Tam Coc – Ha Long Bay on land

Located about 100 km far from Hanoi city, Tam Coc is tourist destination under Trang An scenic and it looks like Ha Long Bay on land.

Along with the historic monument of Hoa Lu and Trang An eco-tourism, Tam Coc is a scenic spot under Trang An, Ninh Binh province.

While Hoa Lu is famous for its temples dedicated to the Dinh and Le Kings which were built in the 10th century, Tam Coc is known as a place where the Le King lived a secluded life.

Tam Coc is located in Van Lam commune, Ninh Hai village, Hoa Lu district, Tam Coc has three caves: Ca, Hai and Ba formed by the Ngo Dong River.
Ca Cave (about 127m in length) runs through a big mountain. Its mouth is more than 20m in width. Hai Cave, nearly 1km from Ca Cave, is 60m in length and Ba Cave 50m in length.

From the centre’s pier, visitors can go for a row in the cool and clear weather, and see the breathtaking scenery.

On their way, they can stop at Thai Vi and Tam Coc temples along the Ngo Dong River. 

Tam Coc is pristine scenic, you will definitely have interesting moments of experiences here. Let's spend time exploring Ha Long Bay on land by yourself.

Source: VOV

King of Vietnam’s temple – King Dinh Tien Hoang’s

It’s now time to pay a visit to the famous King of Vietnam’s temple – King Dinh Tien Hoang’s. The temple is located in Truong Yen village, Truong Yen commune, Hoa Lu town, in a garden of 5 hectares wide. 

It faces the East, and stands in front of Ma Yen Mount, where King Dinh Tien Hoang’s tomb was located.
The temple was built in the 17th century, with a special architecture, the interior of which had an “I letter” shape, surrounded by a square land. Now you are standing at the 3-class mid-noon gate. You can go on to the next one, seeing a dragon bed and getting the second gate. Passing through one more gate and walking along the holy way will lead to the main house. In the middle of the house is one more stone dragon-bed, which is 1.8m long and 1.4m wide. Looking at the bed surface you can easily find sculptured dragon, shrimps, fishes, rats images which are of deep delicateness and skill.
This main house has 3 parts. The first one is the worshipping place with 5 rooms. The second is an incense burning room where they worshiped 4 important mandarins under Dinh dynasty. The third main part, the most important one, is separated to the second by a high door. Here you can witness there worshipping King Dinh Tien Hoang and his three sons.

You may have to admit that the temple is an original architectural work of art full of folk sculptures! It attracts tourists for so many valuable relics hidden in thick bricks, tilts, Buddhist prayer-book pillars, and more importantly its meaningful history of the first ancient capital of Vietnam.
Nearby you can find the Tomb of King Dinh Tien Hoang, which was situated on Ma Yen Mount, in front of his Temple. “Ma yen” means “back of a horse”, as seen from a far distance, it has the shape of a back of a horse. The tomb is in the sagging down post of the horse’s back. To reach up to the tomb, visitors must pass 150 rock steps. The tomb was built in 1840, under Ming Mang King reign.

The charming and romantic scenery of Trang An

Trang An located about 3 km away from the ancient capital of Hoa Lu, is a wonderful landscape. Road from Trang An to Ninh Binh is very long and smooth and both sides of the road are the newly planted trees with premature green leaves.

We arrived at Trang An at noon but the atmosphere here is very cool with charming scenery of the majestic mountains reflecting the calm and clean water surface. On waterfront, there are many blue boats making the scenery more charming as a nice picture.

Trang An has nearly 50 large and small caves, but a tour around this area just has to go through 10 large caves.  In these caves, rocks were eroded by water many years ago and it created these lively and colorful stalactites

Each cave has a private name such as  Dia Linh, Nau Ruou, Ao trai cave. That is an amazing experience when visitors sit on a boat to explore these caves. Because you not only sit still but also not tilt from side to side and bow your head very low to avoid stalactites hanging down from the top of the cave.

The atmosphere in cave is very cool and when getting out the mouth of the cave, you will be surprising because of wonderful scenery. Water in lake is very clean and visitors can see through its surface .

