and back to the bikes

A little hungry, we go to the place opposite, called Vietnamese Food & Phuc Homestay, and have two stir-fried beef with noodles, a coffee and a passion fruit juice

After that, we head a little further down the road to Trung Trang Cave – it’s a bit more expensive but includes entry to the national park, which is where we’ll go next, in the ticket

This is a far more naturally preserved cave hosting several shrines throughout and much more a maze!

We dip and dive the low ceilings and appreciate that there are still sparkly or wet parts of the cave which means it’s still an actively forming cave

Part way through we get to see a Bat flying around but he’s only briefly moving; at the very end, we find a bunch of them having a nap!

Time for a cold drink, at Jungle Bar, and then we’re back on the bikes to the national park entrance

We have to pay a tiny amount to park up but then it’s a short walk through Kim Giao forest to the base of Ngự Lâm

There’s lots of stairs along the almost one kilometre hike but some of them just can’t be classified as stairs!

We reach a view point on the mountain and it’s one hell of an expensive view

After taking a breather, we see people scrambling around the top of the mountain so figure we might as well go now we’re already this far

It isn’t too far but there’s next to no room with the amount of people up there ????

The view is truly amazing and, after a short stop to admire, we begin the decent down

Our legs are well and truly knicky-knacked but we make it down in one piece; onto the bikes and we find a new road that gets up to do a loop

At one point, we’re right past a Water Buffalo!

We make it to the seaside again and it’s a nice breeze to go with the sights

Time for a cool down: we make it to Bãi Tắm Tùng Thu Beach and the water is a lot less chaotic than the other beach

We go in for a pretty brief dip and find the water has layers where the temperature is amazingly different

After, we get back to the bikes and they take us home

In the process, Dave’s swimming shorts even accidentally get thrown in the bin ???? lucky we remembered them

A quick shower and we’re back out in hunt for dinner – verging on desperation, we pick The Little Leaf and a safe bet and it delivers again

A teriyaki chicken and a mixed meat hot pot with a couple of draft beers

We’re pretty knackered so pay up and move on towards home

On the way, we pass the night market here

After a little peruse, we pick up some bits for tomorrow from the supermarket and then make it back and try and get a good night’s sleep ????????