Ninh Binh
The entrance gate to Hoa Lu
What to Expect
I want to start by saying I'm a little disappointed with the day's photos. A lot of them came out kind washed out with a haze. I'm pretty sure this was due to heat affecting my phone. I'm going to have to figure something out for this problem in the future. I pretty much never use filters but I did it with a few shots here that just had too much potential but for some reason had this haze over the photo.
The entire day takes about 12 hours and about 5 of that will be spent in the van. It is about two and a half hours there and another 2 and a half back but when you get there, all of the stops are really close together. No more than 10 minutes apart. When I booked the tour, he said I could get the ride in a limousine for an extra 100,000 dong ($4). Now I wasn't sure what this meant because I knew we wouldn't be rolling up like it was prom night but I went ahead and opted for it. It was WELL worth it. It was a very nice bus. The seats were kinda like 1st class airline seats. Very comfy and plenty of space.
You start the tour heading south and the first stop was fucking weird. After about an hour we stopped for what I assumed was breakfast but it was something that appeared to be like a "bamboo museum". We walked in and they handed us these things that looked like "press passes" to go around our necks and the walls were covered with info about how bamboo is turned into fabric, so I thought "oh neat" we will see a demonstration. Oh we saw a demonstration all right.
The passes were just to make it feel important and "official". They took us in a room and put on a display that was like damn infomercial. A lady was talking about how great the bamboo rags were and she dumped soy sauce on the table and tried to clean with normal rags and then again with the stain fighting power of bamboo rags. She then modeled some bamboo clothes for us and then they herded us into a store where we could buy these amazing products.
Now the towels at my Airbnb are actually kind of small and not great so I was considering buying one, but the stuff is ridiculously over priced. A full size towel was almost $50.
Whole thing took about 30 minutes and they also sold some snacks and drinks (also ridiculously over priced) and then we were back on the road.
First stop, Hoa Lu
Hoa Lu is the ancient capital city of Vietnam during the 10th and 11th centuries. It is the first place you visit and easily the weakest stop on the tour (besides the bamboo demonstration). It was honestly very rushed too (this will be a recurring theme).
It is mostly a very large empty field but around it is a path with other paths that lead off to a few small temples. We could either stay with our guide and he would explain some things or we go off on our own and meet him out front. I decided to go off on my own but we only had 45 minutes and I barely saw everything. I'm pretty sure the rest of the group only saw the first section because like I said, I was kinda zooming through and barely saw it all.
The temples are cool but very small most had long-ish lines to go in but they are a very short 20ft horseshoe. I went inside and skipped the rest. There were signs asking not to take pictures so I didn't but the rule isn't enforced at all. Plenty of people were doing it anyway.
They also had a few koi ponds where you could buy a bag of food for 10,000 dong ($.40) and feed the greedy little bastards.
The courtyard to one of the temples in Hoa Lu
I told you it had a large empty field
They would literally be on top of each other out of the water for that sweet, sweet fish food.
The view of some mountains near the stop for lunch
Lunch and then a boat ride
Next was a buffet lunch and the price was included in the tour but you had to buy your own drinks. The food was awesome! Had to be careful not to pig out too much because you got a 500 step hike coming up later. Right before lunch you can take a quick bike ride to a scenic spot nearby. Maybe 20 minutes total there and back. It's free and worth doing. Be careful, the brakes on the bikes aren't great.
The hike up the mountain is considered the main event of the tour but I thought the boat ride was cooler. You will be broken up into several groups of three or four and be paddled on a rowboat down a river. The views down this river are great. They give you a couple umbrellas to protect you from the sun. Luckily for us it was kinda overcast and not that bad but I imagine this could be rough in the Vietnam heat.
The ride takes about 2 hours and every second has incredible views. King Kong: Skull Island was filmed here. I know this because the lady paddling the boat tapped me on the shoulder about 10 times saying "King Kong King Kong"
You will also paddle through about five or six short caves, with low roofs. They also have a nice breeze blowing through them that gives a break from the heat.
I'm pretty sure this is a re-creation. I don't know what its significance is, but there was a bell inside it
In one of these caves someone was facing the other way taking pics. I had my camera waiting for the moment they clocked their head. Unfortunately, no such luck.
I thought this mountain looked like Godzilla
One of the few pics I was able to get with no boats and life jackets able to be seen from space
The start of the hike
Mua Cave Peak
Finally we come to the "main event". Wear good, or at least decent shoes here. I saw a lot of girls gingerly walking down the rocks barefoot, because walking down pointed uneven rocks barefoot was a better option than busting their asses on the wet stairs. Towards the top the steps aren't nearly as nice as the pic to the right shows at the bottom. The stairs have some tough areas. Some are just really high steps designed to give you that fun burning sensation in your thighs.
When you get here there is a little more to do than just the climb. It is set up like a village at the bottom. There are a few shops and restaurants around. There is also a huge lotus field you can walk through as well as a few other photo ops.
But as I said before, our tour was kinda rushed. We were only given about 70 minutes here so I didn't get to see the lotus field.
At the bottom there is a very tiny cave that leads to nowhere but it signifies the start of the hike. I stopped in when we got back down, there is a little statue and then it leads into pitch blackness. I turned on my phone light to see where it went but it is just a 10x10 round black hole. It also had just enough water at the bottom for me to step in and make my shoe squishy.
When you get about 70% of the way up, the path forks and there are no signs to which direction goes which way, and this was the part that kind of upset me. I went to the right and it had much more challenging stairs but at the top there really wasn't much besides a great view. The other side had the dragon statue and more space. From the fork at the bottom you can't really see what is at the top. And unless you have more time or are climbing the stairs quickly you won't really have time to see both. So if you are doing this tour, go to the left first, it also had easier stairs.
I'm not saying all groups are like this because I saw plenty of people exploring the lotus garden but no one on our tour was able to. One positive was from the side I went on you can get a great view of the lotus garden which has a path cut into it in the shape of some sort of flower, possibly a lotus but I'm not a botanist so I couldn't tell.
Then we headed back to the bus for the non-stop ride home. Other than my shirt being so wet from sweat that it felt like I took a shower in it, it was a pleasant comfortable ride back. Even with parts being a little rushed it was still a great tour and well worth the money. I went with Win Anh Travel but in some parts of town there is a tour office every 10ft so you won't have a problem finding a way to get there, but don't go with the first place you see. Shop around because the first place told me $80. The second place told me $40 and I would have gone with them but they didn't take credit cards (because of ATM fees I try to use cards whenever I can especially for big purchases). This was the third place I went to and was $42 including the option for the limo buses and they accepted credit cards.
The dragon at the top that I'm kinda pissed off I didn't get to see
Giant lotus field seen from the top of the mountain, it even forms the shape of a lotus