Vân Long nature reserve

Sunday afternoon, 31 August 2008 - After visiting Phát Diệm cathedral in the morning and having lunch in Ninh Bình city, my friend and I traveled another 12km by car to Vân Long nature reserve. I had not been to this site before, so I was really looking forward to seeing it. When our car reached the site, we saw the vast range of limestone karst mountains along the stream and the landscape was absolutely beautiful. It reminded me of Guilin in China and Hạ Long bay in northern Vietnam, but this place is very special, as it’s far less touristy. The site was just found out 7 years ago, then developed into a nature reserve and not many people go there yet. The locals at Vân Long are also gentle in comparison with the ones at Tam Cốc (which I never want to return).

We parked our car and bought tickets for both sightseeing and boat ride (VND 35,000/person, approx US$2.2). Certainly the boat rowers expect some tips at the end of the boat trip, as they receive very little money from the authority. The man, who rowed our boat, is 56 years old. He asked whether we wanted to cruise for an hour or an hour and a half, we chose “an hour”. I loved the view of the mountains and their reflection on the water. It was really quiet and peaceful while sitting on the boat and moving around without seeing anyone else, except a local woman and her ducks on the way. We also got into a cave, however the water level was high, so we couldn’t go too far and had to turn back the same way.

We were back in Hanoi at 5:30pm after a great day in Ninh Bình province. Along with Phát Diệm cathedral that we saw in the morning, one of the great experiences was our lunch at a local restaurant in Ninh Bình city, where we enjoyed goat meat (local specialty) and rice (cơm cháy) with chicken soup.

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