2 DAYS IN NINH BINH
On Monday, we left busy Hanoi and drove out to peaceful Ninh Binh, a beautiful village in the countryside. We stayed in an area called Tam Coc, where we explored the surrounding areas with a guide on our first full day, and on our own the second day. We stayed in a lovely homestay, nestled into the mountains and next to rice paddies. It was so peaceful and the hosts were super friendly!
On our first day in Ninh Binh, Lana brought us to Bich Dong Pagoda to start our day. To get to the pagoda you had to walk over the “Good Luck” bridge. Many people take wedding photos here because of the luck it could bring them in their marriage! There are actually three pagodas within this location; two are located inside caves within the mountain, and one is on the top of the mountain. That one has an amazing view of mountains, villages, rice paddies, and snaking rivers.
The next activity was my favorite – a boat ride on the Song Sao Khe River. These small wooden boats are paddled by either hand or feet. Our boat driver's name was Nip and she was really nice. She even let us have a turn paddling! On this 2 hour boat ride, we went into caves, sailed past rice paddies and farmers, and admired the stunning scenery on a delightful sunny day! It couldn’t get better than that!!
Last, we went to Mua Caves. This name is quite deceiving, as there are not many caves! Mua Caves is most well known for the 500 steps leading up to a pagoda and a dragon resting on top of a mountain. The climb up was very hard and very steep. It felt like way more than 500 steps! When we got to the top, the view was really spectacular. We got a 360° view of the town of Ninh Binh, the Song Sao Khe river where we were earlier in the day, and the jagged mountains. The only letdown was that we could only see the head of the famous dragon by looking up! We couldn’t see the actual body! We did have the option to go up closer to see it better but it was really dangerous because there were no handrails. (I’ve included a picture from the internet so you can see how cool it would have been if we weren’t expected to risk our lives.)
The second day was my favorite day and one of the best days of my life because we did something we just had to do in Vietnam… We rented motorbikes!!!! This was so awesome. At first I wasn’t so sure about it because in my opinion these are death bikes after being in Hanoi, but I was so wrong!
We explored the Ninh Binh and Tam Coc area on our bikes. We saw even more stunning scenery plus more rice paddies and crystal clear, reflective lakes. We made a quick stop in Hoa Lu, VIetnam's capital back in the 10th and 11th centuries. We explored around here for a little bit and then we were on our way again. For the rest of the day we drove around the town of Tam Coc and took it down a notch.
Ninh Binh is a beautiful place with breathtaking scenery and so many friendly people. I can’t wait to come back someday!