Ninh Binh: Trang An and Tam Coc
I have been delinquent in posting since I started my new attending job (finally!!!) but I wanted to write about Trang An and Sapa before I start forgetting all the details. Two beautiful spots in Northern Vietnam that you have to see. If you are in a time crunch, save Sapa for another trip, and head over to Trang An since it’s closer to Hanoi.
Ninh Binh
Ninh Binh was about an hour and 45 minutes south of Hanoi, and many people do a day trip from Hanoi, though I’d DEFINITELY recommend a longer stay! We did a full day and a half and I felt like we barely had time to enjoy everything. I’ll discuss a few of the main sights in Ninh Binh.
Trang An
Trang An was described to us as “Ha Long Bay on land.” You see somewhat similar landscapes of large karst limestone formations, but everything is connected with rice paddies. The best way to explore this area is on boats. You can choose three pathways to take; I chose route 1, which is the longest (~2.5 hours) and takes you through the most caves. And when I say caves…I mean CAVES. The caves in Trang An are lit up, so you get to experience and see all the details in the caves in all their drippy glory. You go in a big loop so you never see the same scenery twice.
One important note: We went in September, which was their rainy season. As it turns out, the water level was waaaay higher than it normally is. For that reason, when we went in the first cave, our rower yelled at us to duck down. We actually had to crouch down into little balls on the floor of the small boat to avoid scraping our heads on the ceiling. If you are claustrophobic or can’t easily and quickly roll into a small ball, do NOT come on this tour during rainy season. The first cave we went through I nearly had a panic attack when a spider dropped onto our boat and I was screaming and batting at it with a spare oar, nearly capsizing our boat! That’s NOT the video I’m sharing with you all below My friend and travel companion Tiffany took this great video which highlights the view inside the caves:
The cave tours were exhilarating because it was rainy season, but the true wonder of the place is the quiet beauty. We went late in the day around 5 pm, and we were the only boat on the water (probably because we chose the cave intensive route during rainy season…). The plus side of this was that we had a nearly private tour.
Tam Coc
The next morning we did another rowboat tour on the rice patties, but this time in a straight line through to the small lake and then back. This tour on the rowboat was much shorter, ~1 hour total, and the most amazing part was that all the rowers rowed with their FEET! One girl was even on her phone while rowing. Talk about multitasking.
https://www.teawithmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/renderedcontent-6890a0c6-24d3-4ca2-83a3-1d96b64549eb.mov
Between Trang An and Tam Coc, I preferred Trang An. The ride was longer, more peaceful, less tourists, and we saw more caves. However, if you are claustrophobic and don’t want to be in a cave for long periods of time, go for Tam Coc. The longest period you spend in a cave in Tam Coc is ~4-5 minutes, versus ~10 minutes at Trang An.
Hang Mua Peak
THIS CLIMB WILL MAKE YOU FEEL POWERFUL. I’m not kidding. You start off near the base of the Hang Mua cave, and then you take 500 very steep steps to the top of Hang Mua Peak, where you see truly incredible 360 degree views of Tam Coc. In fact you see all the little rowboats down below doing the riverboat ride. You can get some incredible photos up here, and simply doing the climb to see the spiky dragon at the top is such as accomplishment. By the time we finished the 30 minute climb, M and I were completely drenched in sweat. It looked like we had just taken a shower. Lovely, I know.
Two other random things I remember about the climb: there was a lot of goat feces on the ground (little mountain goats climb it at night I presume) and there were some nasty red killer bees buzzing around. The bees really freaked us out and we weren’t able to truly enjoy climbing all the way to the top because we were hopping around dodging the bees. No one else seemed to be as flustered though.
Aside from these few places in Ninh Binh, we also visited Bich Dong Pagoda and the Bird Sanctuary. They were interesting but we didn’t have enough time to devote to each spot. If you only have 1-2 days, stick to the places I described in detail above.
Enjoy!
Christina says
yours guides are so helpful! i’m planning a trip to northern vietnam for next year with several family members. how did you get to ninh binh? did you do a tour from hanoi?