Another interesting fact about Vietnam as an ex-French colony is that it still has a large concentration of practicing Catholics. We rode all the way out to Phat Diem Cathedral (about a 40 min drive from Ninh Binh) to have a look and walk around. It was surrounded by wedding shops-- and the town was obviously there to cater to the working class and the various Vietnamese tourists who happened to go by. I'm not so sure I would want to go that far out to see it again, but it was a very odd mixture of Chinese temple and Catholic church. And boy oh boy do I wish I had a Vietnamese phrasebook!
So... Ninh Binh is a very industrial area of Vietnam. It was pretty awesome in the sense that I got to see folks take apart old motors and pull out giant bandsaws out of trucks, and offers a side of Vietnam that doesn't cater towards tourists. After eating the mystery meat BBQ the other night, I realized that there was an easier way to determine what food was on the menu: by using Google's image search. Another interesting fact about Vietnam as an ex-French colony is that it still has a large concentration of practicing Catholics. We rode all the way out to Phat Diem Cathedral (about a 40 min drive from Ninh Binh) to have a look and walk around. It was surrounded by wedding shops-- and the town was obviously there to cater to the working class and the various Vietnamese tourists who happened to go by. I'm not so sure I would want to go that far out to see it again, but it was a very odd mixture of Chinese temple and Catholic church. And boy oh boy do I wish I had a Vietnamese phrasebook! Then it was off to Tam Coc, where we stumbled upon Father's Restaurant (which I had read good reviews about) and the three Asian kids definitely approve! If you happen to go, be sure to get their fried rice. In comparing Trang An to Tam Coc, I think I prefer Trang An. The countryside next to it seemed more beautiful (especially on that drive to Hang Mua) and I appreciated the lack of touristy feel (granted we were also there on a weekday but we weren't pressured by the boat driver to buy her handicrafts). And if you're really wondering what Ninh Binh has to offer besides boat rides and religious sites, check out the vendors at Cho Rong Market-- open in the morning and the evening (but not many folks are open past 6pm). I think renting a motorbike to go around the side streets would have been pretty worth it (and for ~ $10 US would have exposed you to what living in Vietnam is really like).
Taken from http://www.ivu.org/phrases/easia.html and http://wikitravel.org/en/Vietnamese_phrasebook It was quite a relaxing ride by train from Hanoi to Ninh Binh, although a bit rocky and bumpy in parts. There's rice growing all around the city! We arrived (after a few frantic Google Maps checks to make sure that the previous 2 stops weren't Ninh Binh) around 11:30am (took the 9am out from Hanoi) and found ourselves not as close to our hotel as we had liked (apparently the train now stops at the new train station and although Google showed that the hotel is close to the train station, it didn't show both stations, just the old one). It's a little bit eerie, stepping into this industrial countryside town. It's not quite as bustling as Hanoi and is way more spread out. It almost felt like a ghost town. I kept seeing all these folks waiting at their stores-- which made me wonder (because we did see a lot of people just sitting and relaxing in Hanoi too)-- what exactly is a typical day in the life of a Vietnamese person? Do they work? Or is it like they have specific seasons where tourists come by? In any case, it was odd, and it was a little strange to have so many pushy people try to get you to take a cab or go to their hotel. We had a tough time differentiating between who was trying to get us to buy something and who was just trying to help. But hey, we came here for the view. (Or at least, that's why I dragged everyone else along-- I wanted less-touristy Vietnam and I certainly found it.) But as my cousin put it as we hiked up the ~500 steps to the top of Hang Mua to get a good view of Tam Coc: we tortured ourselves so that we too could take "stock photos." Before getting to Hang Mua (Mua Cave-- pronounced Hang M-oa emphasis on the oa) we took a taxi to Trang An, a local limestone cave area that is very scenic (and apparently is a newer tourist attraction as it was built to attract Chinese and Vietnamese tourists around 2010. After all this we decided to head back to Ninh Binh for dinner. However, it was pouring by the time we arrived at our hotel and we didn't want to chance it with the lightning and thunder going on outside. Finally when it seemed to calm down for a bit I ventured out on the town with my cousins. Boy, is this a sleepy town. We crossed over the river, and noticed that there weren't a lot of restaurants so we headed back to where we saw all the people hanging out.
It so happened that we found a Vietnamese BBQ/Hot Pot restaurant (heated by real charcoal)! Missing my summer BBQ I decided we'd eat BBQ (meat!!). If we could only decipher the menu.... Many Google searches later, I'm still at a loss as to what these places are called, and what exactly it was that we ate. Food.Fine dining you can afford: Cau Go Vietnamese Cuisine, |
Adela WeeTraveling the world since 1994. Taking notes about the places I've been so that friends and family can go there too! Archives
January 2016
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