A Night in Ninh Bình
Hello and xin chào! Here's a quick and belated post about my super brief trip last month to Ninh Bình. Sometimes called Hạ Long Bay on land, the province of Ninh Bình is renowned for its stunning karst mountains, between which lie rivers and rice paddies. View towards a Ninh Bình village. It's a two-hour train ride from Hanoi (and less than $10 round-trip) to the train station of Ninh Bình city, and then it's only 20-30 minutes on a motorbike to the mountains. Though I stayed at what was called a homestay, it was effectively a hostel with an on-site restaurant. A place to relax above a lily pond at my homestay. Though the scenery was unreal, Ninh Bình seemed quite a bit more commercialized than Mai Châu (though that's a pretty low bar). I arrived on a Sunday morning and left the following morning, so the main attraction (boat rides through the mountains) was considerably more crowded than it would have been on a weekday. Setting off on my 2.5 hour...