Vietnam. The beauty of Tam Coc in Ninh Binh (Tam Coc, Ninh Binh). Ninh Binh Province. Main attractions How to get from Hanoi to Tam Coc

What Forrest Gump liked most about Vietnam was that there was always somewhere to go. But if, while traveling around this country, you happen to visit Tam Coc National Park(which translated means “three caves”), then you will definitely like the fact that there is always somewhere to swim. After taking a walk along the picturesque Ngo Dong River, tourists have the opportunity to see the Hang Ca, Hang Giua and Hang Cuoi caves.

Tam Coc is one of the most visited tourist places. By renting a boat and going on a trip along the river, you can admire the picturesque yellow-green ones that stretch along the banks, as well as steep limestone cliffs, their height reaches 100 m.

The real highlight of the trip will be a visit to the karst caves. The flow of water washed out these through caves in the rocks, forming natural grottoes. Hang Ca is the longest of the caves, it stretches for 127 m, while its ceiling is quite low, so you often have to duck your head while swimming through it. The second grotto, Hang Giua, is about half as long; Hang Cuoi is even shorter - 46 m. ​​Tourists are usually attracted by the peace and tranquility that reigns here, however, sometimes it can be disturbed by local residents trying to sell all sorts of souvenirs and handicrafts.

The last time we were in Vietnam, we drove from Hanoi to see the beauty of the Tam Coc limestone cliffs near the town of Ninh Binh. At that time we did not yet have the skills to drive a motorcycle, so we went on a one-day excursion. The photos are not very good, sorry, they were taken on our old point-and-shoot camera, we were then afraid that in Asia we would certainly be robbed and that in general it was very dangerous there and we did not take a normal camera :)

Tourists mainly cluster in the southern part of the country: from Saigon to Nha Trang, or completely in the north in Halong and Sapa, and not everyone comes to Tam Coc. Although the place is very picturesque, and it’s worth dedicating half a day to it.

People take boats to look at the rocks, mostly women rowing, and they do it with their feet! And there is a spare mini-oar for maneuvering. Seryoga wanted to help her, and when he started rowing, the boat almost turned around :)
The last boats leave at 17:30 in summer and at 16:30 in winter.

On the way back, the boatmen stop and start selling souvenirs. We very sternly said that we didn’t need anything, so she immediately left behind. We saw that other tourists were attacked very heavily. We also read that boatmen like to stop a meter from the pier and extort tips, otherwise they won’t dock. Ours didn’t do anything like that, because she realized that Seryoga could perfectly row to the pier, even if she rowed in the other direction :) and she would also get an oar ;)

Then we were taken for a bike ride.

At that time I was still not good at riding a bike, and I was very afraid and lagged behind, but somehow I managed :)

After that, we had lunch at a local restaurant and tried kid meat, but we didn’t like it.

The excursion takes only one day, and I remember that it was inexpensive, 10-15 dollars. Of course, it would be cooler to come on your own motorcycle, but then it was unattainable for us. This is the second time we have already.

At first, we, as independent tourists, tried to go on a local bus, but it greatly delayed the departure, and we tried to watch TV on the go, in which half-naked young ladies were jumping, so we ran away from this bus. Then the hotel employee said that he himself does not travel on these buses, they are also too harsh for him.

You can also get to Ninh Binh by train if you have tickets, but then you need to catch a motorcycle taxi from the train. It's easier with a tour.

Between the Hong Ha and Ma rivers, approximately 90 kilometers south of. Area – 1,389 km², population – 906,900 people (2011).

The capital of this small province is the city of the same name, Ninh Binh, but it is not of particular interest to tourists and is a popular starting point for traveling through the picturesque countryside.

The territory of Ninh Binh province also includes an 18-kilometer stretch of the coast of the South China Sea, but beach recreation is not developed there.

