SE Asia Day 21: Ninh Bình

/ alliwanders

I do a lot of my travel research in Facebook Groups and the Vietnam ones highly praised Ninh Bình as a must-see destination so I booked a full day excursion with a local agent to check it out for myself today.

Google says it was the first capital of a unified Vietnam from 968-1010, has lots of ancient temples, and is a “mesmerizing area known locally as ‘Ha Long Bay on Land’ thanks to its magical riverine landscape, with sheer limestone mountains rising up from the paddies.”

The fancy limo bus took 2.5h to arrive in Ninh Bình, thanks to traffic and an obligatory 30 minute shopping stop (😖). We hopped on some crappy old bicycles for the 2k distance to a small temple complex, then pedaled our way back to a big buffet lunch. There’s about 30 tourists on my bus so it’s like herding cats trying to get everyone from A to B in a timely manner, quite a test for my impatient soul.

I was so not into the crowds, my non-complying group, the grey day, etc that this is the only decent picture I took at the temple, lol

Stop 2 was Trang An Landscape Complex – another UNESCO World Heritage Site. We set off in skiffs for a 2 hour tour round this magical landscape of limestone islands, winding rivers, through low caves, past temples and buildings, even went by King Kong Island. If only we could see clearly….

It did sprinkle a little
Zooming in, the grass teepees on the island and huts on hills behind are all leftover from King Kong: Skull Island (2017)

I do have to praise the oarsmen/women. They rowed hard a cumbersome skiff loaded with fat tourists with consummate skill for 2 solid hours. And we weren’t dawdling but kept a decent clip going; they were awesome.

Final stop was Hang Mua and the climb up Ngoa Long Mountain. This is a beautifully designed tourist site with boardwalks through huge lotus ponds, winding paths past shops and restaurants, and finally stairs to the heavens (or so it seemed). The stone steps got progressively steeper as you ascended, and one had the choice after a 100 stairs or so to go left to the “dragon” = 500 steps, or right to the “pagoda” = 200 steps. We had an hour and a half at the site so I did both. Unfortunately the view was crap, so thick was the smog. It was 3:30pm when I was at the summit and it already looked like night was falling. It was so bad my iPhone kept telling me to clean my camera lens when it wasn’t even dirty…

Walking thru the site towards the Stairs
Normal steps
Steps like a ladder
View from the Dragon peak, 500 steps high, looking down on the lower Pagoda Peak
What I should have seen at the top but for the crowds (and visibility)
Time to try the Pagoda climb
Yay! Made it up this one too
From here you can see the lotus flower shape
of the boardwalks

And that was my day. Just another 2.5 hour bus ride back to Hanoi, some take-out chicken fried rice, and blog. Tomorrow write. Tomorrow I change hotels as my next G Adventures tour starts: Soloish Vietnam.