Ninh Binh is often described as ‘Ha Long Bay on land’, a nickname that made sense as soon as we pulled up on the main street and saw the huge karst mountains in every direction, rising from the ground here rather than water. We were staying in Tam Coc, a little town just outside of Ninh Binh city, the perfect base for the rural excursions we had planned.
Our friend Emel was only stopping over in Ninh Binh for a few hours before catching her night bus to Hue, so we went for a farewell-for-now dinner, a wander around the town centre and a few games of pool at the hostel bar before her departure.
Ninh Binh on Two Wheels
In the morning it took us a little longer to get going than originally planned, due to various pharmacy visits over an allergic reaction I was having to a mosquito bite. It had blown up rapidly over the last 24 hours and was showing no signs of slowing down! We decided to rent bicycles instead of scooters and stick to the closer sightseeing spots for the day.
We cycled a way out of town through rice fields and past lush green capped karsts, blissfully enjoying the wind in our hair and some of the most impressive scenery we’d seen so far on the trip.
Our first port of call was Thung Nham Bird Park. Despite the lack of actual bird sightings on our visit, it was easy to spend a good few hours roaming the park and taking in the pretty lakes, bridges and fields of crops.
Next up was Bich Dong Pagoda (with a goat encounter along the way of course). The pagoda is built into the mountains and its entrance looks like something out of a fairytale. If you climb all the way to the top you’ll be rewarded with a temple built inside the cave and another stellar viewpoint.
Meanwhile, the bite on my arm had blown up to the size of a golfball and was burning hot, so we cycled back to town pretty quickly. Our kind host at the guesthouse called the local doctor for me and she arrived within half an hour, 5 star service! The language barrier was an issue so the whole consultation was carried out over google translate and some quick online searches of the medication she was prescribing me. Thankfully the pills brought down the inflammation within a couple of hours and I was cured.
Trang An
The next day we were ready to cover some ground and explore some of Ninh Binh’s further away sights, so we rented scooters from our hostel. We’re still pretty inexperienced, so it always takes us a little while to figure them out (why are the lights not working? I can’t open the seat? Usually because the ignition’s not turned on) and get used to the roads in a new place.
We’d heard the boat tour on Trang An Lake was a must when visiting Ninh Binh, so that was the first journey we braved on our bikes, only getting lost a couple of times. There are several routes you can choose for the boat tour, we went for the longer route that included the King Kong: Skull Island film set, 3 temples and 3 caves. We piled into the little rowing boat and set off, gliding past the limestone cliffs – a freshwater lake doppelgänger of Ha Long Bay.
We were so impressed by the strength of our guide who presumably rowed this three hour trip a couple of times a day. We took up the spare oars and tried to contribute to the rowing, but I think we were more of a hindrance than a help to be honest.
The caves were a particular highlight of the trip as always, with us having to duck right down in the bottom of the boat to avoid stalactites and the very low ceilings.
Towards the end of the route we were dropped off on a little island to visit the King Kong movie set. Whole stages from the film, including an abandoned boat and a tribal village have been preserved there and opened as a tourist attraction. Some of the locals that appeared in the movie are now employed there by the tourism board, posing for photos and recreating scenes from the film.
We skipped the far away Bai Dinh Pagoda in favour of Hoa Lu ancient city, which we somewhat regretted when we heard other peoples’ glowing reviews of the former. The ancient city was definitely worth a visit, but there isn’t a huge amount to see and you can walk around the temple and the walled city fairly quickly.
Our plan was to head back to the hostel before dark, but we couldn’t resist making a pitstop at Hang Mua cave which was only 1km from town. When we arrived we saw that there was a viewpoint that was too good to miss, so we made the mad scramble to get up there in time for sunset. It was absolutely worth the stitch and the next day’s leg pain for the ridiculously beautiful views over the valley and the town below.
We ♥ Ninh Binh
Ninh Binh wasn’t actually on the original route we’d planned, but we were so glad we listened to the hype and made the detour, as it ended up being one of our favourite places in Vietnam. Just cycling around the untouched countryside alone is reason enough to make the trip down from Hanoi!
Chloe x
Pint-Sized Adventurers 