This is the second of two parts covering our 2D1N in Ninh Binh as organised by Hanoi Tours Expert. Our initial itinerary before arriving into Hanoi for the second day in Ninh Binh was to do casual cycling to reach Bich Dong Pagoda, the first place of visitation of the day. However, we decided to visit Hang Mua first on account that it was going to be a lot of stairs to reach the highest pavilion at Lying Dragon Mountain, and we didn’t need the late morning sun to make the climb any more difficult! As it turned out, the ascent up proved so exhausting we gave up on cycling altogether after we descended.
That out of the way, our notes for Day 08:
Hang Mua: which includes Mua Cave. And to clarify, the most important thing to do in Mua Cave isn’t the cave itself, but to ascend Lying Dragon Mountain to reach the Hang Mua viewpoint. The ascent involves climbing up via 500 steps. The stoned steps provide plenty of grip for your footwear even if it’s slippery from any wet weather, and there are side walls or fencing for most of it to support you as needed. The ascent for us was pretty challenging on account that the missus had spent a bit of time admiring the lotus pond at ground level. And by the time we started our climb, it was already getting pretty warm from the mid-morning sun! Even the very fit looking muscular ang mos were panting as they climbed up. We kept wishing for ropeway lifts to bring us to the top, like you know in Japan for us urban visitors haha.
But the climb is doable; just take it very, very slowly, and take frequent rests, including stopping by on a step for a few minutes as often as you need. I stopped every 20 stair steps – it was that tiring. There is plenty of space for persons going up or down until near the top, so you will not be holding others up if you stopped.
There are two pavilion stops as you climb up: a first one without shelter, and another just higher up which is partially sheltered. Both provide slightly different views, and are good spots to launch your drone if you intend to fly one. I made a silly mistake though in my drone video capture: it was pretty sunny, but I overcompensated by using too strong a neutral density filter. The DJI Mini Pro 3 drone’s camera could not adequately counter even with setting as high an ISO as it could, and the resulting video was unexposed and mushy too. This is a lesson well-learnt: leave the ND1000 filter at home.
The large lotus pond at ground level is also worth a look, and there were many Vietnamese ladies again doing their photo shoots with local photographers.
Bich Dong Pagoda: this is a three-tired pagoda that is built into the side of the limestone mountain. It’s an interesting sight for a quick look if it’s convenient for your itinerary. But the pagoda compound itself is fairly small, and we observed that it’s a popular inclusion for many tourist itineraries – judging from the busloads of visitors that were being dropped off. There’s also a small cave route at the top, but it can get pretty crowded inside. There were a lot of hawkers in front of the Pagoda offering a variety of fresh fruits and also wares, and they were fairly persistent!
Phat Diem Cathedral: from the Wikipedia entry: the architecture of the church – built in stone and wood in 1891 – is an eclectic blend of Vietnamese and European architectural styles. It was mainly built in traditional Vietnamese architecture, similar to historical palaces and temples. It was bombed in 1972 and later restored.
The Cathedral was a good 45 minute drive from Bich Dong Pagoda, and we were the only visitors around until we were about to leave. The interior of the main chapel building was initially locked, but our guide got the staff to opened it up for us to take a look. Photo and video-taking wasn’t permitted inside the chapel, though we saw a couple of local visitors doing exactly just that. The place is worth a look too, especially if you’d like to see how a Roman Catholic church is built in the Vietnamese tradition.
Some final quick comments. Firstly, about the tour company which arranged for our Ninh Binh tour. We were assigned a fantastic guide, Thao, who really engaged with us and shared many interesting bits about each place we went to, and also kept our itinerary flexible. She invited us to dine at her home on the first day, but we decided instead to have dinner at the hotel. We were pretty worn out by the time we checked-in, and didn’t want to further impose on her. She also took a very large number of family photos with her iPhone, and happily received my instruction on how to send the original sized pictures to me after that.
Secondly, the hotel we stayed at was the Ninh Binh Legend, a five-star property. We were assigned two interconnected rooms, each of which were very large and comfortable. The hotel, architecturally and also in terms of staff services, reminded us of old-school Colonial times hotels: i.e. opulent. The hotel seems popular among local tourists, judging from the size of the breakfast crowd at the hotel’s main dining room on the second day morning.
In all, we really enjoyed Ninh Binh, and really recommend spending two days at least in this city.