February 6-11, 2024
Hey friends and family,
I arrived at Ninh Binh, my first stop in Northern Vietnam, around 5:15am on February 6. I didn’t realize how far the Trang An Four Seasons Bungalow I was staying at was from the bus station. I’d read on some blog that Trang An was a better place to stay than Tam Coc, the main area near Ninh Binh, which was very touristy. Trang An was a little farther from the city, but it was supposed to be more in nature. Unfortunately, there were no Grabs in Ninh Binh so I had to splurge for a taxi to my hostel. I think it's also important to note that the Four Seasons in Trang An (another town close to Ninh Binh) is not at all like the luxurious Four Seasons resorts you might have seen or heard of in America. The accommodations were very modest and I was in a bunk bed in a room with several other people.
I napped for a few hours after arriving and didn't really get my day going until around 1, after I'd formulated a plan for my time in Ninh Binh. I rented a motorbike from the hostel and biked close to Tam Coc to get lunch at the Linh Linh restaurant, which had nice local food. I tried a dish called burnt rice, or com chay in Vietnamese, and it was pretty decent.
The weather was pretty foul with drizzles and terrible visibility, so I wasn’t sure whether to go through with my plan of hiking to the viewpoint atop Mua Cave, but I went through with it because I didn’t feel like biking all the way back to Trang An just to sit around. The hike was very touristy but there were good views, even with the fog. Thankfully the stairs up to the viewpoint were wide enough that I could usually pass the slower hikers, but there were parts where it was too narrow, and I became stuck in the throngs of people. The views were of the unique limestone mountains covered in green shrubbery and the rice fields in the valleys between. It was a quintessential Vietnamese image.
Besides the hike, there were some artsy decorations in the cave area and a nice walkway through some rice fields. The area was clearly catered to tourists, but it was still pretty to see.
Afterwards, I biked back to my Trang An hostel and went for a run along the idle road I was on. It felt good to go for a run since I hadn't been getting much proper exercise while traveling. The hostel was very low-key, and there weren’t many people around despite the hangout area being really nice. There was a pool that I went in after my run, and aesthetic colored lights hung up around the pool and dining tables. Additionally, there was cover above the dining area, so it was still a good place to hang out when it was raining. I talked with a Dutch couple over dinner before calling it a night.
The next morning, I went to an attraction called Bai Dinh temple. At first I thought it was a rip off because the site looked deserted and there was massive construction going on. It was unclear where to park, and I ended up having to pay someone to park my motorbike when I think I might’ve been able to drive up right close to the temple and park for free. It was difficult to tell where to go and what to do, so I had a bad first impression of the temple.
Once I was inside the real complex, I was much more impressed. There were several pagodas and religious structures with beautiful architecture. I walked around for two hours and made a little stop at the café to grab a coffee and mango smoothie, which was my late breakfast. The food brought my mood up and I walked around for another hour after that, taking in some sights on the periphery of the complex.
My next plan was to meet my friend Isabella, who I’d met at the bus stop in Ho Chi Minh City on my first night in Vietnam, and one of her Dutch friends for the Trang An boat ride at 2. I grabbed lunch at a nice spot en route from the temple to the boat tour and tried fried tofu in tomato stew and some fried spring rolls. I hadn’t had the tofu and tomato stew dish before and it was surprisingly good.
The boat tour was lovely, despite us not being able to see much beyond the misty mountains. We stopped at several temples to briefly explore and went through several caves, including one that was a few hundred meters long and required us to duck going through most of it.
By the time the boat tour wrapped up, it was close to sunset and I returned the bike to the Trang An Four Seasons Bungalow, gathered my belongings, and called a taxi to Tam Coc. Trang An was nice in that it was remote, but it was a little expensive to taxi back and forth and I spent more time on the motorbike than I wanted. I don’t regret staying in Trang An for a night, but if I was solo traveling there again I’d probably opt for Tam Coc instead.
My accommodation in Tam Coc was the Rice Fields Homestay. There wasn’t much space in the homestay and the dorm was full with all eight beds taken, but I was only there for a night so it was all fine. I went to dinner at a vegan place called Buddha Belly with some lovely people from the homestay and then got drinks at a nearby restaurant for 7,000 vnd (~$0.29)/beer and I had four beers for $1.16 – I don’t know if I’ll ever get a better deal than that. While we were drinking, Isabella and her friend came through and we chatted at the bar before going to a karaoke bar in a bus around midnight. The karaoke bus was empty when we showed up, but some local Vietnamese guys said we were free to go in and our group of five had the place to ourselves before other tourists started showing up. During the 45 minutes I was there, we probably had a group of 15-20 people all dancing and singing.
