Bob and Phuong picked us up early for a trip to ‘Hoa Lu’, Vietnam’s ancient and original capital and one of Ninh Binh’s main tourist attractions. It was already busy when we arrived and the tourists trappings were everywhere. Kids selling who knows what, photographers with ‘special shots’, candies, … We fell for the ‘old woman on a water buffalo trick’ (a few dong got us a pic)! All in all though, Hoa Lu was an interesting place with a number of historic 17th century pagodas and tombs.
Ninh Binh is known as ‘Halong Bay on land’ due to the limestone ‘karst’ peaks in the area. They are spectacular. A popular activity is to take a small boat ride on one of the rivers running through the district. We took a float trip through the less-touristy Van Long Nature Preserve which is also home to a small population of endangered ‘Delacaour Langurs’. The langurs are a long-tailed Asian monkey with characteristic loud call.
Rowers at this preserve are local villagers and clients are assigned on a rotation basis. We ended up with a good one. She didn’t speak any English but spotted and pointed out a family of langurs on a cliff side along with many of the local birds. The boat trip was very tranquil, winding along a river in the preserve with great views of the karsts and lily ponds.
Dinner was back at the Tam Coc (no goat this time). In the morning we bid goodbye to northern Vietnam and head south so it’s early to bed. This vacation stuff isn’t easy!