Our friends, Heidi and Eric, joined us for the first several weeks of our travels in Vietnam. The four of us, a group of 11 Korean tourists, one tour guide, and a bus driver set out one foggy and cloudy morning for a day trip to Ninh Binh province, a popular tourist destination about two hours south of Hanoi. Our adventure included a temple visit, bike ride, lunch, boat ride, and hike to a viewpoint. Fortunately the clouds lifted and the sun came out before the end of our long, busy day.

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Temple of the Dinh Tien Hoang King – At our first stop we learned about and saw the Dinh Temple and surrounding grounds. The temple, built in the 17th century, was created to worship King Dinh Tien Hoang who ruled from 924 to 979 AD. The grounds include a lotus pond, flower gardens, inner and outer altars, plus moss-covered (slippery) walkways, gates, and walls. In the temple courtyard we saw a unique royal stone bed with a beautifully carved dragon. In Vietnamese culture a dragon is the most important for the four sacred animals and symbolizes supreme power of a king. It is most often shown ascending from water, but not thought of as a threatening creature. The carved dragon at Dinh Temple was impressive, but the bed didn’t look too comfortable.

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Bicycle Ride & Lunch – The next activity during our day trip was a 30-minute bicycle ride on a newly paved road in Hoa Lu. We rode past several recently-built houses and our guide said that the Vietnamese government is sponsoring growth and development in the area in order to attract more tourists. After an enjoyable bike ride we ate a delicious and filling buffet lunch at a large, local restaurant. Our tour group was one of several to dine there for lunch that day.

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Trang An Grottoes – In the afternoon we explored the beautiful land of King Kong for a couple of hours while riding in a reed-lined boat. The Trang An Grottoes’ picturesque towering limestone rocks, winding and colorful caves with the occasional low ceiling, and network of peaceful canals and lakes were part of the filming locations in Vietnam for the 2017 movie Kong: Skull Island. As our boat driver paddled through the water, he pointed out a huge rock named King Kong because it (supposedly) displays a resemblance to the face of the famous giant ape. We have not watched any King Kong movies so that may be the reason why we had a difficult time seeing the similarities.

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Panoramic Hike – Mua Cave was the last destination for our day in Ninh Binh Province. The cave itself was unimpressive, but the view from the top of the mountain was great. Even though the air was quite warm, we climbed the 466 uneven stairs that zig zagged to the peak for a panoramic, worthwhile view of rice fields and surrounding towns in the river valley. The stairs were not numbered and the large variation in both riser height and tread surface also made the ascent and descent memorable. 

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