The main local attractions here are created by nature itself - this is the picturesque Tam Coc area with three caves, the first national park in Vietnam - Cuc Phuong, as well as the unique wetland reserve - Van Long.

Also worth a visit are the huge Ba Dinh temple complex, the unusual Phat Dien Cathedral and the ancient city of Hoa Lu (the former capital of Vietnam).

Hoa Lu Ancient City (Cố đô Hoa Lư)- was the capital of the first centralized feudal state of Dai Co Viet (the official name of Vietnam from 968 to 1054) until 1010, then the capital was moved to Hanoi. It is the birthplace of 3 Vietnamese dynasties - Dinh, Early Le and Ly.

In the past, Hoa Lu was located on an area of ​​300 hectares (3 km²), including outer and inner fortresses with defensive walls, gates, palaces, temples and shrines, and was protected by limestone mountains.

To this day, little remains of that ancient capital city - only 47 monuments have survived, including several imperial temples and tombs, gates, pagodas, Thien Thon Cave and Chang An Grottoes. The earliest monuments date back to the second half of the 10th century.

Bai Dinh Pagoda

Baidinh (Chùa Bái Đính) or Bai Dinh- the largest Buddhist temple complex in Vietnam, located in Ninh Binh province, three kilometers from the ancient capital of Hoa Lu. In recent years it has become a popular pilgrimage site for Vietnamese Buddhists.

The Bai Dinh complex consists of the Old Pagoda, built in 1136 (occupies 27 hectares), and the New Pagoda, built between 2003 and 2010 on an area of ​​80 hectares.

The new pagoda is the owner of several records - it is the largest pagoda in Vietnam, it houses the country's largest bronze Buddha statue weighing 100 tons, as well as three 50-ton bronze Buddha statues and huge bells weighing 36 and 27 tons.

In addition, the New Pagoda contains more than 500 stone statues of arhats (spiritual practitioners), up to 2.5 meters high and weighing up to 4 tons each.

Phat Dien Cathedral (Nhà thờ chính tòa Phát Diệm)- an unusual Catholic temple complex located 27 kilometers southeast of Ninh Binh city.

The complex was built between 1875 and 1898 and is a magnificent example of architectural harmony between east and west.

Tam Coc and Bich Dong (Tam-Cốc - Bích-Động) is a very scenic area and a popular tourist destination in the Ninh Binh area.

The local magnificent landscapes are reminiscent of the world famous Ha Long Bay, only unlike the latter, there is no sea here, there is only the winding Ngo Dong River flowing between green rice fields and steep limestone karst cliffs.

A tour to Tam Coc typically lasts 3 hours and includes a boat ride through beautiful landscapes, including three large natural caves, as well as a visit to the ancient Bich Dong Pagoda, built at the base of the mountain in the 11th century.

Van Long Nature Reserve

Van Long Nature Reserve is a large wetland reserve located 15 kilometers northwest of Ninh Binh City. It was created in 1998 with the aim of preserving the ecosystem of the Red River Delta (Sông Hồng). It occupies an area of ​​about 3500 hectares.

The reserve is home to more than 100 species of birds and about 40 species of animals, including one of the rarest species of monkeys - Delacour's Langur, as well as the endangered Clouded Leopard.

In addition, the nature here is very beautiful. It is Van Long's picturesque landscapes that have made it one of the most popular tourist destinations in Ninh Binh Province.

Cuc Phuong (Vườn quốc gia Cúc Phương)- is the first national park in Vietnam and the largest in the country. It is located in the northern part of the Annam Mountains, composed of limestone karst rocks. Territory area – 220 km².

The park was founded in 1962 with the goal of preserving the unique flora and fauna of the tropical rainforests of northern Vietnam. About 2,000 species of plants grow here, 97 species of animals, more than 300 species of birds, 76 species of reptiles, 46 species of amphibians, 11 species of fish, as well as almost 1,800 different insects live.

