Trang An

We finally arrived at the Joy Libi Guesthouse in Ninh Binh starved at about 11:30 p.m. The hostess graciously offered us ChocoPies, which are exactly what one would expect from the name. We crashed quickly, and got up the next morning.

I had my first salt coffee. It was pretty good, tasted like caramel.

The weather was threatening, and it is significantly colder than it’s been heretofore on the trip. It’s not the cold, it’s the humidity. Reminds us of the Bay area.

They call this area “Ha Long Bay on land,” thanks to its magical riverine landscape, with sheer limestone mountains rising up from the paddies. Given that’s the point of coming here, we determined to take the tour, even though Ellen wasn’t feeling 100%.

We joined the tour late, but that was okay. Their first stop was climbing 500 steps to take a panoramic picture. We stopped for a Vietnamese buffet lunch, got to know some of the tour group, and headed off to Trang An.

Talk about over-touristed. There were dozens of busloads of Chinese. Loading the boats was an engineering marvel.

They put us on a boat with a Brit named Harry. He was very tall. I was hoping we’d see them rowing with their feet, but it didn’t happen. We set off, and headed for the first cave.

Next we headed for one of the pagodas. A long time ago, some of the Vietnamese kings used this spot to defend from the Mongol hordes. The Mongol horses didn’t do well here, and it worked really well.

Off to another cave. It was interesting to see how the boats lined up to enter the cave in an orderly manner.

We passed a pagoda in the water, then into the most interesting cave so far.

Then sure enough, another set of pagodas.

We went past the straw houses where Kong Island was recently filmed on our way back.

Next stop on the tour was the Bich Dong Pagoda (don’t ask me about what it means). It was a bit rainy, and the steps were high, so we just meandered around the lower structures. It is one of the oldest in Vietnam.

That was the end of the tour. We were dropped off back at the guesthouse. We decided to hit the Ninh Binh walking street to find dinner. There was a lot of walking, and an interesting dinner, (that Ellen may write about), and we don’t need to go again. Turns out, the smaller town of Tam Coc is where more of the action is, a backpackers paradise.

Long day, not the best of health, but we saw some amazing sights.