There are two main places to do boat tours from in Ninh Binh: Trang An and Tam Coc. For our first day, we went to Trang An to do Route 3, which is the most popular. "Tour" doesn't quite feel like the right word because there was no guide. It was more like a boat trip.
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| About to enter Dot Cave! |
We departed the boat dock together, with each family in their own wooden rowing boat. It was a very smooth operation with hundreds of boats on the water at the same time, split between three routes. It still managed to have a very peaceful atmosphere. The valley between the karst mountains is so narrow; it is incredibly beautiful! We all agreed that we liked it even more than Lan Ha Bay!
There was a current but even still, our oarswoman was working hard in the heat to propel us forward. We had only just started and we were already thinking of the generous tip we were going to give her for her tremendous effort. The river wound between the hills and we stopped to visit a temple right on the water. Then came the Dot Cave which is almost a full kilometer long! We were expertly navigated through the lit cave, often needing to duck way down low so we didn't hit our heads.
Dot Cave went on forever! It twisted and turned so many times that we completely lost all sense of direction. There were several large caverns but mostly it was a tight space like the photo above. The cool cave also gave a much needed break from the Vietnamese heat!
After Dot Cave, there were two more temples and two more caves to go through. The last temple had a lovely boardwalk with flowering lotus blooms all around it. We came away with hundreds of photos!
We'd highly recommend going to Ninh Binh and experiencing this breathtaking beauty firsthand!
The day ended with another stunning sunset dinner overlooking the mountains reflected in the river.
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