One of the most famous representatives of the animal world of Cuc Phuong Park is Delacour's langur (an endemic species of monkeys of the family Ape, which is under threat of extinction).

It is also worth noting a very rare representative of the predatory fauna - Ouston's Civet (an animal of the civet family, with short legs and a long tail, living in trees).

The numerous caves in the national park are home to nearly 40 species of bats.

In addition, there are archaeological attractions here, for example, the Cave of Ancient Man, in which people lived approximately 7,500 years ago, as evidenced by the burials and tools found in it.

Cuc Phuong National Park is located 40 kilometers west of Ninh Binh City.

How to get to Ninh Binh Province

Ninh Binh Province is located 90 kilometers south of, from which you can get here by taxi or bus.

A taxi to Ninh Binh city will cost about 45-50 USD, and a bus ride will cost 60,000 VND.

Buses depart from the southern Hanoi bus station (Giap Bat), leave in 15 minutes, travel time is 1.5-2.5 hours depending on traffic. Tickets can be purchased at the bus station ticket office.

Ninh Binh Video

My first day in Vietnam started with a cold morning in Laos. At seven in the morning in Sam-Nea it was just above zero, and I, having put on all the warm clothes that I had, continued to shiver from the cold - my body was unaccustomed to cold weather, I was now a terrible freezing person. I ended up buying gloves a week later in the north of Vietnam, and I was very happy.

That day, luck was entirely on my side: it was the first day of validity of my Vietnamese visa, and it was on this day, Saturday, that the weekly bus departed from Sam Nea to the Vietnamese city of Thanh Hoa, three hours from Hanoi . On all other six days of the week, those leaving for Vietnam get to the border in a pickup truck, cross it on foot and fall into the clutches of the predatory Vietnamese. Due to the lack of regular public transport on the Vietnamese side, they harass foreigners in full - first they take them on motorbikes for a lot of money 30 km to the nearest town, and from there the bus driver offers foreigners a ride to Hanoi for a price starting from $15. There are no options - there is only one bus, the driver is stubborn, and if he does not want to pay the required amount, he brazenly declares: “Stay here!” And he periodically stops in remote areas and announces a price higher than the one announced earlier. I've read dozens of similar stories about crossing this border over the past few years, and there was no happy ending in any of them - absolutely all were scammed for money to one degree or another. Therefore, when in Sam Nea I found out that for 10 dollars there is a direct bus to Thanh Hoa, there was no doubt.

The twenty-five kilometers to the border were very beautiful (as were the several hours of driving through mountainous Vietnam afterwards) - the road winded along a fast-moving mountain river above a valley with rice terraces, surrounded by mountains.

It took a long time to cross the border, because on both sides the border guards wrote down the details of each passport in an important notebook. On the Laotian side, despite it being a Saturday, no one demanded payment for overtime. And on the Vietnamese side, everyone was called into a spacious Soviet-type office with heavy furniture, where an important Vietnamese man in a respectable uniform sat at a huge table. For half an hour, while he was copying out passport data, surrounded by twenty Vietnamese and four foreigners from the bus, I could hardly contain my laughter - all the surrounding pathos and bureaucracy were very similar to what I was used to at home.

Border guards and customs officers offered us to exchange the remaining Lao kips or dollars for Vietnamese dongs at an unfavorable rate for us. Then the customs officers asked to open all the backpacks and turned the things around with their hands. And when one of them found out that I was from Russia, a happy smile did not leave his face for another five minutes, and he kept repeating: “Oh, Russia, Putin, I love you!”

Then we drove through small mountain villages, and the people in them smiled - to each other, to me, to everyone. After Laos, where there were few people and everyone was sad, I found myself in a place where life was seething and seething. In small towns, Brownian motion was happening on the streets: bicycles, motorbikes, our UAZs, KAMAZs, MAZs, everything was moving somewhere and periodically buzzing. I have never seen so many of our cars as in Vietnam anywhere in the far abroad. It seems like there are not as many UAZ cars as there are here in all of Russia.

