Mr & Mrs Wanderlust : Ninh Binh - Halong bay on Land

Travel

Getting to Ninh Binh was relatively easy, we took bus no.8 out of the centre of Hanoi, which takes you to the larger bus station at Giap Baht, from here there were many buses to Ninh Binh. One pulled up, we got on with our bags and were on our way for only 65,000 vnd. 2 hours later we were at Ninh Binh station.

We were collected by our hotel in a 60 year old Jeep called a Uaut! The man collecting us spoke no English but seemed very pleasant, although an element of trust was involved as he took us off the main road down unmade roads for a few kilometres.

We arrived at our hotel and we were greeted by some exceptional staff, they took care of us from start to finish, helped us hire a motorbike and gave us maps and directions. We stayed at a hotel called Nguyen Shack in Bamboo huts. The restaurant at the hotel cooked fantastic Vietnamese food, we ate here for breakfast and dinner for 3 days and it was some of the best food we have had in Vietnam! The hotel also tries to help the local community by teaching the local children English, we lent a hand trying to talk to the children, although most were very shy some really enjoyed it, and the hotel staff teaching were great with the kids which was nice to see.

The area surrounding Ninh Binh is known as Halong Bay on land, and they have lots of huge Limestone cliffs and rising up from the rice paddies! We spent most of our time riding around and checking out the ancient capital as well as looking at little temples hidden behind cliffs or cut into caves. The weather was pretty grey but the scenery more than made up for this. Our hotel was lovely, the area was stunning...so overall a nice 2 night stay.