For our last stop in Vietnam (excluding our afternoon stopover in Hanoi for flight to Cambodia), we would train to Ninh Binh province and the town of Tam Coc. The 2.5 hour train ride from Hanoi to Ninh Binh went smoothly and we arrived around 5:00 in the early evening. After leaving the station in Hanoi, our train passed through the infamous “train street”, which is a residential road where the train passes within inches of the houses and cafes. The residents / store owners will sit little stools and tables out on the small sidewalk and the tracks during the day. Knowing the train schedules, they will alert customers to come inside the shops and move all of the tables inside a few minutes before the train is about to pass through. While we did not have the experience of sitting along train street while in Hanoi, it was interesting to be on the train driving through it and realizing how unbelievably close it comes to the buildings.

After arrival at Ninh Binh train station, we took a Grab (the southeast Asia equivalent of Uber) to our home stay in Tam Coc which was about 15 minutes drive away. The driver had to let us off on the main road about a 5 minute walk away because the streets became too tight for him to pass. We made our way down the alleys (with motorbikes and bicycles still honking and passing us by in Vietnamese fashion) and reached our homestay around 6pm. Later that night, we took the 5 minute walk back to the main street and into the town for dinner. The main street was littered with plenty of restaurants and our quick googling led us to “Family” restaurant for some local cuisine in the outdoors.

IThe next morning, we had a nice breakfast from our lovely homestay hosts and made a plan for the day. Most of the sights we wanted to see were not walkable from the town so we decided to rent a motorbike from our homestay to get around. When we say “rent”, it felt more like “borrowed”. We signed nothing and presented no ID or license and were given the keys to the lone automatic motorbike at the complex and told to refuel 2km down the road. I guess they trusted us to bring it (and us) back in one piece. Despite the non-functioning speedometer, the bike rode like a dream. Not bad for a smooth 100k dong (~4$) per day. After navigating through through the alleys in the town and heading out in the main road, a 30 minute winding ride took us to our first destination: a boat ride in the Trang An complex. Trang An is a beautiful, scenic area and another UNESCO world heritage site close to Ninh Binh, known for its caves and incredible mountainous landscape around water. It’s sometimes referred to as the ‘Ha Long Bay on Land’ because the limestone mountains are similar to those in Ha Long Bay. The tributaries of the Red River run through the limestone mountains and the heart of the rivers and complex can only be reached by boat.

Upon arrival, we parked our motorbike and paid the 15k dong (~60 cents) fee and headed to the booth to buy our tickets. We paid the 200k dong per person ($8) and then had to make a decision about which of the three routes we would take. All had spectacular options of a mix of caves and temples and it was tough to choose but we ultimately settled on route number 2, a nice mix of 4 caves and 3 temples. (Route 1 was more cave heavy and 3 had more temples). The next challenge was finding two other companions to go with us. The row boats each held four people and would not leave until it was full. Luckily there were two other people who we convinced to do route 2 with us and with that we had a full boat. Having realized we accidentally forgot to bring the sunscreen and we would be in the sun for much of the 3 hour ride, Fred made one last purchase to protect us from the sun along the way….

We set off and slowly made our way through the peaceful waters. We were in a four person wooden row boat with a tiny woman in the back rowing us along. With three hours ahead of us we knew she had quite the job to do but there were also spare paddles (if you could call the bamboo rods attached to a piece of wood paddles) in the boat so we could help her out along the way if we wanted to. The ride through the mountains was stunning. As our oft-traveling boat companion mentioned, this was one of the most beautiful places he had seen in the world. We stopped a few times along the route to stop at the hidden temples and had to duck our heads as we paddled through caves. (If you aren’t paying attention, you can easily smack your head on a stalactite). The ride was really enjoyable and one of the most beautiful places of our travels.

Back on land we hopped back on the motor bike and made a quick stop in the next town for a late afternoon lunch. We made the mistake of going to the place with a man waiving us in, but it was after 3:00 pm at this point and we were hungry. We were excited to try another pho (famous Vietnamese bone broth noodle soup), but this was apparently not the spot. It was mediocre to say the least with little flavor and little beef but set us back less than 5$ for the entire lunch. After lunch, we drove another 15 minutes to Hoa Lu, the ruins of the ancient capital of Vietnam in the 10th and 11th centuries. We walked through the area, visiting the many ancient temples dedicated to former kings before returning to Tam Coc.