Vietnamese national flags are hung everywhere - a yellow star on a red background. Red flags with a hammer and sickle are often found as a symbol of communism. And just a star, a hammer and a sickle on the facades of buildings. Above the streets there are banners with white inscriptions on a red background. And huge billboards from the series “Peace, Labor, May!” Again in red colors. I'm almost home. 20 years ago.

In the evening, when it was already dark, the bus stopped at some crossroads for dinner. We unloaded and another bus parked nearby. In addition to local residents, a dozen whites got out of it. The Israeli recognized them as a familiar elderly Israeli couple, the French and I recognized a familiar French couple. These were the people who left Sam Nea in a pickup truck towards the border yesterday morning. A couple of hours later they reached it, crossed, and there was no transport on the Vietnamese side. There was no way to rent something together (there were 12 of them) - there was no transport in the border village, so they were taken on motorbikes 30 kilometers to the next small town. Where they had to spend the night, because the next bus to Thanh Hoa, where we were going straight from Sam Nea, left only the next morning. Of course, the driver did not deny himself anything and collected 15 dollars from everyone, however, promising to take them all the way to Hanoi. And so we met at this intersection, having left the same starting point 24 hours apart. I felt incredibly sorry for them; the people were exhausted from two days of trading, moving, and received terrible first impressions of Vietnam.

The main rule for a successful trip to Vietnam is thorough theoretical preparation. Vietnam is a country where the tourist shoe industry is developed like nowhere else. During ten months of traveling around Southeast Asia, I met only one person who completely and completely liked Vietnam, and he traveled around it for six months on a bicycle, visiting all sorts of remote places. Everyone else told me horror stories about how the Vietnamese are constantly, persistently and obsessively trying to sell everything to foreigners, cheating on prices, including in public transport and in hotels, and vacation turns into real torture. After two weeks in Vietnam, I myself can say that I have never met more vile types than here, and in such numbers, anywhere. All the main options for scamming tourists are described on the Internet, so before traveling on your own in Vietnam, learn swear words. Part. And from the experience of the only person who liked Vietnam, I concluded that the further I go from the tourist routes, the better impressions I will have of the people and the country, so I planned my progress through Vietnam so that the most interesting sights alternate with remote places where there will be wonderful people. So far everything is going according to plan, and I am one of the four people I know today who like Vietnam and the Vietnamese.

In Thanh Hoa, our bus driver caught us a bus to Hanoi, warning us that it cost three dollars. The four of us loaded up, and the comrade who was clearing up went to clearing up everyone. The French were traveling to Ninh Binh, a town two hours from Hanoi, and the Israeli and I were going to Hanoi. He, sitting in front, for some reason paid the requested four dollars for the fare, and I handed the guy three. For the next five minutes we passed these three dollars to each other: he wanted four, but I didn’t want to pay more than three, because it didn’t matter. An attempt to find out from local residents how much they pay for travel on a similar route was unsuccessful - they told them the amount announced by the “conductor” in Vietnamese dong, which in dollar equivalent was generally equal to five. After five minutes, the “conductor” got tired of passing three dollars from hand to hand, he took the money and told me “Sorry, thank you.”

There are wonderful people living in Vietnam: friendly, welcoming, smiling and sociable, but with those involved in fleecing tourists, you must always be on guard - you will definitely be fleeced, and often the attempts will be arrogant and uncompromising.

I never made it to Hanoi - there was an accident on the road, there was a giant traffic jam, and since I didn’t want to arrive in the capital of Vietnam at 2 a.m., at 11 a.m. all four of us unloaded into Ninh Binh (Ninh Binh) – I was going to come here after Hanoi anyway.

The next morning at breakfast I studied the huge hotel book with comments. The information was disappointing - most people described Ninh Binh as the friendliest city in Vietnam, the hotel as the best for the money, and the staff as the most honest.

