DAY TRIP TO NINH BINH PROVINCE

WHAT:
A daytrip to Ninh Binh Province, where we got to see the ancient capital Hoa Lu, and Tam Coc area, AKA "Halong Bay on land".

WHERE:
Outside Hanoi, about a 2 hour bus ride south.



TIME NEEDED:
We left 8 am and came back 6.30 pm, so about 10 hours. A full day, in other words.



MONEY NEEDED:
This trip is available in thousands of versions and prices but we booked Hoa Lu and Tam Coc Tour from Hanoi via Viator. The link will get you to our exact trip.

For this we paid $38 USD per person electronically (great for us cash-haters).
That was included with all entrence fees, lunch, pick up and drop of from Hanoi Old Quarters and English speaking tour guide.
We also paid 40,000 VDN for the two fancy hats you saw in the first picture, which turned out to be a real lifesaver in the Vietnamese early summer heat.

Also, be sure to bring some money to tip the poor lady or gentleman that has row you in a boat for two hours. Our guide told us around $1 dollar, 20,000 VDN, was a good sum. We should not, however, pay the vendors for giving our rower water, since "it's really expensive and they don't drink it anyway".
If that is true or not, we don't know, but we decided to stay safe and give the tip directly to our rower.



OUR VISIT:
Mr Tan came and picked us up at Splendora Hanoi, our hotel after returning from Halong Bay. We drove for about 1 hour before we had a quick stop for refreshing and bathroom visits.

After that we drove for another hour and arrived at Hoa Lu, the first capital of Hanoi. Tan told us Vietnam changed its capital 3 times; first away from Hoa Lu to Hanoi in 1010. It then changed to former Saigon, today Ho Chi Minh City, and then back to Hanoi again. Since 1976 Hanoi has been the capital under the united Vietnam because of the desire to make Vietnam grow and attract tourists.

A small history lesson there... 

Anyway, the sun gazed and we were slowly melting while walkig around in the ruins. Mr Tan had told us today was the start of Vietnamese summer, which ment the end of the pleasant fog and chilly temperatures that we had enjoyed so much when first arriving in the country.  So the visit was not as pleasant as it could have been a month earlier, but on the other hand, to be frank, this particular place wasn't that interesting anyway. Mr Tan was a good guide through, he had mastered the art of balancing interesting facts with a moderation in the talk quantity.

Our next stop was lunch by the river of Tam Coc. It was a good, nothing-to-complain-about buffet with kind of everything. We might have been spoiled with the master chef on Starlight Cruise while druising Halong bay, but this was still good. Nice place to sit with internet and human prices for drinks.

Being re-nourished, we took to the boats. The scenery was absolutely amazing and though looking like a mixup between idiots and tourists, we really enjoyed that our conical hats gave shade from the sun.

The boat ride took around 1,5 hour but felt like 15 minutes. The landscape around us, though not relly as bright yellow as in the google pictures, was stunning, bright green grass and mountains framing the fields and the river.

We got off the boat, very happy and at peace with the world. Jonathan made plans for buying a house alongside the river and stay there forever.

Needless to say, we were eager to take in more of this country's beauty, and luckily, we did not have to wait long.

Next thing on the agenda was a bike ride on the small roads besides the rice felts. The saddle was up in my butt like a real pain in the a**, but I had a lot to distract from it.

With "lagen om alltings jävlighet", as we say in Sweden which roughly translates to "if something can go wrong, it most definitely will", the camera died in humid heat with 20% more charging to go, but luckily, we think of everything and just plugged in our extra-battery...
... which of course also surrendered to the heat.

We did at least photograth almost the whole route and by 16.00, we were back in the bus, completely satisfied with the day.


WORTH IT?:

Oh. YES. We were especially happy with our choice to go with Viator.
We might have gotten a better price by haggling in the streets, or not, but everything was perfectly convenient and held a good quality troughout the day. We were so happy with our guide and his knowledge and quite frankly, his English.
The food was good (enough) and both the boat ride and the bike ride was amazing.

Definitely something you would want to do before you check out of this world.

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HAVE YOU BEEN TO
TAM COC 

OR NINH BINH PROVINCE? 

WHAT DID YOU THINK? 

TELL US IN THE COMMENTS!