The drive back to Tam Coc was beautiful, surrounded by the mountains and with the sun setting beside us. Christina attempted to take some photos while Fred again captained our motorbike. When we got back to Tam Coc we walked around the lake for a bit before walking 5 minutes to have dinner in town later that night. Tam Coc lake also apparently has a beautiful boat ride but the boat drivers are a bit more aggressive in asking for tips and trying to sell you things, so we excluded that from our trip.

On our second full day in the Ninh Binh area, we took the motorbike again to explore the Bai Dinh Pagoda. (We were pretty sure our homestay siphoned the gas out of the motorbike the night before since it was on E so had to make a quick fuel stop. Our homestay later apologized and comped us a rental day for “driving the motorbike until empty” the previous night). Bai Dinh, about 40 minutes drive from Tam Coc, is another massive complex of Buddhist temples on Bai Dinh mountain, part of the Trang An area. It is the largest complex of Buddhist temples in Vietnam, with both the older ancient temples from the 11th century and newer temples built in the 2000s. We spent several hours walking around the complex, admiring the statues and various temples, climbing the long staircases lined with statue after statue from one end of the temple complex to the other, and going to the top of one of the pagodas which had fantastic views of the complex and the region. The complex is amazing and you could definitely spend a few hours roaming the grounds.

It was around 3:30 pm when we left the pagoda. We were hungry since we had not yet eaten lunch and decided we would just have some of the snacks we brought with and have an early dinner when we got back to Tam Coc, because we wanted to make a stop at Hang Mua (another cave and temple complex) on the way back to climb to the top of the hill and see the sunset. The sun sets early here to begin with (around 17:00) but with the many hills and mountains it feels even earlier as the sun disappears behind them. As we were driving along towards the cave, we turned down a small road and saw a restaurant on the side of the road with tables overlooking a lake where the sun was falling behind the mountains and leaving a beautiful orange glow in the sky. We both immediately turned to each other and said no need to go to the caves to find the sunset – this is perfect (and also has more food than nuts and a granola bar). We sat along the edge of the restaurant on the relatively quiet road and enjoyed a big bowl of Pho Bo (Pho with beef) while watching the sun disappear behind the mountain. This pho was much more delicious than the prior day’s attempt (still only about 5$ for the meal) and the sunset view made for a great and unexpected detour and change of plans.

After another 30 minute drive through some bumpy back roads, we arrived at our homestay and walked a little around the town in the evening and went for a later dinner after our sunset lunch. Fred decided he was going to have goat for dinner tonight since it was the local speciality (and we passed lots of live goats and large posed skinned goats along the road for sale the past two days so you knew it was local and fresh). Having had such a delicious dinner the other night and a nice conversation with the friendly owner of the newly opened local Thao Beo restaurant we had stumbled upon, we decided to return there for our last dinner in Vietnam. The owner recommended to Fred to have the goat prepared with lemongrass and chili (and said it would be spicy knowing Fred liked it hot) which he could eat rolled with fresh herbs and garlic pepper sauce in rice paper. The goat was delicious as was the flavorful sauce. It was a great way to bring to an end our culinary adventure in Vietnam and renewed excitement of Vietnamese food.

On our last day in Vietnam, we left Tam Coc in the morning and took a shuttle back to the old quarter in Hanoi. Instead of going directly to the airport, we had to make a quick stop back in Hanoi to see how Fred’s custom made suits turned out. We made our way back to Duc Ninh Tailor where Fred tried on the new suits which looked great. We were both amazed at the quality and workmanship that took less than five days in two suits and two shirts and at an extremely reasonable price. Next step was to figure out how to get them on the plane with us since our carry on bags were packed to the max (and technically already overweight). We knew that we could have probably made it work checking one of our backpacks and using the collapsible bags we had packed as a carry on. But we also knew there was a chance we would pick up a few more things in our last few cities, so we opted on a different plan, made possible thanks to an abundance of shops selling cheap goods, lining the streets of the old quarter. If we could bargain down to a reasonable price, we planned to buy a cheap suitcase to shift some goods and give us more space for souvenirs for the rest of our travels. Not wanting to seem like we were bursting at the seams and desperate for a suitcase, Christina sat with the bags by the lake while Fred went off to the shop to see what he could find. A few minutes later, he returned with a nice (somewhat..?) silver piece of plastic that he successfully negotiated down to below $20, which would serve just fine as an additional suitcase for the last two weeks of the trip.

After some rejiggering, we hailed a Grab and headed to the airport, reshuffled our bags, got the suitcase wrapped (to be sure the not so high quality plastic wouldn’t crack from being thrown around by the luggage handlers at the airport) and enjoyed the lighter load on our backs. After a great 8 days and seeing so many different things, it was time to say good bye to Vietnam as we headed to our next country… Cambodia.