Many wrote that they were completely fed up with Vietnam and were planning to leave the country as soon as possible, but when they arrived in Ninh Binh, they changed their minds. Some people returned here for the second and third time, as if to a sanatorium. As a result, I had the feeling that today, my first night and first full day in Vietnam, I was in the most peaceful and wonderful place and that everything would be worse later.

In general, apparently, I have a different Vietnam - so far, after two weeks, with some exceptions, I like almost everything everywhere: the cities, the people, and the housing. And there are plenty of those who want to sell you something at an exorbitant price everywhere: in everyone’s favorite “relaxed” Laos, and in my beloved Indonesia. It’s a pity that so many travelers I’ve met judge Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, remembering only the unpleasant moments of dealing with arrogant hucksters.

That day, for eleven dollars, I rented a motorbike with a driver at the hotel, and the whole day they drove me along all sorts of secondary paths around the neighborhood. It was magical!

First there was supposed to be a floating village, then the ancient Vietnamese Hoa Lu temple, and then Tam Kok (Tam Coc), a place considered one of the most beautiful in Vietnam. As a result, I didn’t swim to the floating village, because I personally didn’t have any information about it, there was no one to share the boat with, and I didn’t want to pay a lot of money for who knows what. Instead, I left the driver near the ticket office and went for a walk through the neighboring Christian village with a huge church in the middle. Narrow winding streets, friendly smiling locals and happily waving children - am I in Vietnam, which everyone scolds so much, or where?

Then there was the Hoa Lu temple, beautiful, but with crowds of white tourists from Hanoi brought by buses for the day. A mountain that I climbed up several hundred steps and from which I had a super view of Tam Coc, boats with tourists floating along the river and the limestone mountains around. And finally Tam Coc himself. And between these places there are kilometers of dirt and concrete roads along rice fields, between limestone mountains, through villages with clay houses and stone fences (for some reason it was very reminiscent of central Turkey and Syria). It's beautiful all around, but it's clearly out of season - the rice fields that should be green are now a brown mess. And smog hangs in the air - everything is whitish, nothing can be seen in the distance.

I didn’t really want to go to Tam Coc after the views from the mountain. I saw how beautiful it was from above - the river meanders along the oddly shaped limestone mountains. But from above I also saw that there were hundreds, thousands of tourists there - rowing boats going along the river one after another, with an interval of five meters.

But when will I come here again?

My boatwoman took me into her stride from the very first minutes. In three words known to her in terrible English, she explained to me that I was definitely here and that it was from her that I needed to buy souvenirs for mom, dad, my whole family and friends. After about fifteen minutes it became clear to her that I would be of no use, and in the next hour and a half she only occasionally reminded me of herself and her souvenirs.

As a result, Tam Coc was super: it was beautiful all around, three times the boat swam into low caves, sailing through them, but that wasn’t the point of salt. I haven’t had so much fun just looking around for a long time, and a huge smile never left my face for the entire two hours.

In almost every boat, in which there are from one to four tourists, in addition to the boatman rowing with his hands or feet, there is an aunt with a huge box filled with souvenirs. And for two hours, instead of enjoying the beautiful scenery, foreigners fight off attempts to sell them something.

Each boat is a small souvenir shop, where flip-flops in cone-shaped hats unwrap and display T-shirts. At the end of the route, boats of local residents drift with snacks and drinks. And the saleswoman will beg you to buy a can of Cola, not even for herself, but for her boatwoman. And if you do this, taking pity on a tired girl who has been rowing hard all day, she will immediately sell this can back at half price.

But with all this, it seems that I have never encountered a more friendly atmosphere in any tourist place. Other boats are overtaking you, returning boats are sailing towards you, and all the foreigners are smiling at each other.

On the way back it started pouring from the sky. I didn’t have a raincoat with me, so I had to cover myself with a backpack cover - getting wet through and through at +15 is somehow not fun. As soon as we arrived, the rain stopped, and my motorbike driver took me to a cafe where the motorbike was parked. I refused offers to buy a cup of tea in a cafe or a raincoat on the street - the only thing I wanted now was to get to my room as quickly as possible and get into a hot shower.

And the next morning we are in Ninh Binh - a small town among velvet rocks, rice fields and patterns of rivers.

The town itself is nothing special: dusty streets with humming motorbikes, endless rows of shops, shopping malls, narrow and deep houses. It turns out that there once was a tax on the width of the façade of buildings, and the cunning Vietnamese, bypassing this tax, began to build higher and deeper. The tax has been gone for a long time, but the architecture remains traditional.

All the beauty of Ninh Binh is in its alien surroundings! You can get to them by bicycle ($2 per day) or motorbike ($8 per day). There are no sane maps of the area, but these are the scribbles they give out in every hotel :)

In addition, the roads are full of signs, and the locals are always open to dialogue:) For example, in this store (and this is a store!) there was no cold beer, but there was a kind woman who helped us get to Hang Mua (on the “map” The place is listed as Mua Cave, but the locals call it Hang Mua).

In two days we planned to visit four places: Tam Coc, Hang Mua, Trang An and the Green Pearl Pagoda. Well, how will it go :) It was 8 km from the hotel to Tam Coc, and 10 km to Trang An. First of all we went to Tam Coc.

In the first half hour I was very scared. Especially when we, on our walking bikes, got involved in a crazy stream of bikes, slipper basses and trucks on the highway, where there were no traffic lights or traffic controllers, and the traffic resembled an anthill (!). At one of the intersections I almost had a game over: (We later marked it on the map - “the place where Tanya was almost hit.”

I only breathed freely when we again found ourselves on a secondary road among the rice fields. That's where the beauty and poetry are!

Tam Kok

When approaching Tam Coc we see some kind of booth. We suspect that there are fees for entry into protected lands, but there is no barrier, the cashiers run out of the booth too late, they wave red flags sluggishly, in general, we pass through it quickly and for free.

The Vietnamese call Tam Coc "Halong on land". The landscapes really resemble the famous bay, only instead of the smooth surface of the South China Sea, a river winds between the rocks and rice fields stretch out. This looks amazing!

To get into the spirit of Tam Coc, you should take a boat ride along the river and swim into its three caves, and then look at all this splendor from above. We leave our bicycles in the parking lot at the pier for 5,000 VND (15 rubles for ours), pay for the boat (390,000 VND for two) and... hello Tam Kok! Our boatwoman's name is Nya, she traditionally rows with her feet (they have a custom there) and absolutely does not interfere with our enjoyment of the surrounding beauty. Quiet, modest and smiling Nya.

On the issue of water transparency :)

It is better to go to Tam Coc in the morning, when there is no influx of tourists and there is every chance to feel like pioneers, see mountain goats and plunge into the ringing silence of the caves.

The Tam Coca Caves are something amazing. Until you swim close to the entrance and think that it’s him...

Bizarre vaults are reflected in the mirror of the water. Nya sometimes cries out in alarm, warning us about insidious and dangerous stalactites looming from the darkness. It seems that the mountain is about to swallow us.

Teeth of the mountain:)

There is practically no lighting in the caves, the boat floats very slowly, so a real idea of ​​distances is lost. In fact, the caves are not that long: Khan Tsa - 127 meters, Khan Gua - 60 meters and Khan Tsoi - 46 meters.

At the exit from Khan Tsoi there is a small floating market: fruits, drinks and simple souvenirs. Prices are higher than city prices, but not by much. Beer - 15 VND/can, pineapples - 15 VND/piece. The aunty seller is also trying to trick us into buying juices, waters and ice cream for our Nya, pointing to her tired legs and the scorching sun, but we just smile in response. Dongs are definitely better :)

Vietnamese pineapples (15-45 rubles per piece, depending on the place of purchase) are very different from those sold in Tula. Juicier, sweeter and more merciful. Your mouth will definitely not crack!

