24h in Tam Coc (Ninh Binh), the terrestrial Halong Bay

What is Halong Bay on land? It is so-called “karstic” reliefs, that is to say, rock whose particular shape has been shaped by the action of water. If in Halong, these pieces of steep cliffs emerge from the water, we find this type of landscape similar to Ninh Binh, but this time, coming straight out of the land, hence simply the name “land-based Halong Bay”.

Regarding the time spent on site, it is actually a little over 24 hours that we stayed there (around 27 hours, that makes a small difference 😉), the time to have an overview of the essentials.

Getting to Ninh Binh from Hanoi

So we landed in Hanoi and left straight away, heading to Ninh BinhTo do this, we took a taxi directly to the bus station (My Dinh) then we took the bus to Ninh Binh and finally a taxi to our hotel, located in Tam Coc.

After taking a SIM card to have internet (330 Dong for 000GB of data, more than enough but we preferred to be generous and we shared the card between 3), we immediately took a taxi. Concretely it was in fact a limousine service… but we didn't know it, the price seemed reasonable to us ($2 for the round trip). By taking a taxi directly we were offered $48 to go to the bus station, but when we were in Hanoi at the end of the trip, we could see the agencies displaying prices at only $18! Basically, the taxi should be able to be negotiated from the airport at around $11.

Bich Dong Pagoda

We had booked at the hotel Tuan Ngoc, whose best memory will surely remain the little girl at reception! A nice young lady full of good advice! The hotel itself is correct considering its price and the view of the countryside is superb.

For this day already well underway, we first started with a visit to Bich Dong Pagoda, less than 2 km from our hotel. We had rented a scooter from the reception for the (roughly) 24 hours we were there.

Like almost everywhere in Vietnam, you have to pay for parking (20 Dong) and entrance to the temple (000 Dong). It's not harassment like you can have in some places in Asia but expect what the few souvenir sellers here will approach you. Politely refuse if you're not interested.

We will come across a few tourists (both Vietnamese and Asian, as well as European). The visit consists of several stages. The entrance is via a small bridge spanning a body of water. Then we arrive at a small courtyard with a few buildings. For the interesting part, you have to take the stairs leading to the part of the temple on the hillside on the left.

The origin of temple dates back to the 15th century. In addition to the pagoda nestled under the rock wall, there is also a small cave that you pass through on the way up, to reach other stairs leading a little higher.

There's the a terrace with a view. The path didn't really seem to continue. But seeing someone coming down, I didn't need any more to go and have a look. Luckily I had good shoes because the path is actually not one but it's a bit of a climb...

I was hoping to have a view of the other side of the mountain but no, there is indeed an opening between the sharp rocks but you can't see anything... the view is blocked by vegetation...

Boat trip along the rice fields of Tam Coc

It's late afternoon and we're heading towards the body of water where we can see all the boats parked there. Visit Tam Coc without a stroll on the river that passes through the rice fields seems unthinkable. The fact is that in high season, I imagine that the atmosphere must be a little overexcited and possibly too oriented towards mass tourism.

But luckily for us, that wasn't the case. In fact, no one left at the same time as us, and along the 2-hour journey, we only came across a few other boats, most of them Vietnamese rather than foreigners.

What is special about this trip? There are normally only female rowers, and in our case, this one (and she is not the only one) uses not her hands but her feet!

Yes, yes, we were both surprised (sorry if I spoil the "surprise"... I should probably write "Spoiler alert..." before lol). We were also surprised by the ease with which she did that.

So for info, the name “Tam Coc” means “3 caves” ! Indeed, along this walk, we pass 3 times under a passage dug by the water that passes under the karst peaks. We will come across the first one after a long time while the last 2 follow one another almost in a row.

The advantage of going there at the end of the afternoon, besides the fact that it was quiet (even if for that, once again, it is more linked to the season than to the time of day), we were able to attend a beautiful sunset just at the right time! (the weather was overcast at the beginning, it was not won)

Just after the 3rd "cave", we stop on a small quay. There is apparently a small Chinese temple there and a group of people eating. We were offered to go down and see the area. Wary, thinking that we were going to be charged something, we preferred to stay seated in the boat. The people sitting at the table suddenly came to give us little biscuits, for free...

Well, our rower offers to take us further for an extra charge. We politely decline and she obliges by taking the oars back to our starting point.

But a little further on she will stop to sell us souvenirs... pretending that she has children etc... Honestly, the walk would have been perfect without that. She was lucky, we were in a rather good mood and so we took a few things from her, but refuse insistently if you don't want to.

Mua Cave, the cave that everyone doesn't care about but goes there for the view!

The next day, among other things, we had planned to see the Mua Cave, a place better known for the viewpoint at the top of the peak than for the cave itself, located discreetly at the foot of the stairs leading to the top of the peak in question...

The road leading there runs along a canal, crosses a village, we are surrounded by rice fields and mountains. It is beautiful. The only downside is that we saw rock extractors in the distance, just like we saw in Hpa An in Burma, they raze entire mountains to recover material… a bit of a shame.

And indeed, the little cave is not really great (I always ask myself the question: but where does this expression come from…). At least, I remember that it feels good to go there because with the heat that was there, a little break in the cool would not be too much…

The climb itself is not that difficult, but (yes, I insist), it was very hot, very humid. And the reward at the top is really worth it! A view of a stretch of river that we had just crossed the day before, surrounded by rice fields and all these karst peaks.

To recover from this climb, we will take a short break, me taking pictures and chatting with a French couple passing by, the wife drawing. The fact is that the descent is much easier.

In search of the first capital, Hoa Lu

Our last stop on our visit to Ninh Binh would have been to go to Hoa Lu, considered the first capital of the Kingdom of Vietnam…

Would? Yes, because I looked everywhere… I couldn’t find the road… I went around in circles a bit and the place wasn’t indicated by signs or on Google Maps… and the locals didn’t really know how to explain (or didn’t know at all, we don’t know…), in short, I couldn’t find it…

I was a little disappointed because I thought that a place of tourist interest should not be so difficult to find... Afterwards I saw it rather as a plus to complete the visit of the surroundings but not as an essential, because it is also necessary to know that there is not much left of this old capital.

So instead we wandered through the countryside around Tam Coc, passing through villages and rice fields. We passed what appeared to be another boarding point for a boat trip, but it was clearly designed to accommodate buses and lots and lots of people…

We returned to Tam Coc, then took this large deserted road, still under construction, a dual carriageway just for us!

Restaurants in Tam Coc

Tam Coc is quite small. All the restaurants are lined up on both sides of the street just before the body of water where the walks start. Some will make signs to invite you to stop there.

In addition to testing the restaurant at our hotel, we tested several right next to the lake. In particular, one in the evening that proudly displays being in the Routard guide since 2013. As a result, we only met French people there!

After the meal itself was ok but not amazing either.

It’s well worth a little detour from Hanoi, right? 😉