Hi everyone,
I am back to continue sharing our Vietnam Itinerary when we had our Indochina tri-city trip. Previously, I have shared our Day 1 experience here on Hive where we went to the viral Hanoi Train Street and tried some Street Foods.
In this post, I will be sharing our wonderful stroll in the province of Ninh Binh on our Day 2 in Vietnam, where we felt like we visited a paradise, and proudly, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Ninh Binh- Hoa Lu Temples, Tam Coc, and Mua Caves. And to start with, I'll be sharing our stroll in Hoa Lu Temples where we had our first stop.
Ninh Binh province used to be the old capital of Vietnam, however, when King Ly Cong Uan moved to Hanoi from Hoa Lu, he brought the civilizations with him and Hanoi became the capital. Vietnam is rich in history, with various attempts to colonize the country at the hands of the Chinese, Americans, and French, Ninh Binh's mountains served as the protector of their people in the northern province of the country.
Our tour in Ninh Binh served as the highlight of our Vietnam trip. As I scouted activities in Klook, I was hooked up with the Hoa Lu Temples, Tam Coc river cruise, and Mua Caves tour, and luckily, Ninh Binh was also an option for my friends to visit. Originally, @ybanezkim26 requested a Ha Long Bay tour but Jovy and I saw many expectations vs reality videos on the internet, featuring an over-crowded tour and site, so we opted for Ninh Binh over Ha Long. Fortunately, Ninh Binh is also an option for Kim, so we didn't have a hard time deciding which place to prefer.
So, we booked a day tour to Ninh Binh through Klook, as getting there by ourselves was too risky for us in terms of transportation. Getting into a chartered tour is the better option plus, we learned so much information about the province from our tour guide.
The chartered tour already includes bus rides and transfers to the three destinations which is pretty convenient and comfortable, and that already includes the entrance fees, lunch buffet, and a complimentary bottle of water. We were picked up from our hotel at 7:30 am since our hotel is just located on Old Quater Street, and then the bus continued to pick up the other tourists within the city for almost an hour before we proceeded to travel to Ninh Binh for 2 hours.
Hoa Lu in Ninh Binh province is the ancient city of Dai Co Viet (the old name of Vietnam). The Hoa Lu temples speak a lot about the culture and history of Ninh Binh which became the resting place of the late kings, unfortunately, the other temples of the previous kings were destroyed by the war and only two temples remained which are for King Dinh (King Dinh Tien Hoang) of the Dinh Dynasty and Kind Le (King Le Dai Hanh), who also fought for their freedom from the wars and colonizers 1000 years ago. Moreover, Hoa Lu temple is also the old citadel of Northern Vietnam.
The place is a ground to commemorate the rich history of the province and the country, where during the spring season, the Vietnamese gather to celebrate their festivals.
The temple behind is the Le Dai Hanh temple, which is dedicated to the princess of the early Le Dynasty. The temple was rebuilt at the end of the 16th century.
The Dinh Tien Hoang Temple
Below is the Dinh Tien Hoang Temple, the temple for the late Emperor of the Dinh Dynasty.
In their temple architecture, you can also see the symbols that speak for their dynasties and rulers. Dragon or "Long", as they call them, symbolizes power and nobility. Unicorn or they call them "Ly" or "Lan", symbolizes intelligence and goodness. Tortoise or they call it "Qua" or "Rua" represents the double symbol of Heaven and Earth. Phoenix or they call it "Phuong or Phung" considers the paragon of virtue and grace. These are shared by our tour guide as he tours us around the temple.
At the back of the temple is the beautiful Yen Ngua Mountain which creates a scenic background of the temples. To know more about the place and Ninh Binh's history, you may read some facts here.
As a tourist, we love the scenic surroundings of the temples matched with the cinematic vibe of the Sao Khe River at the entrance.
As a traveler who embraced history, it feels like I am traveling to the past and imagining the scenes during the war where soldiers fight back the attackers sailing on their boats in the middle of the night. They'll get rid of them on their bow with fire, and some fell to the river. Here I go again with my crazy imagination, lol.
