Ninh Binh
After our narrow escape of a major rainstorm in Mai Chau, we rolled into Ninh Binh ready to check out a new city!
There is not much to do or see in the city of Ninh Binh, but the region is home to numerous World Heritage sites and National Parks, all within a thirty-minute drive of downtown.
We only spent two nights in Ninh Binh but crammed our 48 hours full of sightseeing and motorbiking through the countryside full of crops, cows and a famous delicacy here, mountain goats!
One of our favorite hostels on our trip was Go Sapa, in Northern Vietnam. Go Sapa has a sister property, Go Ninh Binh, where we stayed in the city as a base camp to crash after our daily activities.
What to Do
We explored Vietnam’s first and largest National Park which had a lot of areas to cover! The ride from our hostel downtown was about 45 minutes (or at least it was supposed to be). Unfortunately, I got us lost with my subpar navigation skills but we made it to the entrance, better late than never! There are a lot of sightseeing options within the park, enough to cover two days! Since we got there later than expected, we hit the best areas and bailed on to the next activity.
Cave of Prehistoric Man
“It is the site of one of the earliest discoveries of human habitation in Vietnam. Excavated in 1966, the cave revealed human graves, stone axes, pointed bone spears, oyster shell knives, and tools for grinding dating back 7,500 years.” (Wikipedia).
Our ride from the park entrance to the Cave was only about 20 minutes we rode under the incredibly beautiful Vietnamese jungle full of lush, vibrant plants, trees and passed by some butterflies floating through the air!
Once we got to the cave site, we had about a quarter mile walk through the jungle and across an idyllic mossy bridge.
According to the tour guide at the site entrance, there is a 30-year-old snake that inhabits the cave a few times during the year. We hustled up the rocky incline hoping we’d be one of the “lucky” few to see the ancient reptile.
The moment of truth…would we see the snake?! We entered the wide mouth of the cave entrance, fingers crossed…
Unfortunately, there was no snake to be found, but as we walked through the cave it opened up further and further back and even up towards the sky!
Endangered Primate Rescue Center
Our Monkey-Guide, Dinh, gave us a few interesting facts about Vietnam’s only Primate Rescue Center:
- There are 3 levels of rehabilitation. First, the rescued monkeys are placed in cages. Second, they are put in an outdoor enclosure lined with electric fencing. This re-exposure to nature prepares the primates to be released into the wild again (with a tracking tag).
- The Primate Rescue Center will browse the illegal trading market and confiscate the monkeys for sale. When we visited, they had 3 confiscated baby monkeys. Their mother had been killed by poachers and the babies were posted for sale.
- 180 monkeys currently reside at the rescue center. They have 6 species of monkeys there that do not exist anywhere else in captivity in the whole world!
Turtle Conservation Center
During our time in Hanoi, we went to a locals market where you could find any time of meat, seafood, vegetable or fruit your heart desired. In the meat section, we saw a cage of turtles, a “delicacy” we assumed.
Turns out, the turtles are not a special treat, rather it is quite a tragedy that the Vietnamese are capturing them and eating them for family supper. Each turtle that is caught and served, is one less endangered turtle – of an already low count.
Just like the monkeys we saw, all the turtles in this facility were confiscated from the illegal trade and are sheltered in this facility.
Vietnam boasts a handful of scenic cave areas that can be seen by boat. We opted for the area of Tràng An, rumored to be slightly less touristy than the notorious Tram Coc caves.
We showed up at Tràng An bright and early, as we had a full day of riding ahead after we finished our cave excursion. We were the only patrons to show up at 6:45 am, only 15 minutes after the park itself opened. We were also the only Westerners and stuck out like sore thumbs (more than usual).
We purchased our 150,000 Dong tour tickets and headed towards the boats for our 2-hour excursion.
Our tour guide didn’t speak much English, rather, none whatsoever. But thanks to Google Translate and our recent proficiency in universal hand signals, we were able to communicate with her during our adventure. She paddled us through lily pads with bright pink flowers, numerous Pagoda Temples and deep, long, dark and mysterious water caves.
Despite a language barrier, our guide showed the highest level of hospitality and kindness, she even pulled over mid-excursion to climb out of the boat and pick us a fresh dragon fruit that we ate during our ride!
She also helped us translate words from English to Vietnamese and decorated Sean’s hand with unfamiliar symbols and letters doing so (we’re learning slowly, but surely). One important and helpful tip was “Vộ Chồng,” which means we are boyfriend & girlfriend. This helps us to communicate with the locals that we are not brother and sister, as some assume based on our similar coloring and traits!
When our tour concluded, we were ready to hit the road on our bikes to the next destination city, but not before stopping for the local special, mountain goat – yum!