The next day I had a relaxing morning with breakfast at the homestay. I was considering renting a bicycle or motorbike and going to a nearby bird sanctuary, but I’d had pretty fully days in Ninh Binh and didn’t feel the need to rush around in the morning before my bus to Sapa at noon. Before boarding, I picked up three banh mis for lunch in Tam Coc and walked into town with all my stuff to find a taxi. I asked some people at a restaurant that had a taxi sign and the lady drove me to the Ninh Binh bus stop for a fair price. I got on the bus at 1:30 and arrived at Sapa at 8.
(Sapa on the rainy night I arrived.)
After arriving, I walked around for 35 minutes from the bus stop to get to a motorbike rental place. The motorbike ride was crazy. I was staying in a homestay called Ta Van Heaven Homestay, and Ta Van is 11km, or about a 30-minute ride, from the main city of Sapa. It was insanely misty and freezing cold as I was driving so my hands became frigid quickly and my fingers went numb. The road is really curvy because it goes alongside these majestic mountains, way above the valley where Ta Van is. On the ride to my homestay, I felt more like I was exploring a new place than I have in a while. It had such a feeling of magic and adventure, like I was lost in a mysterious new area. I couldn’t tell for sure what I was driving by because there was no visibility off the road, but it felt like gigantic cliffs, the way the road was curving and seemingly dropping off precipitously on its sides (although there were still guard rails and clear lanes). The road also went from paved to totally rocky at some points, similar to some of the roads in Dalat or even the more isolated parts of Big Island of Hawai’i.
I eventually made it to the homestay after a long and slow ride, arriving to a lovely group of travelers playing cards. I played UNO with them while my body thawed out, although only a little since the homestay was also cold, no more than a few degrees warmer than the brisk outdoors. The group had some funny people from England and Australia and it was such a welcome sight for me to walk into after my scary and unsettling, yet enthralling, motorbike ride there. The upstairs was a dorm with several beds, but there were no bunks; there were several mattresses on the floor, but most of them were separated by curtains, which I much preferred to the traditional bunk style. I slept well at night because it was so cold but the blanket was so warm.
The next morning, I had breakfast at the homestay before hiking for most of the day with a local trekking guide named Pham. We had a good group, with several folks from England, one from Eastern Europe, another from Belgium, and myself. The hike started along one of the smaller roads in town before veering past a fence into someone’s property. Right off the bat, the hiking was different from America, where the trails are usually clearly marked. The hike went through paths in the woods that were exceptionally muddy because of the recent rain, along steep and narrow roads that daring drivers took motorbikes on to get to and from their villages, and through rice terraces, which Sapa is famous for.
(It had been raining so hard but you can still see the different levels that make up the rice terraces.)
Around noon, we arrived at Pham’s home in her village, where her husband and kids kindly greeted us with a delicious home-cooked meal. Pham speaks passable English, and we could usually get ideas across after a few attempts, but the rest of her family spoke barely a lick of it. In fact, many of the villages in Sapa have their own language that they speak primarily, although it seemed like they all knew how to speak Vietnamese, too. The meal was spectacular, with about ten different dishes, including rice, smoked chili, pork, cabbage, coffee, beer, and more. Maybe the most notable item at the feast was a treat the Vietnamese call happy water, which is a type of rice wine that’s about 30% ABV and tastes similar to vodka. It was February 9, the day before Lunar New Year, or Tet as they call it, and everyone was in a jovial, festive mood. As a result, the happy wine was flowing; I think I had 6+ shots from multiple rounds of cheers and drinking games.
(That was not the last one I reckon.)
I’d heard the happy wine gets you drunk quickly and that you sober up from it quickly, too, and don’t really get hungover. I found that to be true and was a little less sure-footed on the walk back, but had mostly sobered up by the time we got back to the homestay around 3. Overall, the hike was a great excursion. The family meal was the highlight, with all of Pham’s family and pets, including some dogs and cats. The rest of the hike was good as well and we saw some animals like goats and buffaloes. The views were mediocre because of the fog, but it cleared up a touch towards the end of the day and gave some teasers into what was to come.
