We slowed things down for a while and stayed in a rural spot south of Hanoi. Our hotel was tucked into the mountains, patrolled by a small army of billy goats. With the mosquitoes buzzing and the swampy air hanging around us, I could’ve sworn I was back on the bayou, if it weren’t for the mountains rising out of the rice and lotus fields.

The hotel itself was a series of thatched-roof stilt houses, with a front porch perfect for an afternoon cigar. Despite the ominous warnings in the reviews, we ate a few meals there. The food was fine, but the view more than made up for it.

One of my favorite parts of staying somewhere a bit longer is getting to know the other guests and the locals. I’d convinced myself that the older man wandering around the lotus pond smoking from a bamboo pipe, occasionally supervising employees hoeing the fields was some kind of owner or grandfather in the family business. Every day he offered us a clear liquid from an old Evian bottle with the logo almost rubbed off. Emily always politely refused, telling him she didn’t drink…in English…which he definitely didn’t understand.

Finally, when we were chatting in the lobby with a couple from Salt Lake City, he offered again. The couple peer-pressured us into at least pretending to try it, so we did. It wasn’t methanol, and I lived. It was actually pretty good. The lobby attendant who spoke English, later explained that this was his uncle Frank the on-site “security manager” and resident rice-wine brewer.

When we weren’t cracking hotel mysteries, we explored local restaurants, coffee shops, and temples. I skipped a few temples because of a headache, and Emily swears they contained splendor I will never again witness. Personally, I think she likes religious buildings more than is reasonable, and the pictures were enough for me.

We did see the largest pagoda in Southeast Asia, towering over the hills and monasteries. And I especially loved hiking up the mountain to look out over the winding rivers and rice fields. The view from the top was stunning, but the coffee at the bottom afterward was almost as memorable.

Emily also took me on a two-hour boat ride, captained by a tiny lady with the forearm strength of a professional boxer. She rowed us through caves, marshes, lakes, and creeks, rolling her eyes and laughing every time we tried to help paddle. It was an incredible experience. The funniest part was how proud she seemed of the fact that King Kong was filmed there.

On the last day we took a cab two hours back into Hanoi to fly to our next adventure. Ninh Binh was definitely worth the stay and was exactly the slow life we were looking for.