Ninh Binh Hotels
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Day trip to South Hanoi - Ninh Binh
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2nd Jan 2008:
Ninh Binh - South of Hanoi:
Met our guide named Khoi and a very quiet driver at 7.30am outside Love Planet. We decided to start early as we have planned to go to many places outside Hanoi towards the south. We were delighted to find out that we will be travelling in a very sturdy Land Cruiser and that Khoi spoke understandable English and was able to answer Argi's many "difficult" questions about Vietnam from the current political situation to the population size of each city to the length of rivers.
We drove to Ninh Binh today, a small town about 100 km south of Hanoi. Our itinerary for the day:-
(1) Ken Ga Canal
(2) Hoa Lu - the Dinh & Le Kings' Temples
(3) Tam Coc
(4) Bich Dong Pagoda
Thanks to Khoi's expertise, we started our route in an opposite direction to the normal tourists' to avoid huge crowds at the ever popular Tam Coc. This resulted in us having a wonderful day because in most places that we went to, there were almost always just the two of us lingering among the locals - and Khoi was intelligent and quick enough to grasp our preferred style of travelling.
On our way to our first destination, we stopped by the roadside to visit a local morning market to get some fruits and local delicacies for the day.
Not a tourist was seen in this market and that made it more special for us. We began to recognise the privileges of having our own private transport and guide for trips like these - we can just stop at anywhere which has taken our fancy and at anytime without having to upset other fellow travellers.
Ken Ga Canal:
This village is about 1.5 hour drive outside central Hanoi and we got to see a lot of the Vietnamese lifestyles on the journey from the chaotic Hanoi to the beautiful countryside through the highways and some small country roads.
We were the first tourists to arrive at the Ken Gal Canal as according to Khoi, the crowd usually arrived here after finishing with Tam Coc. In order to experience the river life on this northern part of Vietnam, we had to take a boat
at a wharf and this added more excitement to the whole trip. Argi, of course had done all the reading and had meticulously planned this brilliant journey for our enjoyment.
There were many houses
along the canal and as we passed by with our boat, we saw the villagers going through their daily chores. We were informed by Khoi that this is a centre for Catholicism
and true enough, we saw some churches on the side of the canal.
It was quite cold
and the sceneries before us were still clouded by the early morning mist
which lent an almost mythical air to the very tranquil village life.
It was like we were suddenly being transported back to the 1960's and it is really difficult for me to put down in words what we saw and felt - you have to be here to feel it. Perhaps our pictures will speak better for us in this respect. For me, it was really a once in a lifetime experience - seeing women washing their clothes by the canal,
children and women patiently searching for snails on the banks of the canal,
fishermen trying their luck for some income, children running around bare feet without any care for the world, old men smoking and chatting casually while having their breakfast on low stools and tables.
So typically Vietnamese,
so very peaceful compared to the current crazy 21st century lifestyles
in most parts of the world.
Upon arrival back on land, Argi and I decided to walk through the village
and asked Khoi and the driver to start a bit later and to pick us further up the dusty road.
It was a good decision we made there because we stopped at some houses on the side of the road as we passed by to play with some children and to say hello to some locals.
About 20 minutes up the road, Khoi and the driver caught up with us and we got into our Land Cruiser to head to Hoa Lu.
Hoa Lu - the Dinh & Le Kings' Temples:
Our visit here was more on the historical side as Hoa Lu is the medieval site of the early Vietnam Kingdom, its ancient capital.
The main attraction in this area is the 2 main temples devoted to King Dinh and Kind Le, the ancient kings who once ruled the Kingdom. Both temples are built against a landscape of limestone mountains.
Although the temples are not grand in scale,
we were informed that they are considered as sacred places for the locals and during the Vietnamese New Year, many people would come to pray and make offerings. There will also be traditional ceremonies being held, depicting the ancient times when the kings were in power and Khoi went to the extent of showing us how and where the "guards" would stand, down to what "spear" they would be holding...He is really something !!
Tam Coc:
We then took an adventurous short-cut from Hoa Lu to reach Tam Coc,
got lost for a bit on some muddy, dusty lanes before heaving sighs of relief upon seeing the motorway again. Khoi had purposely took to the dusty route as he knew both Argi and I love to travel off the beaten tracks and would definitely jump at any opportunity of doing the unfamiliar and the challenging. Yes, we are that kind of crazeeeee travellers !!
We stopped for lunch at a restaurant before taking our boat to visit the 3 famous caves - Tam Coc.
Lunch was absolutely delicious and included in our package for today. We actually paid USD 120 for the 2 of us for this whole-day journey and for the comfort and exclusivity that we got in return, we were more than satisfied.
The boat trip along the river through Tam Coc was fun - we had a man and woman (not husband and wife) rower,
and the woman spoke fluent French and was able to communicate with Argi effortlessly.
The sceneries were okay and the place was a bit touristy. However, our perfect timing saw most tourists heading back to land while we started off and hence, we were lucky not to have our views be disrupted by a plethora of tourist boats in front of us. We were told that this place is also known as "Halong on land"
and with the many limestone mountains surrounding the area, we can understand why.
The French-speaking Vietnamese woman had with her a box full of merchandise which she tried selling to us, mainly embroidered table cloth and bedspread.
We saw that happening in other boats as well, ie. sales taking place on board. However, she was not pushy and they do really lead a very hard life - so we bought from her a nice table cloth as something to remember of this river trip, especially her "Tres jolie" comment..(wink-wink).
Back on land, we were surprised to find an evening market being set up by the roadside. Khoi informed us that the local villagers usually bring their vegetables and fruits to be sold here.
Bich Dong:
From Tam Coc, we continued our journey to the Bich Dong Pagoda.
Many other tour companies will not include this place in their itinerary of the earlier 3 places which we have covered, although its distance form Tam Coc is not very far.
This 15th century pagoda is rather unusual
as it was built inside or at the bottom of a huge limestone. It was also featured in the French film called Indochine". There are 3 temples here, situated in an ascending order. We had to climb up a rather steep slope in order to reach the old temple at the topmost level and coincidentally, when we reached the top, the sun began to set and we managed to catch a really beautiful sunset to end our adventurous day with happy memories.
Plan for the next day:
As we travelled back to central Hanoi, we made arrangement with Khoi to take us to Ba Be National Park the next day and he willingly agreed and asked us to make arrangements with the girl at Love Planet upon our arrival in Hanoi, which we promptly did.
Everything was set and we were tired but extremely happy with all that we have done today.
Indochine:
After a quick shower, we hailed a cab to take us to a restaurant called "Indochine", which Argi had found to be recommendable from some guidebook. We had some authentic local food in a nice narrow thin house which is a common sight in Hanoi.
The food was okay but we found the service to be very unprofessional. The whole restaurant was manned by teenagers and all the time when we were there, they were grouped together in front of the computer, probably on the internet and it was difficult to get their attention after they have left the food we have ordered on our table.
Although the price was quite reasonable, the setting was too proper for our liking and we told ourselves there and then that from the next day onwards, we will eat where the locals do instead of going somewhere which is recommended by our guidebooks.
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