Just a reminder if you're a tourist on a chartered tour like us, never miss a sight with your pack, as the guard will never let you in unless they see your ticket that will be carried along with your tour guide. It was a cringe mishap that we disowned ourselves for several minutes because it is "not-so-us", irresponsible tourists, lol but not lol.
I was expecting that the place would just small and not that scenic, but it actually exceeded my expectations, and below are some beautiful scenes we captured as we strolled around the Hoa Lu temples.
There are other temples inside and statues that honor and commemorate the late kings and rulers, and there are many groups of tourists learning with their tour guides, we missed some other information and what was left for us was to appreciate the place as we stroll around.
After which, we proceeded to our next destination, the Tam Coc where we experienced the river cruise along Trang An River, which I will be sharing on my next blog...
Thank you and see you at the next destination!
XoXo,
Kim
About the Author
Hi! I am Kim- The Strolling Mind.
I love to travel, I have been traveling in my beautiful country- the Philippines, and some Asian countries, as well. My pleasure to share them here in Hive.
I believe that our mind is so powerful that anything we think is anything we can reach and achieve.
It is our mind that'll lead us to where we are heading, so...
Heyy! Thanks for sharing! I will be traveling to Vietnam soon and Ninh Binh is first on my list.
May I ask, I've read that there are 3 routes of the boat tour? Which one did you pick?
Also, did you have any issues regarding a free visa as a Filipino when entering Vietnam? I would highly appreciate any tips for this trip 🙏 😁
Hello @krios003 you're welcome :)
we just took the one we booked in Klook (link above) it was one that is the Tam Coc-Bich Dong route , we are able to pass the 3 caves I think it is the best one just click on the Klook link above :)
For our immigration experience, I have written a blog about it and some travel essentials when visiting Vietnam from Sim cards to exchanging your dollars to VND to transportation and etc just visit my Posts , here's the link for the immigration experience: https://peakd.com/hive-163772/@thestrollingmind/indochina-travel-blog--passing-the-2023-philippine-immigration-and-travel-essentials-you-need-to-know-before-traveling
oh you actually have a travel essentials blog for it! thank you @thestrollingmind! It will really help me plan my trip 🙏
Yes @krios003 and enjoy on your Vietnam trip :) I will be posting more this week :)
Very nice aunchieeee 💛 maka sanaol najud oy!
Hahaha aunchie na tourist sa ta dring dapita aunchie 😂 nga nabyaan sa group haha
Wow, what an interesting place. Thanks for sharing ☺️
thank you @name0 , it was really nice in there :)
This is such a beautiful place....that clouds reflection looks extremely beautiful :-)
Thanks for sharing such a beautiful picture 😍
Have a great week ahead 😊
Thank you @mysteriousroad :)
The place is lovely, lots of natural beauty. This part of Vietnam made a big impact on me, what to say in the face of such spectacular scenery. A nation rich in culture, no doubt about it.
Every single picture makes you want to be there, captivating!
Ohw thank you @neruel ! Hope you can visit Vietnam soonest :)
OMG such a nice place!! Bookmarking coz I wanna visit Vietnam and this place is such a gem! Love your photos too!
thank you @wittyzell :) stay tune for the next one too, there are so much more hehe
Hahaha mag atang jd ko 😉
Ninduta diha ate kemy oi! I think mas worth it pani kaysa ha long bay ba
hehe kaayu siijjiii! tas nindot pd kay laid off ba though daghan tourists but feel namo mas daghan sa ha long bay haha
Layshooo kaayo te kimmy😍 Sanaol nalang jud ta ani ba hehe..
ayeee ikaw nasad puhon dai Dan :)
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
Congratulations @thestrollingmind! You have completed the following achievement on the Hive blockchain And have been rewarded with New badge(s)
Your next target is to reach 10000 upvotes.
You can view your badges on your board and compare yourself to others in the Ranking
If you no longer want to receive notifications, reply to this comment with the word
STOPHiya, @ybanezkim26 here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Travel Digest #2054.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community: