After a hectic day in Hanoi, we had a sound sleep and had our complimentary breakfast the next day at our hotel
Traditional Vietnamese breakfast, though was home-cooked in the past, due to the fast-changing culture and hectic lifestyles of people, it has evolved into a vibrant street food culture focused on hot, savoury, and filling dishes to start the day.
Popular Vietnamese food includes Pho (beef or chicken noodle soup), Banh Mi (crispy baguette sandwiches), Xoi (savoury sticky rice), and Bun (noodle dishes like Bún Bò Huế or Bún Riêu), often accompanied by the famous Vietnamese iced coffee.
Due to our dietary restrictions, we could taste Pho only after confirming that it was chicken noodle. We found it very tasty and wholesome. Xoi, the sticky rice, was soft and very similar to Indian rice.
That day, our itinerary was to go to Ninh Binh, which was about 100km from Hanoi.
The journey was pleasant, and the view gradually became more rural, with vast stretches of lush green rice fields and plenty of water bodies. Gradually, huge limestone mountains solemnly appeared to tower over us, to do a security check on us to see whether we should be allowed to enter or not.
Hoa Lư was the capital of Vietnam from 968 to 1009. It lies in Ninh Binh Province of Da Co Viet, an independent Vietnamese polity founded in 968 A.D, by the local warlord Dinh Bo Linh, following years of civil war against China.
The Hoa Lu location was chosen in the 10th century as the capital due to its natural defensive nature, the limestone karsts, scenic rice paddy fields and calm shallow waterways. It is also referred to as “Halong Bay on land”
At the end of the Lê dynasty, in 1010 the founder of the Ly dynasty transferred the capital to Thăng Long (now Hanoi), and Hoa Lư became known as the "ancient capital."
On the outskirts of Ninh Binh, we saw the west entrance of the old imperial capital. Many two-wheelers were waiting to take any needy tourists to the gate.
After crossing the bridge over the Ye Ngua River (Horse Saddle River), which looked very scenic and placid, we saw the magnificent Hoa Lu entrance gate.
The two main buildings one has to visit are the Temple of Dinh Tien Hoang and Lê Dai Hanh. Both are located in a walled section, with beautiful gardens and lakes of varying sizes and shapes. The temples are preserved in fairly good condition.
We first visited the Dinh Tien Hoang Temple, Dinh Ten Hoang was the official name of Emperor Dinh Bo Linh, the founder of the Dinh dynasty. The pagoda was founded in 976, three years before his death and has often been rebuilt.
Bộ Lĩnh grew up in this area in the mid-10th century during the reign of Ngo Quyen, a warlord who evicted Chinese occupiers from the country and declared himself the King in 938. Born into the family of a high-level official, Bộ Lĩnh soon revealed his talent for government and military affairs; his childhood exploits as the leader of local children waging mock wars against the children of other villages are legendary.
As he reached maturity, he also became a powerful warlord. Following the crumbling of the short-lived Ngo dynasty, he defeated twelve rival warlords, reunified the country, and in 968 founded the first imperial dynasty of Vietnam.
Unfortunately, due to Đinh Tiên Hoàng's failure to provide for an orderly succession, the country was again plunged into turmoil after his death, until order was re-established by Le Hoan, Bộ Lĩnh's top general, who defeated his rivals and established the Early Le Dynasty, Vietnam's second imperial dynasty.
As we approached the Dinh Tien Hoang temple, we saw an outer dragon bed, more than 400 years old, weighing 1.5 tons and carved from a single blue stone. This was used to place offerings.
The shrine was built on the foundation of the Hoa Lu palace. The shrine is built in the style of a contrasting pair on the divine axis. It starts from the crescent lake Minh Duong and ends at the main palace. The lake is a decorative screen, used for wind diversion according to ancient Feng Shui techniques
We passed the ceremonial gate, whose base was intentionally raised, so we had to bend and step across it, it was most probably designed this way for visitors to pay obeisance to the souls resting inside.
There were some trees named Kim Tao trees whose wood was used to make chopsticks for the royal members, which could detect any poison mixed in the food
We walked along the main axis, past two large columns that led to the dragon courtyard, which had huge stone incense urns where the local people were placing incense sticks.
In the middle of the dragon courtyard, there was the second dragon bed or altar, weighing 2 tons; its side was elevated, so when it rained, the figure of the dragon became very distinct.
The arms of the stone altar were two dragons curling up on high clouds, they had raised heads and fluttering manes, and their long beards swayed in tune with the flags symbolising the martial forces all around the altar, there were stone buffaloes and white horses.
Both the outer and inner dragon beds are declared as National treasures by the Government.
The temple is positioned at the base of Ma Yen (Horse Saddle) Mountain, where the tomb of King Dinh is located. The horse represents the "sacred" horse or the shape of the mountain itself and symbolises power, success, and protection for the ancient Hoa Lu capital and are often found flanking the entrance, honouring King Dinh’s martial strength and the military, aiding in guarding the sacred space.
On the right side of the complex was a small museum with black and white pictures of the temple and the surroundings of Hoa Lu.
Behind the stone altar was the shrine of Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang. The shrine consists of two parts: the worship hall and the central palace. The worship hall serves as a communal altar. On the altar are beautifully carved incense burners.
Next was the incense-burning hall, designed in a cylindrical style, where the four pillars worship the imperial court of the Dinh dynasty. Walking through the incense hall one goes to the five-bay main palace.
The throne of Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang is placed on a pedestal with a dragon statue carved similar to the dragons at the stone altar in the middle of the main palace, adorned with gold leaf, the bronze statue of Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang is placed on it.
On either side of the stone pedestal are two dragon guardians. The large inscription bears the words 'Righteous Water' praising Dinh Bo Linh as the founder of that country's righteous monarchy.
The Le Dai Hanh temple is dedicated to the princes of the early Le dynasty. The foundation date is unknown, but the temple was rebuilt at the end of the 16th century. Via an entrance gate, we entered a garden.
Behind the garden was the Dragon Square, named after the dragon dance that is performed here during the annual temple feast in honour of Le Dai Hanh, the founder of the dynasty.
In front of the main temple was the altar and a giant drum. At the back was the beautiful image of the beloved Le Dai Hanh.
The figure on the left was that of the unpopular son Le Long Dinh, who had the reputation of being lazy and a playboy. The image on the right was Queen Durong Van Nga, the wife of Le Dai Hanh and also widow of his predecessor Emperor Dinh Tien,
The atmosphere of both the temples was very serene and peaceful, surprisingly, despite how much history has been created on this spot, and so much blood obviously shed.
We came out of the temple complex and walked back to our bus. We were literally bombarded by the local hawkers, my dear hubby usually falls an easy prey, and soon I was a reluctant owner of a lot of fans and small purses L.O.L
We had a hearty lunch and went on our way to Tràng An, a scenic area in Ninh Binh renowned for its boat cave tours and recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2014.
Trang An has two main types of ecosystems: limestone mountains and aquatic ecosystems. The biological diversity of the communities is a major factor contributing to the creation of these two ecosystems.
The natural vegetation at Hoa Lu is limestone and evergreen forests in the valleys between limestone areas.
Trang An has more than 310 types of rare and precious plants such as cycas, sua, Indian mahogany, orchids, Chinese yam, honeysuckle, juniper, lettuce, etc and endangered animal species such as mainland serow, leopard and phoenix pheasant.
The main starting point for the Trang An boat tour in the Sao Khe River is the Trang An Wharf located within the Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex in Ninh Binh,
We purchased tickets at the entrance and walked through a beautifully decorated tunnel.
We could see the river with tiny sampan boats floating on it. Many ladies in uniform were waiting for us to board their boats.
There are three main routes, each offering different combinations of caves and temples, departing from this wharf.
It is highly recommended to bring sunscreen lotion, a hat, and drinking water, as the boat rides are long, and we are totally at the mercy of the sun
The boat ride offers a scenic tour through limestone karst landscapes and through several caves,Usually it is advisable to go boating at 7 am when there wouldn’t be much crowd, and the climate also wouldn’t be very hot.
The standard ticket price is 250,000 VND per adult (~$10 USD), and each traditional wooden sampan typically carries 4 passengers.
Initially, it was rather scary to sit in the sampan, which looked quite flimsy. We were 4 of us, with the woman who was sitting behind us, rowing placidly; she didn’t know our language but smiled whenever we tried to converse with her
The Trang An boat ride was the highlight of our Ninh Binh Trip. As we passed through the placid water, we were surrounded by the silent limestone mountains, and the variety of flora and fauna around us was amazing, we could distinctly hear the chirping of the birds.
Though I was sweating profusely in the humid air, the occasional droplets splashing from the water around us were very refreshing. I particularly liked the play of colours - blue of the sky with scattered white clouds playing peekaboo , turquoise colour of the water and shades of black when we entered the caves, with the intense grass green colour of the foliage surrounding us , the entire thing was entralling
The low mystical caves, the Dark Cave, Light Cave, Wine Brewing Cave and Tran Cave & specially the longest one (900 m) were thrilling. We had to duck our heads and crouch low at some of the places and as we came out of the caves, sunlight appeared.
We chose route 3, which covered 3 caves & 3 pagodas. It was sunny & humid, and our water truly helped our parched throats.
We saw the artificial village, which is the reconstructed Skull Island film set built for the 2017 movie "Kong : Skull Island" , there were tribal huts and actors dressed as natives.
The 3-hour ride was a bit physically taxing as we couldn’t move much and the seats were not very comfortable. I wondered how the poor lady rowing the boat must have been feeling.
But the entire boating trip was very thrilling and we enjoyed outracing the other boats. Finally, we came to the end of our trip and tipped our boatwoman and got off.
I observed on our way out , that there was a lot of landscaping done and exhibits displayed .
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