14 – 22 September 2023

We believe that one of the best ways to see a country is by rail, so we’ve decided to take the train to try to see the country side and to immerse ourselves in the authentic side of Vietnamese lifestyle. We boarded our train not really knowing what to expect. We booked a “soft seat” which is just like an airplane seat in an air conditioned carriage. Travelling south from Hanoi towards our next stop, we got to see some of the county side including plenty of rice fields, water buffaloes, ducks and towns. The ride itself was a pretty simple affair, with the chairs relatively comfortable. The carriage was air conditioned, but the humidity and constant coughing of the commuters didn’t make it particularly pleasant. After 2 ½ hours we arrived at Ninh Binh station.

This small town is a good base to explore the outlying villages of Tam Coc and Trang An. We booked a home stay in Trang An (Moon and Garden Restaurant and Homestay) with a restaurant/bar, a few villa type rooms, swimming pool and the use of push bikes. The family was very accommodating, showing us where to ride to see the local attractions, organising transport and even booking train tickets when we had problems. They could not have been more helpful. The room itself was a little on the small side, and although we didn’t notice at first, there was no tv to watch in the evening. We also had a few roosters that lived next door who clearly did not know how to tell the time. One night they crowed from midnight until dawn, before finally going to sleep. The local dogs also liked to bark all night along with the loud karaoke bar down the road. Between the noise and torrential rain, sleeping here was not to be one of the best experiences.

One of our days we rode our bikes to the Trang An complex. Riding on the opposite side of the road was a bit confusing, but being earlier in the day we didn’t have too many tourist busses to compete with. After figuring out the process of parking our bikes, we bought our tickets and headed in. We took a sampan boat trip through the various network of caves and visited temples and pagodas along the way. The trip took 3 hours and the lovely Vietnamese lady rowed us tourists (4 to a boat) the entire time. The caves were spectacular. Stalagmites and stalactites adorned the walls, sparkling in the light. The first one was the longest at 350m and was very low in parts. We needed to duck and weave our way through. Our expert rower navigated her way through ensuring no one lost their head on a sharp rock along the way. The biggest limestone structures pushed their way out of the water creating a landscape just like the you see in the movie Kong or Tomb Raider, all covered in a thick, lush green vegetation.  The river and cave systems are now protected as a UNESCO site which ensures no one can take advantage and profiteer from this amazing ecological system. After a stop at a local restaurant for a late lunch, we headed back and took advantage of the fact the rain had stopped to have a few drinks and dinner back at our home stay.

The next day we rode to Tam Coc to visit Mua Cave / lookout. Once again, after riding through the back alleys of the village through muddy puddles we arrived and had to figure how how and where to park the bikes. We bought our entrance tickets and headed in. The grounds were full of visitors ready to ascend to the top of the mountain.  Apparently there are more than 500 steps to the top, but in my humble opinion, this seams grossly underestimated. The stone steps are uneven in heights and width which made it a bit difficult. Adding to the difficulty was the heat and humidity and slight drizzle. The mountain goats that live here didn’t seem to have any difficulties climbing and jumping their way around. Views over the entire Tam Coc area with rivers on one side and the village on the other, meant there was no better way to see Tam Coc than from this vantage point. The views from the top were certainly worth the climb. We decided to try another one of the local restaurants for lunch, McDonald’s. It was a busy little spot with tourists stopping to see if the name lived up to the expectation. Obviously it didn’t, even though they advertised burgers, chips and the like. We kept with a more traditional meal though. With the rain all but stopping, we headed into Ninh Binh town for a walk around. We spent the next 2 hours looking at all of the local fresh  produce (including live frogs, fish, and chickens, vegetables, fruits, and plenty more) and various products for sale at the Rong Market and in the stores. We walked the streets and came across some local foods to eat and then headed back to our accommodation for our last night.

The next morning we headed back to the train station, on our way south. This was to be a fairly long day with an 8.5hour, 500km train trip to Dong Hoi ahead of us.

The train trip went surprisingly quickly. We bought a variety of snacks from the on-train vendors, not knowing what we were buying. It all turned out ok though. We saw so much more of the beautiful country side and even drove through 6 tunnels and along the sides of mountains. Our accommodation while in Dong Hoi was at a more luxurious hotel, but at the great price of $50 a night including breakfast. Our room overlooked the ocean and was nice and big. We decided to come to Dong Hoi specifically to visit several caves in the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park. We booked a tour to see Paradise Cave and Dark Cave and were so glad we did. Being off season meant there were only 6 people in our tour group. Paradise cave was only discovered in 2005 by a local hunter. Since then, the cave system has been extensively explored and is over 31km long, however, only the first 1km is accessible to tourists. This amazing cave needs to be seen to be believed, photos do not do justice to the size and scale. A massive staircase and boardwalks lead tourists to the bottom of the cave where you can walk past stalactites and stalagmites. We spent more than an hour walking through, being awed and amazed at how insignificant we felt here. After lunch, our guide took us to Dark Cave. We donned our bathers, hard hats and harnesses and hooked up to a 400m zip line which took us to the cave entrance. Dark cave got it’s name as there is no artificial lighting system and is pitch black when the head lights are turned off. We swam from the end of the zip line to the entrance and walked onwards. We had to swim, clamber over rocks and trudge through muddy walkways to get to the end, the mud baths. After squelching through the mud and covering ourselves, we made our way back. Just before getting back, our guide took us into the middle of the one of the swimming areas to get a unique perspective of the entrance. We swam into the middle and everyone turned off their head torches. The view was amazing. The glow coming from the entrance against the pitch black of the cave was eerie, but mesmerising. We made our way back by kayak and took the bus home. We rate this day as our favourite so far on our trip. There are many more areas of this park to explore, so we may just have to come back another time to explore.

The rest of our time in Dong Hoi was spent looking around town, relaxing by the pool, oh yeah and getting over COVID. That’s right we think Pete picked it up on the train and then ever so kindly passed it along to me. Oh well, there could be worse places to feel a little under the weather. We spent an extra few days in Dong Hoi recovering, but are now ready to continue but #where2next?