On the way back, the water labyrinths of Tam Coc become more lively: apparently, excursion buses have arrived. And the boats are already sailing in a line and there is no feeling that you are alone with nature.

Hang Mua

After Tam Coc we go to look for Hang Mua and the staircase with dragons. If you go towards Ninh Binh, you need to turn left immediately after the sign “Tam Coc Home Stay”, drive through a small village, then past a small chapel near a luxurious cotton tree, turn left and you are on place.

From a distance, Hang Mua looks like this: a staircase climbing up a sheer cliff into the lair of the White Dragon. Everything for tourists :)

The pleasure is not free - 100,000 VND per person per ticket plus bicycle parking - 3,000 VND. There are 457 steps left to overcome :)

With every step the views become more and more interesting. Somewhere there in the haze is Ninh Binh and our hotel, where we came from on bicycles.

And this is a view of Tam Coc and the ridges of rocks dissolving into ghostly clouds, as if crawling on top of each other and slipping beyond the horizon :)

Not long ago we sailed along this river in a boat and “dive” under the rocks. And now we stand and look at it from a bird's eye view :)

Green Pearl Pagoda

It was a long time before sunset, we didn’t want to go to the dusty city at all, so we returned to the Tam Coc piers and went in search of the Bich Dong (Green Pearl) Pagoda. On the map given to us at the hotel, it was listed three or four kilometers to the left. We again brazenly and freely drove past the toll booth for entry into protected areas, and then followed the signs (thanks to the Vietnamese, this is all right in the country).

About twenty minutes later we were at the entrance to the Green Pearl. He seemed to be stuck to a steep stone wall, the top of which was favored by wild goats, and the foot of which was the wild jungle.

We pay 10,000 VND (parking is already included in the ticket), cross the small humpbacked bridge, and we are where not every Vietnamese has been. There are a lot of inscriptions in ancient Chinese, religious images and sculptures.

There is no lighting, phone screens snatch out only patches of the universe from the darkness, in general we regret that we did not take flashlights with us.

The pagoda includes several levels. All its premises are located inside the rock. The place is very atmospheric and one hour is definitely not enough to explore. A whole web of hiking trails spreads along the slopes of the mountain. They say that if you climb to the very top, you can see five peaks forming a lotus inflorescence, inside of which the “Green Pearl” is hidden. I confess, we didn’t get up :)))

Trang An

We went to Trang An the next morning. The road was a little longer (10 kilometers) and a little simpler (no complicated traffic junctions). It was a pleasure to pedal: there were shaggy rocks, rice fields, cozy village houses and many interesting details around.

"No outsiders allowed!" and an angry dog ​​:)

This is what Vietnamese cemeteries look like. Very often there are lonely graves in the fields: like one who was collecting rice, collected it, fell, died, was buried.

We have never seen so many “meat dumps” in any province of Vietnam. It seems that Ninh Binh is the capital of cattle breeding and the home of butchers.

There are mastodons from the First World War on the roads :))) Does anyone know what model this is?

In Trang An we reached the main influx of tourists. Boat ticket - 150,000 VND, bicycle parking - 15,000 VND. The boat is designed for four passengers and a helmsman. Probably, we could have paid another 300,000 VND and sailed together, but we did not waste our dong and shared the excursion with a couple of Japanese. Unlike Tam Coc, we were immediately given life jackets and small oars. The boatmen of Trang An are not such virtuosos as those of Tam Coc: they do not row with their feet and they have to be helped (wow!).

Our boatwoman was about a hundred years old. How she was released on the route is a complete mystery. For the first hour she showed off in every possible way, even sang songs to us, but after 2.5 hours it was clear how tired she was...

A walk through Trang An includes visiting eight caves, the length of which is from 150 to 500 meters. All caves are illuminated, and each has a sign with the length of the route.