Coming back from Trang An, visitors can stop at a roadside to enjoy special dishes: goat meat, “com chay”.  “ Com chay” is very crispy and spicy with light yellow. It is very delicious!

According to the legend, by the end of the 19^th century, a Ninh Binh young man named Dinh Hoang Thang worked for a Chinese in Hanoi. He fell in love with the landlord`s daughter but was rebuffed. Hoang Thang came back his home and learnt the secret to cook food deliciously and invented “com chay” and when becoming the owner of a large store, he came back to marriage his lover and her mother agreed.

Another specialty that tourists can not miss when visiting Ninh Binh is goat meat. Those goats are fed on the rocky mountain. Their main food is grass and green leaves. Therefore their meat is very delicious.  I am sure that this special cuisine will make satisfied any demanding customers. 

 

Source:Travel.org.vn

Cuc Phuong national park - Ninh Binh

Cuc Phuong National Park was first established in Vietnam. Based on the unique value of geological history, landscape and scientific significance of the flora and fauna in Cuc Phuong, the Prime Minister has signed the Decision No 72/TTg on 07/07/1962 on building protection and Cuc Phuong forest management became the basis of scientific research on plants and tropical silviculture.

Cuc Phuong - top Vietnam tourism destination - is 100 km southwest of Hanoi. It lies at the border of 3 provinces of Ninh Binh, Hoa Binh and Thanh Hoa, and is 60 km from the sea. The forest is 25000 ha in area, of which one-third is limestone mountains from 300 to 600 metres high against the sea level.

The virgin forest was discovered in 1960 and has been recognised as a national park. It has Dan Dan grotto, Ancient Men cave, hot springs with a temperature of 38 Celsius degrees, barashrea -htellata, dracontomelum... of nearly 1000 years old and from 50 to 70 metres high.

Cuc Phuong has up to 2000 species of plants. Orchid alone has 50 species, some giving flowers and sweet smell all year round. Cuc Phuong has 262 species of vertebrates and many precious birds and animals such as: bear, horse, wild pig, tiger, panther, weasel, squirrel, monkey, ect. There are semi nature reserves with deer, samba deer, yellow monkey, underpants parrot, flying squirrel, flying lizard, etc... . Cuc Phuong is also home to hundreds of rare birds.

Culture
In earlier times, Cuc Phuong was home to the Muong minority people (or tribe) and to this day a few scattered villages around the park's periphery still house these interesting people and their unique culture. If you visit these communities you can still see their traditional stilt houses, waterwheels, bamboo rafts and brocade looms.

Limestone karsts landscape
Located on 2 limestone mountain ranges, the landscape of Cuc Phuong is a wonderfully rich ecosystem. The rocky outcrops of Cuc Phuong contain very valuable archeological vestiges such as a fossilized sea reptile, dated at 200 - 230 million years old and evidence of prehistoric people, who lived in the forest some 7500 years ago.

Around Cuc Phuong
From Cuc Phuong we would suggest that you take a trip to Van Long, where you can see Delacour's Langurs in the wild, to Tam Coc or to Pu Luong Nature Reserve - all within easy access. Just ask us and we will set you on the right path.

Source: vietnamtour-guide

Ninh Binh City Introduction

Ninh Binh is about 90 km away from Ha Noi to the south. Ninh Binh is located on Red river delta with geographical co-orrdinate from 19050' to 20027' at Northern latitude and from 105032' to 106033' at Eastern longitude. Ninh Binh shares the administative border with Ha Nam in the North, Nam Dinh in the East, the East Sea in the Southeast, Thanh Hoa in the West and Southwest, and Hoa Binh in the Northwest.

With over 1,400km2 of natural area, Ninh Binh has forests, sea and a diverse system of fauna and flora. Ninh Binh topography encompasses plains and the mountains of the Vietnam northwest mountain range. Ninh Binh also keeps a strategic position for military security and social development. Here, troops were usually rallied on their way to the north or south of Vietnam, creating famous victories in Vietnamese national history.

