"The Halong Bay on Land"

I am writing this post (Nimish) because the kids are watching and dancing to K-pop videos on Vietnamese TV. We also just watched an Indian soap opera dubbed into Vietnamese and understood nothing.

After Halong Bay, we went to Ninh Binh province- mostly to see Trang An- which is known as the Halong Bay on Land. It is filled with limestone rocks that jut out in the middle of the fields. It is surrounded by a river, so you can visit it by taking a boat ride. Since we were in the area, we first visited the largest Pagoda in South East Asia: Bai Dinh Pagoda.

It is a large complex filled with several different pagodas and reminded us of some of the temples in Japan. The scenery around it was stunning.

It has some amazing Buddhas including this Lady Buddha which represents an Indian Princess who chose to be a buddhist.

There were 3 KM of hallways lined by statues of buddhist monks.

Then we visited the ancient capital of Vietnam, called Hoa Lu- in the 10th and 11th century. It is only ruins now, but they have rebuilt some temples. (no pictures) After that, we finally came to the amazing rock formations in Trang An- a UNESCO world heritage site.

We went by bamboo boat and we got to help with the rowing- so at least we got some exercise.

Here's a temple in the middle of the water.

Here's a video of us going into the cave: after feeling claustrophobic in Halong Bay, I was worried about this, but our excellent (strong, funny and courteous) boatwoman took us through quickly.

At the end of the boat ride- our tour guide asked us if we liked Ha long Bay or Trang Na better. We were glad we went to both.

Interestingly, as we were leaving we found out that there were a lot more tourists here today because there is a typhoon coming to Ha Long Bay and all the boats are cancelled for the next few days. We lucked out by seeing Ha Long Bay before the typhoon and we had a perfect day in Trang Na (before the rain hits hard). Now for a couple of typhoon-filled rainy days in Ha Noi.