Many portals are seriously “camouflaged” :) You swim and swim and suddenly the boat taxis into some impenetrable thickets, and a stone ceiling with bizarre battlements immediately hangs over you.

The walls and ceiling begin to slowly “squeeze” the boat, and then again and again. “Tears of the mountain” are dripping from somewhere above, claustrophobia is already beating inside you, and the old woman suddenly starts singing some Vietnamese lullabies (or lamentations?)

And at the exit there will definitely be some face gloating :)))

Along the way, four stops are offered so that boatmen have the opportunity to rest, and passengers have the opportunity to feel solid ground under their feet, watch wedding photo sessions, and pray to all the river gods and finally take off the life jackets.

The vests really drove me crazy! I wonder if there were so many drowned people in these wonderful places, someone was shell-shocked in the caves, the river is so unpredictable, where did all this safety equipment come from?

After one of the stops, our Japanese woman forgets to put on a vest, and as soon as we emerge from the next cave, we get a large fine. Or maybe even losing your driver's license. The river police are not asleep! Our grandmother is almost crying. The Japanese console her with dongs:) 100,000 VND.

After Trang An we return to Ninh Binh. My plans are to find a more or less decent phoboshina and try the signature Vietnamese soup PHO Bo. Sometimes the Vietnamese are slapdash and pass off cheap concentrate as pho. Real pho bo takes about 3-4 hours to cook. The broth is made from beef bones, ox tail, with the addition of fried onions, ginger and a bunch of different spices (cilantro, fennel, cloves, cinnamon, star anise). Then add wide rice noodles, thinly sliced ​​beef and green onions. A serving of pho bo (and it is huge!) cannot cost less than 30,000 VND (that’s 90 rubles for ours).

Pho bo is served with lime and some kind of hellish mixture of ginger, onion, hot red pepper and sesame. The Vietnamese are very responsible about treating tourists to unfamiliar dishes; for them it is a kind of attraction. As soon as the owner of the fob shop explained to us about the lime and seasoning (with gestures!), he sat down at the next table, propped his face on his hand and began to watch us eat the soup, not hiding his smile. Why not? He makes us happy, we make him happy. As soon as we finished the pho bo, following all his instructions, he brought out some anonymous bottle.

Judging by his cunning squint, it became immediately clear that he had brewed the potion himself and that after the first sip, our legs would either be taken away or our eyebrows would fall out.

Come on. We're taking a sip. This is, after all, a “chef’s dish.” In general, we drank. To please him, they pretended that the potion was burning our stomachs. He was delighted and immediately rolled on the second one :))) Well, not a rogue? By the way, supermarkets almost never sell rice vodka. In North Vietnam it is purely a homemade product.

In the evening we leave Ninh Binh for Hanoi. For the sake of experiment, we are traveling in a hard seat carriage. The ride takes 2.5 hours, the ticket price is 58,000 VND (174 rubles in ours). We expect to see bars on the windows, ceiling fans and marginalized passengers... But the carriage is surprisingly decent.

We meet two Vietnamese women - Huong (Rose, left) and Ngoc (Gem, right). Ngoc is studying to become an economist, volunteers, learns English, and is so open to the world that she doesn’t shut up all the way. Huong is more modest. Our 2.5 hours fly by very quickly! In addition, Google is with us: it translates, shows the necessary pictures and makes communication easier for us in every possible way :) Ngoc says that in Hanoi we simply must walk around the old quarter, try banquet and watch a puppet theater on the water, tells where to find the main post office and how best to get to Ha Long Bay. And she suddenly talks about snow and sadly adds that she has never seen it... :) Although the areas where you can see snow are only 320 kilometers from Hanoi. And this is the next point of our journey. In Hanoi we change trains and go to Sapa :)

Sapa's photo. Source sapatoursfromhanoi.com

The first three episodes of our Vietnamese series:
1.
2.
3.