Ninh Binh is endowed with many places of particular interest which have been welknown inside and outside Vietnam such as Tam Coc – Bich Dong, Cuc Phuong National Park, Trang An Grottoes and Van Long Nature Reserves. There are also many historical relics, for instances Hoa Lu Ancient Capital, Bich Dong Pagoda, Thai Vi Temple, Phat Diem Stone Cathedral, Tam Diep Defense Line.... All of them are attractive to both Vietnamese and foreign tourists. Ninh Binh is the charming land of myth and unique landscapes.

 

Ninh Binh’s topography comprises three different types of landscapes: wetlands, coastal delta, hills and mountains. With such a variety of landscapes, Ninh Binh offers many tourist attactions as primitive rain forest, mountains, hills, river delta and the coastal delta. Furthermore, Ninh Binh is endowed with numerous historical relics dating back to the Dinh, Early Le, Ly and Tran dynasties from the 10th-13th century. Anually, Ninh Binh has many traditional festivals reflecting the cultural identites of Red river delta villages.

 

With a deeply rooted history and cultural tradition, the people of Ninh Binh are traditionally very industrious, hard working, studious, kind, patriotic and particularly hospitale.

Most tourist attractions are situated within a radius of 50km from the provincial city of Ninh Binh and the linking with all major transport systems as the national highway No 1A and the South – North railway.... Therefore, long distance busses and trains from Hanoi to Hue, Ho Chi Minh city and vice versa stop here making Ninh Binh an ideal place to spend several days relaxing.

Bai Dinh Pagoda - Ninh Binh

Location: Bai Dinh Pagoda is located in Gia Sinh Commune, Gia Vien District, Ninh Binh Province, 12 km from Ninh Binh City, 5 km from Hoa Lu Ancient Capital, close to Trang An Tourism Area and 95 km south of Hanoi.

Characteristics: Covering a large area of 700ha, it is the largest pagoda complex in Vietnam with many records.

From the main entrance, the pagoda's magnificent three-door gate is the biggest of its kind in Vietnam, built with 550 tonnes of iron wood. The gate is flanked by two 5.5m-high solid bronze guard statues (Ho Phap), weighing 12 tonnes each and four pillars tower over the entrance is 13.85m in height and 0.5m in diameter each. Around the gate are eight smaller bronze statues of Kim Cuong angels, each weighing 8 tonnes.

After walking along the corridor of about 1 kilometer where 500 white-stone Arhat statues are placed two sides, there will be the bell tower with the largest bronze 36-ton bell that is hanging here. Each Arhat statue, 2-2.5m in high, 2-2.5 tonnes in weight, is carved from monolithic stone, need one month for completion and different from each other.

Going up is the 800sq.m Kwan Yin Sanctum - a wooden one-layer-roof building with five main chambers and two side chambers. In the centre of the sanctum is the stunning 10m-high bronze statue of Kwan Yin with a thousand eyes and hands. This 40-tonne statue is considered as the biggest Kwan Yin statue in Vietnam. 

The Phap Chu Sanctum - an imposing imitation wooden two-layer-curve-roof building - where a 10m-high bronze statue of Lord Buddha sits on his lotus throne situated. This 100-tonne statue has been recognized as the tallest and heaviest bronze depiction of Lord Buddha in the country in 2006 by the Vietnam Guinness Book of Records (Vietbook).

The Tam The Sanctum is located on a high hill at 76m above sea level. This is a majestic, grandiose building with three-layer-curve-roof style and an area of 3000 square meter where three bronze statues represent the past, present and future weighing 50 tonnes each placed.

Far from the large site about 2km is the place where the old Bai Dinh Pagoda located. Almost of all pilgrims and travelers want to reach there. Even this is not short way for walking, it is really a good time for people refresh while strolling. After a long way walk and contemplate around beautiful view, travelers will see a modest three-door gate locates next the roadside. Through the three-door gate, turn to the small path rather slope, go up about more than 200 steps to the top of mountain, an old pagoda appears in ancient and tranquil.

Bai Dinh Pagoda has been attracting a large number of pilgrims, domestic and international tourists. It is one of biggest works which is build to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi in 2010. This impressive complex is waiting for your discovery.