Ninh Binh nirvana

Ninh Binh, Trang An - it's popular and famous for a reason. This area is very pretty with its waterways, rice fields and karst mountains punched out of the ground here and there.
The place I chose to stay in was in a nice location. What more can I ask for in terms of sublime scenery, quiet, clean and budget friendly ? Not much ! The appeal became more evident after a good night's rest and sleep in.

For reference, I stayed at the "Trang an pristine View homestay". The hosts were friendly and helpful when it came to helping me push start my motor bike in the mornings.

The weather was, well, let's say misty air. No problem though, it was not going to dampen my feelings and it added a special vibe to the whole area with the green fields every the more vibrant against the grey of the sky.
It was great just to walk around and explore for a few days. The food was good everywhere I ate and with great variety to appeal to either an adventurous food lover like myself or the choosy ones of us. In fact, so far, I have not had any real complaints about the food in Vietnam. This area is famous for its goat dishes, and I can attest to its great flavour here.
Trang An is a UNESCO listed area. Its dominant feature is the river system cutting through the karst mountains. It is sort of mandatory to go on a river trip. There are three options, I chose the one with the longest cave. It was a fun way to spend the day.
The caves were part of the equation, there were a mixture of man made artefacts with religious places of worship, gardens and soon. It was also fun to be on the boats with oarsmen in their traditional outfits doing what they have been doing for hundreds of years.
Trang An, Ninh Binh - great area to chill out and relax. Bring your wet weather gear and walking shoes and enjoy. The only downer for me is that I needed to leave and that I suffered a sore back all this time from that idiotic decision to ride for 9 hours from Muong Long.
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