Ninh Binh

  A Day in the Countryside

Our intrepid tour guide Tran

On our second day in Vietnam, we met Tran and his driver outside of our hotel for an adventure to Ninh Binh Province, a cultural heritage site with, limestone hills and rice fields that line the Ngo Dong River near Tam Coc. It was really a fabulous drive through the countryside while Tran told us the entire history of Vietnam. I listened intently while thinking about the Sampan boat we would be taking down the river - wondering if I had the arm power to be a viable worker on the boat…

 my one photo from the temple 

We stopped on the way to visit the Dinh King temple from the 10th century near where the original capital of Vietnam was located. It was after this stop that things started to go south. Tran took us to a very touristed spot, Tam Coc, to walk up 500 large and irregular limestone steps to look out over the valley and the river where we would soon be boating. 

 photo from the internet 

I was game, of course, but I have no photos from this event due to the fact that I was in full pray mode that I would somehow get out of there without having legit heart failure or from tumbling down hundreds of limestone steps on my face. It was hell. 

Norah did snap this from the top

After we did make it back down (I was practically crawling), Tran drove us to lunch at a restaurant teaming with foreigners and bland food. I was okay with that while in my recovery, however, Norah came down with a case of severe nausea. We hung around for awhile hoping things would improve but in the end turned back without finishing the tour.

I was actually relieved - I don’t think this tour was my vibe. Tran was a little sad, though both he and the driver were terrified that Norah might puke in the car. They gave us about 15 plastic bags from the restaurant as a precaution and then put the pedal to the metal for two hours back to our hotel. We made it and I was so happy to be back in busy crazy Hanoi.

 our very welcoming hotel front door