Ninh Binh, Vietnam

Not sure why, but this trip seems to have more mishaps than successes. Jamie wanted to arrange the bus from Cat Ba to Ninh Binh because the bus company I selected for our trip to Cat Ba switched us to a less comfortable bus at the last minute. However, Jamie's bus picked us up last, leaving only the smaller seats at the back available. I must say, our transportation luck on this trip hasn't been the best!

Despite that, the bus ride seemed to pass quickly, and we reached our hotel in Ninh Binh around 2:00 pm. We took some time to relax in our room and enjoy the scenery, as we were situated at the base of limestone mountains in the Trang An area. After unwinding, we rented a bike and took a 20-minute ride into town to look for a night market for dinner. Although we tried three different spots, we couldn't find anything. That being said, the nighttime ride around the temples at night made for a nice introduction to Ninh Binh as it was nice to see the light effects and explore the old center.

Trang An Boat Ride

I thought it would be a good idea to have a relaxed first day at the new location, so I proposed we take the Trang An boat ride, as it was just 5 minutes from our hotel. The boat ride offers three different routes, and it is considered more impressive than the other option, Tam Coc. The experience changes based on the chosen route, but we opted for route 3 because it includes a 20-minute passage through Dot Cave, the largest and longest cave, and would have us on the water for about three hours.

The journey was more incredible than I could have imagined. We were paired with an Italian couple, and the four of us set sail. I was worried about the experience feeling long, but there were a lot of stops where you were able to get out of the boat and walk around before boarding and getting back in. The other surprising highlight for me other than Dot Cave was getting to go by one of the film sets that was used during King Kong Skull Island as it made the place feel like a giant ape was going to swing around the corner of the mountain at any second and scoop our boat up out of the water.

What really struck me about the experience, other than the sheer raw beauty of the land, was the majority of the people working were older women. This was pretty tough work rowing four adults around for three hours. Was pretty eye-opening what people had to do to make a living.

Not the Sunglasses!

Somewhere along the day before, whether it be during the boat ride, or during our bike ride back to the hotel, Jamie's sunglasses went missing. After scoring the best possible deal on these sunglasses in Dubai and finding a pair that was polarized and fit perfectly on his face, this loss felt a bit devastating. Knowing we were going to be on the water some more and eventually biking the Ha Giang Loop, Jamie (rightfully so) wanted to get a replacement pair ASAP. With a mission at hand, we bookmarked a few stores in town and biked into Ninh Binh to see what we could find.

There were a few decent options, but he ultimately decided to wait it out. I worked up an appetite on the hunt though, so we went to get sandwiches from Bánh Mì Giòn which I will dream of for the next few weeks. Tucked away in someone's house, this little shop was packed from the moment we arrived to the moment we left. The cheapest sandwiches you could ask for at 22,000 VND (under 1 USD), the pork was incredibly well seasoned and the bread soft. Definitely a contender for the best banh mi we will have in Vietnam.

After our chaotic morning, we got back to the hotel in the afternoon and camped out in the little hut on the river drinking some beer and catching up on work. The hotel included free paddleboarding, and I really wanted to give it a shot, so I also snuck in a quick sunset paddle before it got too dark. The following day Jamie and I got on the water together, and it was super relaxing exploring where the river would go and drifting on the boards.

Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve

Another key film location for King Kong Skull Island, I was curious about doing the boat ride at Van Long Wetland to see how it would vary from Trang An. A bit further outside of the city, this area has the reputation of having water like glass or a big mirror because fewer people are visiting and disturbing the water. After driving 30 minutes to the wetlands, it was pretty apparent the reputation held true.

While I wouldn't say this was a have-to-do while you're in Ninh Binh, it was nice to get a quieter experience that was much cheaper than the Trang An. You get the boat to yourself, and since there aren't a ton of people following you, there's an opportunity to stop and soak in the atmosphere a bit - perfect if you're trying to spot birds like my Jamie. We also got lucky while we were here and spotted some monkeys up in the trees.

After the boat ride, we ended up biking around the area as there is a quiet trail that follows the wetlands around for five kilometers or so. We saw all kinds of wildlife from cows cooling off in the water to birds sitting and relaxing on their backs.

Bai Dinh Pagoda

After all of the nature, we decided it was time to do the more historical sites in the area. Since our hotel was 10 minutes from the Ancient City, we biked there to explore. However, there were maybe 30 tour buses, so we quickly decided this was maybe not the move and ended up doing a quick U-turn towards the Bai Dinh Pagoda.

What the photos fail to show you is that this day was SO HOT. The heat paired with having been in the sun the majority of the day before left us with a light case of heatstroke so we weren't in the best shape for exploring. Although this was the case, I still thought it would be a good idea for us to explore the 80-hectare site saving the popular stuff for last. This started off being kind of cool as we had a buggy to ourselves to take us to the dropoff point for the caves in the corner of the complex. What a mistake this was though as the cave was minuscule and then had to hike back toward the actual stuff you wanted to see. Luckily the pagoda had an elevator to its top 12 and 13 floors so we didn't have to hike for the view, but it was certainly a lesson learned that sometimes it's best to just follow the crowd!

The Move to Tam Coc

The homestay we had in Trang An was a bit expensive and on the upper end of our budget, so for the last four nights of our trip, we decided to make the move into town as all of the blogs I had read told you to stay in Tam Coc so you're close to the shops and restaurants. While it was nice to have our choice of where to eat (and pay a fraction of the price in lodging), the city was pretty busy and had a tourist-to-local ratio of maybe 8:1. Not really what we wanted to explore. That being said, because the focus for this portion of the trip was to get work done and do some trip planning, it worked out ok in the end.

I think the most important part of this portion of our travels was that Jamie and I built a schedule for how we would break up the week. Exploring every day just isn't feasible and with the luck we have been having, we figured we needed to do some more research and plan a bit better. I think this is going to help a lot moving forward and keep both of us happy since Jamie needs laptop time but I go crazy being glued to the desk for too long.

Mua Cave

On our research and planning day, we found out there are sleeper buses from Ninh Binh to Ha Giang. Many people had recommended the Ha Giang bike loop to us, but if you're going to be biking for four days straight, you don't want to be doing it in the rain. With the forecast looking unpredictable for the rest of the year, we figured our best bet would be to high-tail it up to Ha Giang later this week, shifting our departure day from Ninh Binh a day early.

Since we were leaving early, we thought a sunrise hike of Mua Cave would be a great idea to tire us out for the sleeper bus. However, I had a late meeting the night before, and neither of us got to sleep early. So, the sunrise hike turned into a 9:00 am hike. What Jamie and I didn't expect was that even though the hike is mainly stairs, you feel it in your legs after the 500th step - especially when none of the stairs are the same height!

I'm glad we started when we did because by the time we were descending around 10:00 am, the place was packed with people. We grabbed a coffee at the hotel at the base of the hike and relaxed a bit before taking a taxi back to the hotel to pack and shower before the 12:00pm checkout.

This left us with about 6.5 hours to fill until our bus was scheduled, so we spent the afternoon working at Flamingo Cafe. The staff there were very kind and didn't ask us to leave, even though it was probably our third day of ordering little and staying for a long time.

North We Go

Before we knew it the day of work was over and at 7:00 pm we boarded our sleeper bus to Ha Giang. I got super motion-sick very early into the journey and ended up shifting from a top cabin to a bottom bunk. I swear they look like space capsules.

We arrived in Ha Giang at 2:00 am Wednesday, with the loop kicking off Thursday morning. But I'll save all that for the next post.

Buckle up and rev those engines—Ha Giang Loop, here we come!