#7 Exploring Ninh Binh by Bicycle: A Travel Diary
Hello, this is Mey. 🐥
Starting with this post, I will be sharing my Ninh Binh trip over several parts!
The journey to Ninh Binh
For transportation, I used the Vietnam Railways for both the trip there and back. 🚆💨
Buying tickets directly from the official website was the cheapest option! (Other methods involve service fees.)
For the cheapest seat type, it was 234k round trip, which is about 1,600 yen.
Since the departure was at 8:45 AM, I stayed at a hotel about 5 minutes from the station the night before! I introduced it last time, but it's stylish and highly recommended. 🫶🏻
The train departed right on time. 👏🏻
The seats look like this.
I recommend the very last seat because it's easy to get off and there's no one behind you, which made it relaxing!
You can imagine it like the 'World Window' TV show; it was exactly like that, and I was very satisfied to see local areas that tourists don't usually visit. 🙆🏻
With that, I arrived in Ninh Binh from Hanoi in about 2 hours!
Hotel introduction
The place I stayed at in Ninh Binh this time was
Favos Ninh Binh Hotel & Villas 🌿
I chose this hotel because I was drawn to the photos on the booking site!
It was 3,700 yen for two people per night including breakfast. 😆
Also, I rented bicycles from this hotel!
It was 50k (300 yen) for the whole day, so I think it's cheaper to rent from the hotel than from a rental cycle shop. 🚲
And I recommend booking a hotel in the Tam Coc area!
Since this Tam Coc area is the center of Ninh Binh, there are plenty of cafes, restaurants, and convenience stores. ☺️
It's also only about 10 minutes by taxi to the station, so it's a great location!
Cycling 🚲
Speaking of activities in Ninh Binh, it's cycling!
There are many rental cycle shops in town, and quite a lot of tourists are cycling.
Ninh Binh is a city surrounded by great nature, so it feels so good that you don't even feel tired while riding, and you can just keep going forever lol.
In fact, I think we cycled 30km in half a day. lol
Cafe
We took a break at Lake house Coffee which we found during our cycling trip. 🫧
I ordered a coconut coffee. ☺️
The staff member was friendly and spoke great English!
It seems this cafe is affiliated with a hotel, and there was even a pool inside🏊🏻♂️
Mua Cave...
After the cafe, I headed to Mua Cave!
Mua Cave is said to be the 'Ha Long Bay on land,' where you can enjoy a panoramic view of the karst landscape after climbing about 500 steps⛰️
In reality, it's such a grueling path that calling them 'stairs' is a stretch, haha. It's no exaggeration to call it mountain climbing, and it's so steep that you'll wish you had a safety line^_^
I went cycling to various other places after this, and since it's going to be quite long, I'd like to share the Ninh Binh edition in parts💌
I hope you will continue to check out the next parts!
Also, your likes and follows would be a great encouragement🫶🏻
Mey