Back at the homestay, I joined the family dinner and met some new people. The dinner was a nice affair, but some of the guys that hadn't been hiking were rowdy and over-the-top with their drinking. I didn't stay for those festivities for too long, having already had my fill at Pham's home.
(A quick note about homestays: I've mostly used the words "hostel" and "homestay" based on how the accommodations have described themselves. Many of the lower-key hostels were pretty similar to homestays with shared rooms and common spaces. I think the homestays were typically owned by a family and often had the children of the family running around or helping out. This was a little different from what I first imagined when I heard homestay, which was staying in the home of a Vietnamese family as the only traveler and potentially helping them around the home in lieu of (or possibly in addition to) money for a place to stay. I felt like the homestays typically had a little bit more of a wholesome, family-friendly vibe, although it was still mostly travelers in their early twenties to early thirties that I met.)
The next day, February 10, was Tet (Lunar New Year), which is probably the biggest holiday for most Vietnamese. Most people take off work then, but Pham was still grinding and took us on a different hike after breakfast. It was a smaller group: two of the British guys from yesterday, Tom and Adam; an Australian guy named Deon; a French guy; and me. This day’s hike had more trail before lunch but less after, so we really earned our lunch break at 1. The views were much better today and it was stunning to see the green valley between the massive mountains that seemed to go on forever.
Lunch was at a restaurant that was good, but it was not as much of a cool local experience as eating at Pham’s village. Alas, I’m grateful she welcomed us in once. The restaurant lunch was good, but some ladies wouldn’t stop pestering us, trying to sell wares, and refusing to take no for an answer. I actually wanted to buy one small bag since it was cheap, but then got pressured into buying a second.
The next day was my last in Ta Van and I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast of banana pancakes before solo walking up the road the homestay was on for over an hour and a half. The road just kept on going, but after about half an hour the houses and businesses alongside the road become much less frequent. I got pretty high up on the mountain by following the road and it opened up at points to incredible views of the valley. It was the best day of visibility yet, and the sun even poked through a smidge.
Eventually the road turned a corner and I wasn’t looking out at the gorgeous valley anymore, so I turned around. I went down a couple side roads but one of them ended quickly and the others I pursued only briefly because I didn’t want to get lost and thought I might be encroaching on people’s private property, although that seems to be much less of a concern in Vietnam than in America.
The walk was lovely, and I did lots of contemplating. Even though I’ve been solo traveling, I haven’t had too much time totally on my own. Most days, I’ve spent with people from my hostel and have only a little bit of downtime before bed. I think being surrounded by the beautiful nature inspired the reflection.
On the way down, I stopped at a place right next to our homestay and got a fried noodle dish with egg and a mango smoothie. I ran into the British guys Adam and Tom and exchanged contact info to meet them in Sapa, where my bus would leave from that night.
I rode my motorbike over to Sapa and dropped my bags at the hotel I rented the bike from before biking over to Silver Waterfall, about 20 minutes west of Sapa. The road opened up into the most insanely beautiful valleys. It wasn’t necessarily prettier than the views over in Ta Van, but the mountains and openness felt more expansive. There was also much less development in this direction, so it felt more rugged and unsullied. I was starting to get cold so I didn’t bike too far past Silver Waterfall. The waterfall was not super impressive and I could see it mostly from the road, so I don’t know if it was worth it to get in because it was literally a 5-minute round trip hike to walk up and see it, only slightly closer than from the road. And that's really saying something because the admission cost was ~$0.80.
Around dusk, I biked back to Sapa and walked around. Sapa is much more touristy than Ta Van, and it was really buzzing because of Tet. It was fun to see for a couple hours, but I’m glad I stayed in Ta Van instead. I got a massage, which was probably my worst one of the trip because it was really cold inside the building and I found it difficult to relax. Still, massages are always nice.
I met up with Adam and Tom for dinner at a Western place and we devoured some pizzas that were shockingly delectable for having been made in northern Vietnam. They were good company and some of my favorite people I met on the trip. We said our goodbyes after dinner and I went back to the hotel to get my bags and go to the bus stop. I'll write about my final couple steps in my next and final Vietnam blog post. Thanks for reading!
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