On the road from Hoi An to Hanoï, we rushed through the Ninh Binh region, to be on time for Leo’s exams. So once that was done, we went back south again for a bit.

Ninh Binh is only 2 hours from Hanoï. It’s a beautiful region also known as the “terrestrial Ha Long bay” since it has similar limestone formations.

There again. We simply rented a scooter to roam around the region.

We took the traditional Trang An boat tour. One gets to choose between 3 routes, A, B or C, leading to various caves and temples. We chose tour C because it seemed less crowded than tour A and because it featured the longest-1km long- cave. Apparently though, that cave had probably been enlarged artificially by connecting several smaller caves. You can tell by the absence of stalactites in some passages. Nonetheless, the caves and the ride amidst the rock formations was very nice.

We also enjoyed visiting Cha Bai Dinh (pronounce “Ciao Baiden”!) a vast complex of temples and pagodas, the highest of which offers a splendid view on the region.

Muà Cave is not a cave but a steep stairway to the top of a hillock, offering another great view of the area, overlooking the Tam Coc rice fields.

Nearby, the town of Hoa Lu was the capital city of Vietnam around year 1000. Although I’m not sure what the definition of Vietnam was around that time!

From there we rode up to the Van Long wetlands where we took another little boat tour, away from the crowd.

Last but not least, we went to the Cuc Phuong national park. Even for just half a day, it was worth the visit, for the prehistoric man’s cave, or the monkeys and turtles rescue center. Apparently, Vietnam is the smuggling highway to China for turtles and other exotic /endangered animals from all southeast Asia. Some turtles can be sold up to 25000usd/kg!

And with that we closed our tour of the region and hopped on a night bus to Ha Giang, our next destination.