22th-24th day in Ninh Binh / Tam Coc

Our journey to Ninh Binh is much more pleasant than the previous one, the beds are clean and freshly made and we have the luxury of occupying a compartment all to ourselves. For breakfast, there is rice soup and coffee while the evergreen landscape passes by.

We get off at the new train station in Ninh Binh and the train says goodbye with a loud train horn.

Our accommodation is located in the village of Tam Coc outside the city, amidst the rising karst cliffs.

Our bungalow is huge and so are the beds, in case the mood changes everyone has one ;)

After freshening up, we go on a bike tour to explore the landscape. It is, you just can't describe it differently, beautiful. The perfect atmosphere with the mist of the Caribbean Curse.

We climb one of the cliffs (a measly 439 steps in 27 degrees and 95 percent humidity) in whose peak there is a large cave.

But we are rewarded with a great view.

At the very end of the valley, thousands of birds gather at dusk.

Half of them are grilled for dinner.

The next day, we explore the surrounding area on foot and just let the landscape work its magic on us.

A herd of goats (a specialty of the region) accompanies us. But we don't eat goat for dinner ;)

Water buffalo here are not zoo animals but working animals.

Agriculture is still mostly done by hand.

We climb the Mua Mountain slope (more than 500 steps) at the top of which there is a small temple.

The view is.. oh, you see it for yourself :)

On the last day, we go on a scooter tour. The first stop is the caves of Trang An, which can be explored by boat tour. At the foot of the right cliff, you can see a small opening above the water. We go through it for 325 meters under the cliff, with the need to duck so that we can pass through.

We are speechless in the face of the beauty of nature, in total we pass under nine cliffs this way and pass through untouched valleys in between.

We visit Hoa Lu (once the capital of Vietnam around 1000 AD). Not much is left, from a tomb mound of the king only the drill square and the temple complex next to it are preserved.

At some point during the drive, we notice that the fuel gauge is at zero. We think it's broken like on our scooter in Phu Quoc, our accommodation would not send us off with an empty tank! A mistake. 15 minutes later, we are stranded on the road with an empty tank.

But we are in Vietnam, so we find someone who refills a 1.5L water bottle with gasoline at the nearest gas station and brings it to us for a small extra fee. And the journey continues..

And that is to the Bai Dinh Pagoda, the largest pagoda in Southeast Asia. The area is so huge that we are first taken from the parking lot to the entrance of the building complex by electric cars.

The buildings are beautifully decorated with flowers, what color of orchids would you like?

The area is so expansive that the temples provide visitors with snacks and water for refreshment.

And the pagodas have a fortune in gold. When we come home in the evening, we are completely exhausted from the kilometers we walked and fall half-dead into bed.

Now we are sitting in luxury buses with leather seats and legroom again, because we are on our way to Cat Ba, the largest island in Ha Long Bay, where accommodation awaits us in the middle of the national park.