Welcome to Ninh Binh

After I arrived in Ninh Binh early in the morning at half past four with the overnight bus from Cao Bang, I first took a taxi directly to the hostel. I checked in there and then went straight back to sleep.

I woke up shortly before nine and had breakfast in the hostel. After breakfast I got ready and packed my things for the day. At the reception I borrowed a scooter for the day.

First I drove to the Thai Vi Temple. When I got there, I realized that my scooter was broken. Since I didn’t want to drive with a broken scooter, I drove straight back to the hostel and exchanged it for another one. Luckily the Thai Vi Temple was not far from the hostel.

Visiting the Thai Vi Temple

As soon as I got a new scooter, I went back to the Thai Vi Temple. This temple is not really known to tourists, which is why hardly anyone has been there.

In peace I then visited the temple. The temple was built by King Tran Thai Tong in 1258 after his victory against the Chinese invasion. Every year in March, a festival is held at Thai Vi Temple. During the festival, several ceremonies honoring King Tran Thai Tong are held at the temple.

Compared to the other northern places I had visited before in Vietnam, Ninh Binh was extremely warm and muggy.

Strolling around Ninh Binh

From the temple I just drove around the town a bit. I had previously seen on Google Maps that there was a river to the north of the province. I wanted to go there because I had hoped for spectacular nature there.

First, to get there, I had to drive on an expressway, which is not entirely safe with a scooter, but I managed it.

But my discovery tour wasn’t really worth it, because I couldn’t see anything exciting. The river and nature looked quite similar to what was offered to me in front of my hostel and the roads to get there were quite busy. So I drove all the way back to the hostel and took a break there from the heat.

Exploring the Mua Cave

After about an hour I set off again with the scooter to Mua Cave. This is a rock that you can walk to the top of. There are two rocks in total. After mastering the first steps, two different paths lead to the viewpoints of the rocks.

When I arrived at Mua Cave it was 36 degrees. With these temperatures and bright sunshine, I then had to walk up the 500 steps to the two viewpoints. Of course it was extremely exhausting, but the challenging climb was definitely worth it for the breathtaking view over the nature of the province of Ninh Binh.

I was at the two viewpoints for quite a while and enjoyed the view. I also tried to climb to the dragoon that is at the top of the viewpoint. Because a lot of people have done it, I thought I could do it too. But this wasn’t the smartest idea. It was far too crowded and there weren’t any real opportunities to hold on to the slippery stones. There was a chain to hold on to. But it also wobbled quite well and wasn’t the safest way not to fall. I turned back as quickly as I could. It wasn’t all that safe.

Around half past five in the evening I went down all the steps and back to the hostel, where I spent the rest of the evening. The hostel was really nice and was a bit out of the way in nature, but it wasn’t really social. It’s always important to me that I’m in hostels where it’s easy to meet other backpackers.

Another day another temple

The next morning, after breakfast and after checking out, I rented a scooter again. Since my bus to Phong Nha left in the evening, I still had the whole day to explore Ninh Binh.

First I went to a small shop and bought new mosquito spray, because there were a lot of mosquitoes in Ninh Binh. From there I drove to the ATM and then I had already done everything that needed to be done.

So I made my way to the Bich Dong Pagoda Temple. This was a bit more popular with tourists than the temple I had visited the day before. Of course, at the moment I arrived at the temple, a bus full of tourists arrived, who of course all wanted to have a photo in front of the temple.

I gave the group of tourists a little head start and then slowly caught up. The temple was significantly larger than the one I had visited the day before. There was also a small cave that you had to go through to see another part of the temple.

Coconut Coffee by the river

After visiting the temple, I first drove back to the hostel. In the afternoon I went to a café, which was really nice because it was right on a river. I sat there for a while and drank a coconut coffee, which I’m slowly becoming addicted to.

In the late afternoon I drove back to the hostel and took a shower there. Then I drove off again to buy some snacks for the bus ride and to have dinner. I went to a small local restaurant not far from my hostel and ate fried rice there. I paid a total of 35K Dong / $2.20 AUD for dinner. Local restaurants and local food are always so much cheaper than other restaurants. Even if these are still very cheap compared to restaurants in Europe.

After dinner I drove back to the hostel and also handed in my scooter. After an hour delay my bus to Phong Nha arrived at 9 o’clock in the evening. Beforehand, I had kindly received a bag with snacks and water for the bus ride from my hostel.

If you would like to know what I experienced during my stay in Phonh Nha, check out my next post Adventurous caves in Phong Nha – Vietnam Travel Diary.