Visit Ninh Binh in Vietnam

I visited Ninh Binh - about 2 or 3 hours south of Hanoi on my last day before heading back to Hanoi to fly out. The scenery at nearby Tam Coc is like Halong Bay, but it's on land. We hired motorbikes and spent a day on the back of them driving through beautiful scenery (limestone karsts and bright green paddy fields), loads of temples (some up big hills), and we did a great boat trip along a windy river through some caves. Almost no other Western tourists and you really feel out in the middle of the countryside. There were lots of Vietnamese on the boats having a day out - all were lovely and friendly. Nothing like the tourist trap and hassles of Halong Bay. There's a friendly hotel right near the bus-station - can't remember the name - with a nice courtyard. One word of warning - don't pay the motorbike guys if you book them through the hotel - pay the hotel! We made that mistake and had a big hassle as the bike guys lied that we'd paid! Apart from that it was awesome. Check out my photos of it.

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